The ongoing emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) is intensifying numerous climatic hazards of the Earth’s climate system, which in turn can exacerbate human pathogenic diseases.

The societal disruption caused by pathogenic diseases, as clearly revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic, provides worrisome glimpses into the potential consequences of looming health crises driven by climate change2,3,4,5,6.

While the conclusion that climate change can affect pathogenic diseases is relatively well accepted2,3,4,5,6, the extent of human vulnerability to pathogenic diseases affected by climate change is not yet fully quantified. 

Climate change can exacerbate a full 58% of the infectious diseases that humans come in contact with worldwide, from common waterborne viruses to deadly diseases like plague, new research shows.

With climate change influencing more than 1,000 transmission pathways like those and climate hazards increasingly globally, we concluded that expecting societies to successfully adapt to all of them isn’t a realistic option. The world will need to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change to reduce these risks.

Climate disasters can also alter human behavior patterns in ways that increase their chances of being exposed to pathogens. For example, during heat waves, people often spend more time in water, which can lead to an increase in waterborne disease outbreaks.

Notably, Vibrio-associated infections increased substantially in Sweden and Finland following a heat wave in northern Scandinavia in 2014.

Historic heat waves and wildfires in much of the western world as well as massive flooding in the Gulf region are unprecedented and concurrent extreme conditions that resemble the chaotic climate future scientists have been warning us about for decades — only it’s happening right now. 

Worst of all, this is just the start of a trend. The Middle East is warming at twice the global average, and by 2050 will be 4 degrees Celsius warmer as compared with the 1.5 degree mark that scientist have prescribed to save humanity.

A team of environment and health scientists went through decades of scientific papers on all known disease pathogens affecting humans to create a map of the kinds of risks aggravated by climate change — and their results are concerning.

Of a total of 378 human diseases, researchers found that 218 of them, over half, can be affected by climate change.

Rising temperatures, for example, can expand the life of mosquitoes that carry malaria. Droughts can bring rodents infected with hantavirus to towns and cities as they search for food and flooding can spread hepatitis. From the researchers’ point of view, adapting to all this won’t be possible, calling instead to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate change has led to more frequent and worsening heat waves around the world, with western Europe particularly impacted. The region’s heat waves are increasing in frequency – about three times faster and in intensity four times faster than in the rest of the midlatitudes, according to a recent study. 

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