Daily Times

Threats are of two kinds: hard and soft threats. Hard threats are in forms of weapons, enemy forces and weapons of mass destruction. However, soft threats are any tool or actor killing masses but in an indirect way. Climate Change is a soft threat, working like a slow poison for our planet and people. Climate Change is considered more dangerous than terrorism as the number of deaths caused by climate change are more than through terrorism. The Ex-President of United States of America Barak Obama in his interview with Vox highlighted “there are many more people on an annual basis who have to confront the impact of climate change or the spread of a disease than have to face terrorism.”

Although, climate change impacts are widely spread and affect every sector especially the health sector which is directly related to physical problems and the precious lives of the masses. Any harmful consequences of climate change create health issues both for humans and animals. Twenty governments commissioned an independent report in 2012 from the group DARA International to study the human and economic costs of Climate Change. It linked 400,000 deaths worldwide to climate change each year, projecting deaths to increase to over 600,000 per year by 2030.

Pakistan has been declared among the top ten countries most affected by climate change issues. This means health problems are being generated in the country due to this looming danger. According to World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2010, Pakistan had been experiencing an epidemic of dengue fever that caused 16 580 confirmed cases and 257 deaths in Lahore and nearly 5000 cases and 60 deaths reported from the rest of the country. One of the important causes for breeding of dengue mosquito is a warm and humid temperature.

The long summers and short winters in the country are provide favourable conditions for nurturing this species. Similarly, the increased average temperatures in the country is another source of spreading this disease. Pakistan is a country geographically located under glaciers. Melting of glaciers causes flooding that directly threatens the lives of masses in the form of loss of lives and physical injuries. Diseases like diarrhoea and malaria are very common in flood affected areas and after floods. Stagnant and contaminated water are the main sources for nourishing these diseases. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that floods in Pakistan reported severe health concerns, such as malaria, skin diseases, acute respiratory infections and malnutrition. Cholera is endemic and it is likely that among the many thousands of new diarrhoeal disease cases reported, some will be of cholera.

Pakistan has been declared among the top ten countries most affected by climate change issues

In 2015, heat waves in Karachi created an emergency situation. According to the National Disaster Management Authority report, the heat wave affected almost 1200 people and had impacts like stress for outdoor workers, child mortality, particularly among the elderly and stress on animals. Another heat wave issue was experienced in Karachi in October 2017. However, this time an advisory had been issued and precautionary measures were taken.

Similarly, smog is another issue severely impacting the health of humans and animals. Central Punjab was severely affected by smog in 2016 and 2017. Health issues like respiratory problems; skin diseases and eye problems were reported on a mass level by smog-affected people. Moreover, due to decreased visibility, accidents were reported, causing untimely deaths of many city dwellers.

Moreover, the ongoing drought in Thar has cost the lives of around 1500 children since 2014. The rest of the children born are mostly underweight or have diseases due lack of a nutritional diet.

Besides these physical problems, climate change also causes mental problems, paving the path for debilitating psychological diseases. Death, financial issues and economic loss in a family due to climate change leads to stress that transforms itself into blood pressure and hypertension. In extreme cases, it can lead to a heart attack or permanent mental illness as well. Some of the health challenges for animals in climate change are heat-related diseases and stress, extreme weather events, adaptation of animal production systems to new environments, and emergence or re-emergence of infectious diseases, especially vector-borne diseases critically dependent on environmental and climatic conditions.

Currently, climate change is a soft threat that has become more treacherous than terrorism, affecting people in every walk of live on an annual basis. It requires concerted efforts at an international, regional; national and local level through deliberate planning to exterminate the menace of climate change.

The writer is based in Islamabad and works on environmental issues. She can be reached at Zilehuma_1@hotmail. com

Published in Daily Times, December 21^st 2017.