Environmental News: Human pressures on the environment creating health hazards
Human induced climate change will have a huge impact on human health, according to the author of an article published in the BMJ today.
The authors state that human induced 'pressures on the environment are damaging the world’s natural environmental systems'. These systems are 'intrinsic to life processes and fundamental to human health'. As a result of these pressures 'a potentially irreversible category of environmental health hazard is emerging.' These changes are unprecedented in scale, and the resultant risks to population health 'need urgent response by health professionals and the health sector at large.'
While adaptive strategies will minimise the effects of climate change,'the greater public health preventive challenge lies in stopping the process of climate change'. 'This requires bold and far sighted policy decisions at national and international levels, entailing much greater emissions cuts than were being proposed a decade ago.'