Climate change has become a health emergency, children’s lungs are no longer pink, but black due to the pollution
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Paediatricians in New Delhi, India, say children’s lungs are no longer pink, but black due to the pollution in the air.
Our warming planet is already impacting the health of the world’s children and will shape the future of an entire generation if we fail to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius (35.6°F), the 2019 Lancet Countdown Report on health and climate change shows.
“Over the past 30 years, we’ve seen progressive decline in the numbers of deaths for all people and indeed for children,” Anthony Costello, co-chair of The Lancet Countdown, told DW. “But what we’re worrying about is that all of these gains could go into reverse if we don’t urgently tackle the problem of climate change.”
The research — compiled by 35 global institutions, including the World Health Organisation and the World Bank —clearly shows the relationship between climate change, environmental destruction and health.
Rising temperatures fuel hunger and malnutrition, an increase in the scale and scope of infectious disease and a growing frequency of extreme weather events while air pollution has become deadly to the human lung as smoking tobacco.
