Assumptions regarding global warming typically include melting glaciers, rising sea levels, and extreme weather, but often overlook how this global phenomenon directly affects us as individuals. Global warming not only harms the environment but also affects people.
Our air, the food we eat, and the water we drink are all affected, leading to changes that cause illness over time; some effects may not be apparent immediately.
Let's examine how global warming is affecting human health worldwide.
Global warming's most visible manifestation is through our air. Rising temperatures increase air pollution levels, making breathing conditions worse for individuals with asthma or allergies. At the same time, warmer weather promotes ground-level ozone (an irritating gas), further damaging lung tissue.
Imagine that you're an asthma patient playing outside. On extremely polluted or hot days, playing may leave them coughing, wheezing and even hospitalised due to increased air pollution levels. For people living with this chronic disease, this situation can be terrifying as symptoms often range from uncomfortable coughing fits and wheezing episodes all the way up to severe respiratory distress that could threaten daily survival.
Global warming has led to more frequent and intense heatwaves. When temperatures skyrocket, our bodies struggle to stay cool; for some, particularly older adults, children, or those living with cardiovascular conditions, heat waves may even prove life-threatening. Also, with smoking, it becomes more hazardous, so use a reusable vape to save.
Dehydration, heat exhaustion and heatstroke have become all too familiar in modern society, leading to thousands of lives being taken annually due to extreme temperatures in some cities alone. And these numbers don't only apply to developing nations - even wealthier nations are witnessing higher mortality rates during especially scorching summer months.
Global warming has also altered our food supply. Extreme heat waves, floods, and droughts impede farmers' ability to cultivate crops successfully; when harvests fail due to such difficulties, food becomes both more costly and scarcer than it once was.
This causes two significant issues.
As global warming brings increased rains, floods, and droughts, clean water is under siege from contamination from harmful bacteria found in heavy rainfall events or floodwater. On the other hand, drought conditions deplete existing supplies, forcing many to use unsafe sources as an alternative.
Children aged under five are the ones most at risk; unsafe water remains one of the leading killers of young kids in some regions. Accessing safe drinking water may seem like something we all take for granted, yet for millions, it has become increasingly difficult to access.
Global warming threatens both our physical and mental well-being. Extreme weather events like hurricanes, wildfires, and flooding often destroy homes, jobs and communities, resulting in stress, anxiety, and depression after these disasters have passed.
Climate anxiety, particularly among young people who wonder about the kind of world they will inherit in future decades, may cause worry and tension among populations who don't directly feel its impacts.
Imagine losing your home to a wildfire or seeing your farmland succumb to drought, and experiencing its emotional aftermath; its effects can last long after any visible destruction has subsided.
Fortunately, no individual or society can indeed combat global warming alone; taking small steps daily in our everyday lives can significantly reduce its negative health impacts. Also, we can use a vape coil while using a vape kit instead of smoking cigarettes.
Some strategies might include:
Global warming is more than an environmental concern; it affects us all directly in terms of our health. From the air we breathe to the food we eat and the water we consume, every aspect of life depends upon climate.
Though we might not experience it directly every day, millions already do. By acting now against global warming, we not only protect millions of lives, but we save ourselves too!
