By Staff Reporter
RAWALPINDI: The National University of Medical Sciences (NUMS) scientific journal emphasized the urgent need for investment in emerging green technology and the introduction of climate education in curricula to mitigate the impact of climate change and global warming on jeopardizing human health and especially of marginalized people.
In University’s latest editorial, NUMS‘ “Life and Science,” an internationally-recognized academic journal, said, “The footprint of climate change is becoming more extreme in South Asia; India, Philippines, and Pakistan,” which, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are in the high bracket of the vulnerability assessment.
Contributor to climate change
A negligible contributor to climate change, Pakistan was severely hit by recent heavy rainfall and floods resulting in the loss of livelihood and life. It said that extreme weather conditions bring changes in air quality, natural calamities, and vector ecology, impacting human health negatively.
The editorial said, “Human exposure to intense heat is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes (including premature birth), heatstroke, acute kidney injury, disturbed sleep patterns, worsening of underlying respiratory and cardiac diseases, mental health problems, and cancers.” Life and Science have already been added to Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) Journal Recognition System (HJRS).
It is said catering to the needs of the disaster-affected population remained “a key challenge in terms of resource constraints, changing disease burden, afflicted health systems, delivering lifesaving and livelihood assistance, the provision of shelter and emergency relief items, prevention of disease outbreaks, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) needs, addressing gender-based violence (GBV), malnutrition, family tracing, psychosocial support (PSS), and dignified protection.”
The editorial claimed that the climate hazards were increasing the burden on health services, already impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, co-epidemics like tuberculosis and human immunodeficiency virus, and the double burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases.
The recent 2022 UN Conference of the Parties (COP27), in its Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan, has decided to provide “loss and damage” funding for vulnerable countries hit hard by climate disasters, it said. The past seven years were declared the warmest; the 1.5-degree climate target agreed upon at the Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris seems far out of reach as the global mean surface temperature is projected to rise to a dangerous level between 1.5° Celsius and 3.5° Celsius by the end of this century. The climate stressors, it said, affect the most vulnerable and marginalized people, like old, pregnant women, new-born babies, people who are socially deprived, and people working outdoors.
