Global warming
the greatest health threat?
Already in 2010, a report published in ” The Lancet” highlighted global warming as the ” greatest global health threat of the 21st century “. This assertion was reiterated in 2024 by the 9th annual report of ” The Lancet” . The impacts of climate change on human health are many and varied:
- Increased epidemic risks due to the multiplication and intensification of extreme weather events;
- Malnutrition resulting from droughts and their impact on agriculture;
- Damage to the cardio-respiratory system caused by intense heat waves;
- The repercussions on mental health, linked for example to eco-anxiety, exacerbated by the direct and indirect effects of global warming…
Climate change could cause around 250,000 additional deaths per year between 2030 and 2050, according to the WHO. These would be linked to undernutrition, malaria, diarrhea and heat stress.
500 000
people die every year from heat-related illnesses, according to the World Health Organization.
Testimonial
“The negative effects of heat on health can be avoided by intervening at different levels of public health. The Inserm Foundation intends to support an interdisciplinary approach in the fight against climate change combined with the study of mitigation measures on an individual, local, national, European scale, we can save lives today and tomorrow.”
Basile Chaix – Inserm Research Director at the Institut Pierre Louis d’Épidémiologie et de Santé Publique.