Climate Change and Health

Climate change, to me, is presently humanities greatest threat. Scientists predicted its arrival and growing intensity for decades. Yet, in the clearly obvious examples of these predictions that are being fulfilled, many people continue to ignore the facts, or believe that the current climate change experiences occurring on earth are not amplified by human activities.

As a topic that has interested me for years, its current global status and the fact that many countries are experiencing extreme weather events, such as the driest/wettest/warmest/windiest etc... months since records began is intriguing because many of these events had been foretold by climate scientists. In the last number of years, I myself have seen a shift in what was considered the normal yearly weather pattern for the country in which I live. Now, there appears to be no pattern, and exactly as climate scientists were saying in the 90's, where I live is becoming much milder and wetter, this last winter costing millions in flood damages throughout the country.

I have a keen interest in biodiversity, and how climate change affects this. The rate of this current climate change event, which most scientific studies show to be accelerated by human activity, is occurring too fast for most animals, except humans, to adapt or evolve. Unlike the natural warming and cooling periods throughout earths history, this event is happening quite quickly and along with other human activities, is causing the fastest animal extinction event in scientific history.

The effects on biodiversity though are really only part of my interest. In a recent job, I was at the forefront of the introduction of a food waste bin in the locality. As part of learning about waste management, I visited composting facilities and recycling plants which spurred my interest in global warming, the cost of food production and food waste, the effects on the climate of this wastage and the transport of foods from foreign countries, which inevitably end up in waste piles.

In a world where millions of people are starving, it didn't make sense that 1st world countries so easily waste food, and it's harder to accept when I think how many of those starving are doing so as a result of the actions, and uses of fossil fuels by people in the developed world.

Food shortages, more so than a decreasing biodiversity, will lead to political and social upheaval in many countries, and therefore it is a global concern.