Climate Change, Health, and Human Security
Dr. Marcelo Korc, Ph.D., MPH
Unit Chief, Climate Change and Environmental Determinants of Health
Pan American Health Organization
Wednesday, November 10, 9:30-10:30 AM
Current global environmental challenges such as the impact of climate change demand urgent and collective actions to reduce their harmful effects on people’s health and well-being. Climate change impacts such as the overall increase in global surface temperatures, extreme weather events, and environmental degradation, have increased spread and range of infectious diseases, injuries, heat-stress, and mental health conditions. Indirectly, they have limited the access to clean water and exacerbated air pollution, population migration, and food, economic, and political insecurities. Populations in vulnerable situations, such as those living in precarious housing conditions on small islands and coastal areas may be at even greater risk. The extent to which health may be influenced by the changing climate remains unknown. Nonetheless, based on current knowledge and future projections, the climate is changing, and health is and will continue to be affected by this change.
Action to reduce the negative impacts of climate change on health should integrate technical, economic, political, and social dimensions through people-centered, context-specific, and comprehensive top-down and bottom-up approaches. For example, in the Americas, the Pan American Health Organization’s Agenda for the Americas on Health, Environment, and Climate Change 2021-2030 promotes the application of the human security approach to strengthen the resilience and environmental sustainability of health systems and build environmentally healthy and resilient cities and communities affected by the negative impacts of climate change.
Engineers can be at the forefront of developing effective solutions to strengthen the resilience and environmental sustainability of health systems and build environmentally healthy and resilient cities and communities. However, if the sole attention is on the technical dimension, the resulting solutions may be culturally inappropriate, economically inefficient, and/or politically unsupportive. To overcome these challenges, engineers should integrate the technical, economic, political, and social dimensions in the development of solutions through multidisciplinary and inter-sectorial teamwork, cultural competence, excellent oral and written communication, and thorough qualitative analysis.