But, African nations can solve this with lots and lots of sweet, sweet no-strings-attached redistributed cash
Climate change is the biggest human health risk, says Africa’s disease boss
Climate change is the biggest threat to human health in Africa and the rest of the world, the head of the continent’s public health agency said.
Mitigating that risk was top of his agenda, Jean Kaseya, the director general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told Reuters as he headed to the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, which begins on Thursday.
The measures needed, Kaseya said, would include funding to help countries in Africa trying to contain outbreaks of disease.
Diseases never happened in Africa prior to CO2 going above 350ppm, you know
In an online interview, he said the threat of “a climate change-related disease becoming a pandemic and coming from Africa” was what kept him awake at night.
Since the start of this year, Kaseya said Africa has tackled 158 disease outbreaks.
“Each outbreak, if not well managed, can become a pandemic,” he said.
Maybe stay away from eating bats and stuff that causes Ebola. Use DDT to kill of malaria carrying mosquitos
Scientists have linked a surge in diseases, including dengue and cholera, to rising global temperatures, which have broken records this year.
Cholera is a relatively recent disease, starting in the early 1800s. Before the Industrial Revolution. During the Little Ice Age. Same with dengue, though, that started in the late 1700’s.
Extreme weather events such as floods can also help diseases spread and challenge response efforts. Deforestation, a contributor to climate change, also pushes humans into closer contact with disease-carrying animals, like bats.
Stop cutting down the trees and moving where these animals live. That has zero to do with climate change, natural or anthropogenic.
Seriously, the Black Death killed an estimated 200 million during the beginning of the Little Ice Age in just a few years. The Plague Of Justinian killed 30-50 million during the Dark Ages. Smallpox in 1520 killed an estimated 56 million in just a year. COVID killed around 6.9 million, but, the population is way, way, way more than back then. In fact, many of the worst outbreaks over the past two millennia have occured during cooling periods.
Read: Your Fault: Global Boiling Is Biggest Human Health Risk »