During the past decade humans have experienced changes on Earth. The changes experienced are droughts, hurricanes, change in temperatures and an increase in diseases – all the aftermaths of climate change.
One of the most important topics of climate change that has attracted the attention of the scientific community is diseases. There are two important factors that help to develop deadly diseases such as the Zika Virus and Cancer. These factors depend on the rise in temperature and the retention of UV light. Brazil has experienced many changes in temperature, their summer time has become hotter. Because of the increase in temperature, the changes in pH of water allows certain viruses to become active. In this case the Zika virus. The zika virus is spread among the population due to the mosquitoes that carry this virus. Once the virus bites a person, the person becomes infected. Many cases in Brazil have shown that pregnant woman that have been bit by a Zika mosquito, their kids were born with birth defects. Besides affecting pregnant woman, the virus affects the whole populations. The symptoms presented by this virus are: fever, rash, joint pain, and red eyes. Sometimes these symptoms are not outwardly evident on those infected.
The increase in temperature due to climate change is making inactive viruses present on Earth to become active, and thus bringing diseases that the world has never seen.
Another important disease case that has become very common is Cancer. Cancer develops due to the abnormal growth of cells and the abnormal growth is triggered by the absorption of UV light rays that stay in the atmosphere. As we know, the sun light rays that enter the Earth also are reflected back to space, thanks to the ice on the poles and to the clouds that help to reflect these rays. Due to the increase on temperature the ice on the poles have started to melt, thus the number of rays that are reflected back to space decreases.
CO2 emissions also play an important role in keeping these UV rays on Earth. Since the amount of CO2 emissions has increased in the atmosphere, the atmosphere now contains a large amount of CO2 gases that cause the greenhouse effect. This greenhouse effect retains more light rays that enter the Earth. The number of light rays present on Earth that reach our skin is what triggers the abnormal cell growth on the skin cells. Cells need a certain amount of energy in order to create proteins that humans need for their development and survival. If cells start to get a high amounts of light rays, then they start producing more and more cells, these cells then become a tumor, and as time passes by, they become cancer.
Thus, it is important for the world to understand that climate change not only affects Earth but it also allows deadly diseases to become active.
As humans, we should unite and create more ways in which we could decrease climate change.
Our life on Earth depends on the cooperation among all countries working to decrease climate change. It is up to us to create and take care of our home, so that future generations can have a better world.
2 Responses
I really enjoyed reading your article, I can tell that you put a lot of time and effort into researching all the information needed to write such an inspiring piece that you so genuinely shared with us. I agree with everything you said and I truly believe that people are oblivious the affects that climate change offers to the world. There are so many things that come from the affects of climate change that majority of the population on Earth does not know and quite frankly do not seem as interested to learn more about it. What they seriously need to take into account is that this information could not be nothing more than beneficial to them. As far as the heat waves from what you explained in Brazil, I feel that this is only the beginning and we will be facing much hotter weather patterns soon. Over the past couple of years the amount of increased temperatures recorded over the summer have been in an all time high and they seem to be increasing gradually. If we do not find a way to either slow down our carbon emission processes, then we might not be looking at a cool future.
This is a great point that’s being made regarding the effects of climate change on Earth. Most people understand the general negative impact climate change has in terms of weather, agriculture, etc., but not necessarily diseases. The deadly Ebola outbreak can also be attributed to climate change as well. Current and future climate changes influence infectious diseases as extremes in weather continue to impact health in a global scale. Many scientists find that weather extremes such as prolonged droughts followed by heavy rainfall resulted in a sudden overproduction of fruit, leading to a gathering of animals which may potentially allow a disease such as ebola to be transmitted from species to species. This gives several opportunities for humans to come into contact with Ebola, which can be transmitted from animals to humans. The WHO (World Health Organization) has released a statement back in 2014, stating that contagious diseases are more prevalent due to the combination of demographic, environmental, societal, technological, and climate changes.