Post-COVID Global Recovery Brings Health and Climate Threats, Report Says

Recovery after pandemic, fueled by fossil fuels, will have the consequences of worsening food insecurity and climate crisis and health that threaten millions of people, according to the report The Lancet Countdown, of the medical journal The Lancet.

The publication is the largest annual study of the health impacts of climate change.

It determined that up to 19% of the land mass was affected by extreme droughts in 2020 and warned that climate change threatens food security, which already affects more than 2 billion people.

In addition, the populations of 134 countries are at greater risk from wildfires than at any other time in history, and millions of farmers and construction workers lose income from the increasing number of days of extreme heat.

Climate change also creates conditions more conducive to infectious diseases such as dengue, Zika, cholera and malaria than a few decades ago, the study noted.

“Climate change is here and we are already seeing it damage human health around the world,” said Anthony Costello, CEO of Lancet Countdown.

“As the COVID-19 crisis continues, each country also faces some aspect of the climate crisis,” he added.

The report noted that disruptions in the water cycle due to global warming shorten the time plants reach maturity, resulting in smaller harvests and increased pressure on food production.

In the case of corn, productivity fell 6% compared to 1981-2010 levels, while wheat fell 3% and rice 1.8%.

Seafood, on which 3.3 billion people depend, faces a “growing threat” due to the increase in sea temperatures of almost 70% compared to 15 years ago.

The report also warned that almost three-quarters of the countries evaluated recognized that they could not cope with a national health strategy combined with a climate strategy.

“This year we have seen people experiencing intense heat waves, deadly floods and wildfires,” said Maria Romanello, lead author of the study.

“These are serious warnings that for each day we postpone our response to climate change, the situation will become more critical,” he added.