The Link Between Climate Change and Human Health

Shabnum Soomro, Jam Ghulam Murtaza Sahito () and Farahnaz Gilal
Additional contact information
Shabnum Soomro: Singh Agriculture University
Jam Ghulam Murtaza Sahito: Singh Agriculture University
Farahnaz Gilal: Singh Agriculture University

A chapter in Global Perspectives on Climate Change, Inequality, and Multinational Corporations, 2025, pp 183-208 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Climate change is a significant factor causing the spread of infectious diseases. Climate change is causing the spread of diseases by animals, mosquitoes, and ticks, affecting over half of human pathogenic diseases. Factors like land use, warmer temperatures, and severe weather conditions contribute to this expansion. Vector-borne diseases like malaria, dengue fever, and Zika virus are significantly affected, causing 700,000 deaths annually and 17% of all infectious diseases. Zika, Lyme, malaria, and dengue fever are among the infectious diseases that are greatly impacted by climate change. Ticks and mosquitoes can spread viruses like Zika, which lead to birth abnormalities in babies, dengue fever causes risk to the majority of the countries, while malaria is greatly influenced by temperature, humidity, and rainfall. Extreme weather events, including heatwaves and flooding, have significantly impacted disease transmission, leading to a 16 million increase in malaria cases and an estimated 249 million cases of cholera in 2022. Heat-related diseases like heat exhaustion and heat stroke have increased mortality rates in people over 65 years old due to human-caused climate change, causing symptoms like nausea, muscle cramping, fatigue, and profuse sweating. Air pollution and climate change are related, leading to serious problems for the environment and human health. Heatwaves and wildfires have become due to rising temperatures. Increased wildfires amit greenhouse gases in the environment ultimately polluting air. Higher amounts of air pollution cause serious damage to the environment, especially the ozone layer. Premature mortality and chronic illness are exacerbated by this decline. This chapter emphasizes climate change’s significant role in spreading infectious diseases, mainly through animals, mosquitoes, and ticks, impacting most human pathogenic diseases. This chapter argues that the interconnectedness of air pollution and climate change poses severe environmental and health risks, with rising temperatures contributing to heat waves and wildfires worsening air pollution through increased greenhouse gas emissions. It provides solutions for the climate crisis.

Keywords: Human health; Diseases; Climate change; Health impact (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:csrchp:978-3-031-80797-8_8

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783031807978

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-80797-8_8

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().