By Asmau Ahmad
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said that global warming is facilitating the spread of mosquitoes and other diseases.
Speaking in commemoration of the 2022 World Health Day, WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, noted that extreme weather events, biodiversity loss, land degradation and water scarcity are displacing people and damaging their health.
In his speech, he said “the climate crisis is a health crisis. Air pollution kills 7 million people every year, and 99 per cent of the world’s population breathes unhealthy air, mainly as a result of burning fossil fuels.“Our warming world is facilitating the spread of mosquitoes and the diseases they carry.
“Extreme weather events, biodiversity loss, land degradation and water scarcity are displacing people and damaging their health. Systems that produce highly processed, unhealthy foods are driving a wave of obesity, increasing cancer and heart disease, and generating one-third of greenhouse gas emissions.”
The WHO chief, however, said there are solutions at hand as WHO’s Manifesto for a Healthy Recovery from COVID-19 recommends more than 80 concrete actions governments can take in six policy areas, with dividends for the health of our planet and the health of humans.
“The health sector must lead by example, and I applaud the US, under the leadership of Admiral Rachel Levine for its commitment to decarbonizing its health system, as part of WHO’s COP26 health programme.
“At WHO, we have also committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2030. This World Health Day, as the world recovers and rebuilds from the pandemic, we have a choice.
“We can go back to the way things were, or we can change course. We can create societies, economies and products that nurture health and well-being, and stop subsidising those that destroy it.
“Because we cannot afford to pump carbon into the atmosphere at the same rate and still breathe clean air. We must choose.
“We cannot afford the same patterns of consumption and expect less diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and cancer. We must choose.
“We cannot afford ever-deepening inequalities, and expect continued prosperity. We must choose. And so, this World Health Day, we call on all governments to choose our planet, our health,” he said.
