President Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord to the detriment of us all. Climate change affects us now. We will continue to see the effects of this change in our lifetime but our children and our grandchildren will suffer from it even more. Deaths will increase.
The Paris climate accord outlines keeping the global temperature rise over the next century to 2 degrees Celsius. The ultimate goal is a decrease by 1.5 Celsius. Adhering to this standard will curb the harm to the environment. Devastatingly, Karachi, Pakistan, and Kolkata, India, will still be close to uninhabitable.
Not following this goal will result in more sickness and death. Extreme heat, the air-quality index, ozone levels, pollution, crossover viruses, fossil fuel burning, and carbon dioxide will rise, all of which will directly relate to the health of the world’s inhabitants.
When the air quality index reaches 300-500, we will see heart and lung disease increase, especially among the elderly. Even the healthier will be at risk of serious respiratory effects. Kidney problems will increase as we work in the heat and become dehydrated.
Life span will be shortened by 10 years due to increases of pollution. Cognitive ability will decline by 21 percent when carbon dioxide reaches 1,000 ppm in 2100. MIT found that 200,000 people die prematurely each year in the U.S. from air pollution.
While these health issues contribute to the climate change death toll, global warming will also contribute directly to deaths. Instances include the deadly heat wave of 2003 that hit Europe (and especially Paris), where 35,000 people died by the end of the summer.
Just a few years later in 2006, we saw heat waves hit Europe and the U.S., killing at least 206 people in the latter. In 2015, we saw a heat wave run through Karachi, Pakistan, killing 2,500 people, and another in August of that same year killing a hundred people in Egypt. Heat waves seem to be increasing at an alarming frequency.
Global warming creates a longer fire season, drier conditions, more fuel for forest fires, and increases the frequency of lightning. Wild fires kill roughly 340,000 people per year. These fires produce higher levels of carbon dioxide, destroy wildlife, and displace people from their homes. They can also wipe out the organic quality of the soil and create erosion. There is also a hefty economic price attached to forest fires in both fighting them and destruction of property.
Recently, an iceberg broke off an ice shelf in Antarctica. This is important because changes in the ice shelf are happening at an alarmingly increasing rate. We see our ice reserves melting, raising ocean temperatures, killing ocean life, and depleting natural food sources. With this depletion of the world’s ice reserves, we also know that disease and bugs trapped in Siberian ice will be released. The bubonic plague, smallpox and the 1918 flu that killed 100 million people could be released when it melts. These are the diseases we anticipate, but there may be more.
There are many current diseases that global warming will worsen and spread. For example, with increased humidity and heat we will see an increase in the mosquito population leading to more Zika virus and malaria. This will spread to countries (such as the U.S.) which normally enjoy low incidences of such illnesses. Increased birth defects, health complications, and deaths will follow.
Increases in illnesses, death and worsening of the environment will lead to a decrease in our overall standard of living. Our country needs to lead the rest of the world in seeking a solution to these problems.
It’s not just joining the Paris accord, it is showing our amazing American spirit and ingenuity to create solutions for these challenges. If a solution to climate change is to be created, our country must be the leader.
Deena Rubin is an educator who lives in Amherst.