The Lancet: High temperatures threaten human health

Science and Technology Daily, Beijing, November 16 (Reporter Liu Xia) According to the Physicists Organization website on the 15th, the British authoritative medical journal The Lancet released the "2023 Lancet Human Health and Climate Change Countdown Global Report". The report warns that in the next few decades, the number of deaths from extreme heat may increase nearly fourfold, and if no action is taken on climate change, human health will face serious threats.

This year is likely to be the hottest in human history. Last week, the European Climate Monitoring Agency announced that October this year was the hottest October on record. The report said that according to the current trend, global temperatures will rise by 2.7℃ by 2100.

The report shows that last year, the average global resident was exposed to life-threatening high temperatures for 86 days. The number of people aged 65 and over who died from heat increased by 85% between 1991-2000 and 2013-2022.

The report predicts that high temperatures will make droughts more common, and by the middle of this century, about 520 million people around the world will face moderate or severe food insecurity. Mosquito-borne diseases will continue to spread to new areas, and the spread of dengue fever will increase by 36% under a 2°C temperature increase. More than a quarter of the cities surveyed expressed concerns that climate change would overwhelm their ability to cope.

In response to the report, UN Secretary-General Guterres said that humanity is facing an intolerable future. The health and livelihoods of billions of people around the world are threatened by record high temperatures, crop failures caused by drought, rising hunger levels, intensified outbreaks of infectious diseases, and deadly storms and floods.

The report concludes by emphasizing that despite growing calls for global action, energy-related carbon emissions hit a new high last year. To effectively address global climate change, the report calls for governments, businesses and the public to collaborate and act on an unprecedented scale.