Global Environmental Change and the Effect on Human Health

Global Environmental change also known as global warming has been a rising concern for a while. The International Panel on Climate Change states that Environmental change is anthropogenic. The World Health organization defines anthropogenic climate change a cause of human and human activity. Major causes of environmental change throughout the world are the increase in Carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases.1 In the past when looking at environmental change the main focus has been on the environment and the ozone layer of the earth, but climate change has a very immense effect on human health. This paper specifically looks at how global environmental change has an effect on the health of people residing in Canada. In the past decade the global environmental change has increased Canada’s weather temperature 1.6 degrees Celsius.2 With climate change it said that in Canada there would be a greater spread of infectious disease. Another factor that can affect human health due to climate change is extreme weather events.

The World Health Organization defines infectious disease as a disease caused by pathogenic microorganisms, such as bacteria, viruses, parasites or fungi; the disease can be spread directly or indirectly, form one person to another. In Canada there is more focus on concern with water-borne disease.3 Water-borne pathogens are numerous and widespread; some examples include giardia, cholera, cryptosporidium, rotaviruses, enteroviruses, Coxsackie viruses, cyclospora, and hepatitis A and E viruses.4 Canada has water-borne disease for quiet a while; an example would be the major cholera outbreak in Walkerton in 2000. Increase in water-borne and infectious disease would be increased in extreme and increase rainfall, flooding, and snowstorms. All of these factors are predicted to increase in Canada due to the climate change, with increase temperature causing the sea and ocean levels to increase.3

Global environmental change also has an enormous effect on extreme weather conditions. Extreme weather conditions include; extreme heat, thunderstorms, heavy rainfall, flooding’s, and drought. Extreme weathers affect human health in many different aspects. One-way extreme weather affects human health is due to extreme heat waves. Populations typically have a threshold for temperature that if passed by a significant amount either hot or cold would typically lead to mortality.1 There is a positive correlation between the increase of temperature and the mortality of individuals in Canada. Extreme heat affects more of elderly women, children, or people that cardiovascular disease and hypertension.5 Another factor is the increasing of temperature is causing the ice and snow in the northern part of Canada to melt changing the environment around by increasing the water level in the sea and the ocean.