EDITORIAL |
WHO cares
Suparna Dutta Source: Toxics Alert, Date: , 2009
WHO, in collaboration with community-based NGO Health Related
Information Dissemination Amongst Youth/Student Health Action Network
(HRIDAY-SHAN)have come up with an excellent student
–teacher manual in an attempt to sensitize children and growing adults the
correlation between climate change and adverse health impact of humans. The
manual meant for students is separate from that for teachers but both try to
tell us how to respond to these impacts. Climate change is often
associated with ecosystem destruction and disappearing species. But climate
change affects our lives in a more direct way: our health Unfortunately the
impact of climate change on human health is not generally acknowledged . The
fact that anthropogenic changes in climate affect human health , in an indirect
or direct way, needs to be disseminated among our communities , particularly
among the youth who hold in their hands to change the future.
There is no dearth of data or
access to it. Human memory should also not be failing because the cataclysmic
impacts of climate change bore injuries too deep to be forgotten in a long
time. Eighteen heat waves were reported in India between 1980 and 1998.A heat
wave in 1988 caused 1300 deaths while another in 2003 caused more than 3000.In
2005 there were floods in Rajasthan and droughts in northeast India. Twelve of
the last thirteen years from 1995 to 2007 rank among the warmest years since
1850.The years 1998, 2005 and 2007 were the warmest on record. The Himalayan
glaciers are melting rapidly, the mangrove tiger habitat of the Sunderbans are
facing threats from rising sea level, and in Indonesia cases of dengue fever
have risen by close to 50 % between 2006 and 2007 due to temperature increases
during and after the annual rains.
Urban settings are biggest emitters of Green House Gases
(GHGs) Mega cities produce heat island effect that refers mainly to urban
settings where buildings and asphalt roads absorb and release more solar energy
than any other surfaces and thus make the surrounding temperature shoot up
dramatically. Even children’s GK books would tell you that CO2 levels are
estimated to rise another 30 % during the next 50 years at the current rate of
irresponsible emission. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached
an unprecedented level of 385 parts per million , highest in the last 6.5
million years.
Various
weather events have various human health impacts. Warm temperatures and
disturbed rainfall patterns lead to diseases like malaria, dengue, encephalitis
and other vector-borne maladies. Heavy precipitation leads to diseases arising
out of water contamination. Safe water depletion couples with poor sanitation
and leads to cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases.Add to this the loss of life
and habitat due to intense weather conditions , rise of sea level , coastal
storms etc ., all of which are direct or indirect aftermaths of climate
change,and you would know how imminent the dangers are.
A –Z tips of actionables to
battle climate change and its impacts: - Act
now
- Buy
energy-efficient appliances
- Calculate
your personal carbon footprint
- Debate
, discuss and distribute materials on climate change
- Enjoy
the sun: fit solar panels on the roof of your home and turn it into a
clean green power station
- Fridge
to be handled properly to cut down power consumption and thereby carbon
emission.
- Go
green
- Halve
your emission by moving your air conditioner thermostat up by 5 degrees
Celsius in summer
- Involve
friends and family in your green mission
- Join
an environmental group
- Kick
start a environmental campaign
- Lamps
to be replaced by CFLs
- Minimise
use of toxic chemicals
- Network
with civil societies, NGOs etc
- Offset
your carbon footprint
- Plant
trees
- Quit
plastic
- Recycle,
repair, reuse materials
- Save
paper
- Turn
off TV, fridge etc when not in use
- Use
less energy and conserve more of it
- Value
waste: heaps of garbage left in the open emit methane and contribute to
global warming
- Write
letters to local newspapers
- Xpress
your concern in all forums possible
- Your
President, PM need to know impacts of climate change on health. Write to
them.
- Zoom
in on reducing emission
If we follow these rules there is good chance that we would
still have a blue planet to survive on!
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