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In Australia, California, the Amazon, and many other places nowadays, red skies, glowing and thick with smoke and ash, have become increasingly common. Beyond destroying homes, wildlife, and ecosystems, wildfires often cause air quality to deteriorate sharply, with serious consequences for human health.
Even in normal times, 99% of all people breathe air that exceeds World Health Organization air-quality limits. But disasters such as wildfires make matters far worse: as air pollution and airborne allergens increase, so do hospital admissions for respiratory ailments, even in areas far from the blaze.
Last year, during the 19 days when smoke from wildfires in Canada was wafting over the US, emergency-room visits for asthma were 17% higher than normal.
With climate change increasing the frequency and intensity of such disasters, the health impact will only grow. People suffering from respiratory illnesses, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), are at particularly high risk, owing to their susceptibility to air pollution and allergens. Rising temperatures compound the problem: one study found that COPD hospitalisations rise by 1.5% for every 1°C increase above 23.2°C.
People with certain allergies are also vulnerable to respiratory issues as climate change progresses. For example, over the past 20 years, the combination of rising temperatures and increased levels of carbon dioxide in the air has caused pollen counts to increase steadily.
Already, climate change has brought an increase in new diagnoses of respiratory diseases, while exacerbating the symptoms of those who already suffer.
The same is true for immunity-related diseases, as many of the same environmental factors that affect the respiratory system – such as higher temperatures and increased airborne allergens – put the immune system under stress. This often results in inflammatory conditions, which contribute to more than half of all deaths globally.
Moreover, a robust body of evidence links outdoor air pollution to skin conditions, such as hyperpigmentation, atopic dermatitis, and psoriasis. The effects of climate change can also exacerbate other diseases that affect the immune system, including infectious diseases like meningitis and neglected tropical diseases.
Taking cover indoors cannot keep us safe. Indoor air pollution – which is also exacerbated by climate change – is responsible for an estimated 1.6 million deaths annually, more than half of which are children under five years old in countries that are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
Given the worsening climate crisis, urgent action is needed to protect human health. For starters, the healthcare sector must identify key environmental risks created or exacerbated by climate change, clarify their potential health implications, and strengthen responses to – and prevention of – the relevant conditions and diseases. Healthcare pipelines must be supplemented with targeted treatments.
Any effort to deal with the health effects of climate change should make use of artificial intelligence. AI will undoubtedly play an important role in climate action: research shows that, by scaling currently proven applications and technology alone, AI could help reduce global greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions by as much as 10% by 2030, equivalent to the annual emissions of the entire European Union. AI can significantly bolster climate-related adaptation and resilience initiatives as well.
On the health front, by detecting patterns of incidence of potential climate events, AI can help us to identify and prepare vulnerable populations as well as develop plans for responding to extreme weather events before they happen.
AI has already proven its ability to predict events like heatwaves. This predictive capacity means that AI can also help to improve the efficiency of renewable-energy sources like wind and solar, optimise energy grids, and reduce downtime in energy production.
Finally, the healthcare sector should work with local and philanthropic organisations and community workers to get treatments to those who need them most.
Low- and middle-income countries are disproportionately affected by climate change, owing to a range of factors, including food insecurity, exposure to polluted air, lack of clean water and sanitation, and limited access to quality medicines and vaccines.
With many of the most vulnerable communities also the hardest to reach, on-the-ground support from those who are most familiar with local conditions will be essential.
When it comes to limiting the health effects of climate change, there is no substitute for global action to limit temperature rise, especially by eliminating GHG emissions.
But some amount of global warming is unavoidable, so devising strategies for dealing with associated health risks, especially among the most vulnerable patients and communities, is essential. The application of AI and effective collaboration among relevant organisations should be central to such plans.
Paul Hudson is CEO of Sanofi.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.
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