Leading Scientists and Doctors Urge Climate Action Citing Human Health Crisis
World Meteorologist Organization scientists compiled a report on the global climate state, releasing their preliminary findings which shows the past decade has been the warmest ever recorded, affecting the welfare of millions of people. Extreme heat indexes caused by warmer temperatures, combined with wildfires and storm-related flooding and destruction, in addition to a worldwide pandemic, has created hazardous and life-threatening conditions worldwide.
On Wednesday, dozens of health experts and medical researchers from around the world published a different type of collaborative report in The Lancet, a well-respected peer-reviewed medical research journal, which examined public health statistics from 2019 and concluded air pollution, heat waves and extreme weather events are contributing to an increase in the global human health crisis.
Both expert reports from the two areas of study made a direct correlation between fossil fuels and human disease and death. The authors stated carbon pollution, and the policies which drive it, creates poor air quality which contributes to substandard living conditions and disproportionate health issues for economically disadvantaged populations globally.
The two professional groups agreed air pollution and climate change share the same common root cause of burning fossil fuels. On Wednesday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called upon leaders around the world to unite in the effort of drastically reducing carbon emissions, saying humanity has waged a suicidal “war on nature.”
Ann Sullivan is a contributing staff writer covering national and world news topics. She brings dedicated experience having written international and domestic news, blogs, and web content for over 20 years. She’s also a published poet and graphic designer with degrees in Business and Graphic Communications and has been a music distributor, music industry sponsorship sales director and band manager.