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Global Health Matters

November - December, 2007  |  Volume 6, Issue 6

WHO Director Warns Climate Change Will Dramatically Worsen Global Health, Particularly Among World's Poorest

The Director-General of the WHO, Dr. Margaret Chan, predicted
climate change will bring dire consequences for global health,
particularly among the world's most vulnerable populations.

The nature of climate change during this century is likely to go beyond human experience with developing countries being hit first and hardest, said Dr. Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization, speaking recently at the 2007 David E. Barmes Global Health Lecture. The title of her talk, held at NIH, was Climate Change and Health.

"I believe that climate change will ride across this landscape as the fifth horseman. It will increase the power of the four horsemen that rule over war, famine, pestilence and death--those ancient adversaries that have affected health and human progress since the beginning of recorded history," Dr. Chan predicted.

The warming of the planet will be gradual, but the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events--intense storms, heat waves, droughts and floods--will be abrupt, Dr. Chan suggested. The consequences will adversely affect the most fundamental determinants of health: food, air and water.

The power of scientific research has triumphed. The verdict is in. Climate change is real. Human activities are a prime cause," she said. "Humanity will suffer, for some decades to come, for past sins in the way we have inhabited this planet."

Although the catastrophic effects of climate change are not expected to be felt in much of the world until around the middle of this century, she said Africa is likely to be severely affected in as early as 2020. By that date, increased stress on water supplies is expected to affect up to 250 million Africans, causing crop yields in some countries to drop by as much as 50 percent.

"The health sector must add its voice to this growing concern," urged Dr. Chan. "Just as we fought so long to secure a high profile for health on the development agenda, we must now fight to place health issues at the center of the climate agenda. We have compelling reasons for doing so."

Climate change could vastly increase the already huge imbalance in health outcomes that the Millennium Development Goals were designed to address. That would be unacceptable, according to Dr. Chan. "I believe that, in matters of health, our world is dangerously out of balance, possibly as never before."

She said the challenges ahead are enormous--but she did see some reason for optimism.

"Many of the things we are doing right now in public health are exactly what is needed to increase the resilience and adaptive capacity of developing countries," said Dr. Chan. She went on to make recommendations on how the scientific community can work together to mediate the impact of climate change.

The annual lecture series honors the late David E. Barmes, a long-standing WHO employee, special expert for international health in the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), and ardent spokesman for global health.

The lecture is jointly sponsored by the NIDCR and the Fogarty International Center.

Complete transcript of Dr. Chan's remarks and a link to the archived videocast of her presentation.