Lancet Planetary Health

The 2025 report of the Lancet countdown on health and climate change is available.  From the executive summary:

“Driven by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, climate change is increasingly claiming lives and harming people's health worldwide. Mean annual temperatures exceeded 1·5°C above those of pre-industrial times for the first time in 2024. Despite ever more urgent calls to tackle climate change, greenhouse gas emissions rose to record levels that same year. Climate change is increasingly destabilising the planetary systems and environmental conditions on which human life depends….”

“The incidence of extreme precipitation days (which affect health and can trigger flash floods and landslides), increased in 64% of the world's land surface between 1961–90 and 2015–24… Meanwhile, a record-breaking 61% of the global land area was affected by extreme drought in 2024, which is 299% above the 1950s average, further threatening food and water security, sanitation, and causing downstream economic losses… Additionally, the hotter and drier weather is increasing the risk of wildfires, and 2024 had a record-high 154 000 deaths from wildfire smoke-derived small particulate matter (PM 2·5) air pollution …“

“The changing climatic conditions are also affecting the risk of transmission of deadly infectious diseases…”

“The multiple health impacts of climate change are increasingly straining the economy, reducing labour productivity, increasing worker absenteeism, and burdening health systems, which, in turn, affects the socioeconomic conditions that support health and wellbeing…”

“Delays in unrolling urgently needed adaptation strategies have left people poorly protected in the face of growing hazards, exacerbating the health harms of climate change. Scarce financial support for adaptation remains a key barrier and is still grossly insufficient to cover disclosed financial needs…”

 ”With reduced pressure from powerful political leaders, fossil fuel giants (including Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, and Chevron) have paused, delayed, or retracted their climate commitments…”

On a bit more positive and hopeful note:

 “Amid growing health harms, avoiding the most catastrophic impacts of climate change requires immediate and bold climate change action across every economic sector and social actor. Despite increasingly challenging geopolitical landscapes, some positive signs showcase growing momentum. The growth of the clean energy sector is underway. The share of electricity generated by modern renewables is growing rapidly, reaching a record-high 12·1% in 2022… The shift away from coal, particularly in high and very high HDI countries, resulted in a 5·8% reduction in deaths attributable to ambient PM 2·5 from fossil fuel combustion between 2010 and 2022, avoiding 160 000 deaths annually. Countries leading the clean energy transition have also had substantial economic benefits. In 2023, the clean energy sector accounted for 10% of global GDP growth, with clean energy growth accounting for 6% of GDP growth in the USA, almost 5% of GDP growth in India, and over 30% of GDP growth in the EU.”

“Despite waning engagement with climate change and health by some world leaders, the growing engagement of other actors enables important avenues for change. Local governments are emerging as strongholds for change, and a growing number of cities are prioritising the protection of health through climate change action… the proactive engagement of individuals with climate change and health, an essential driver of community-led actions, is also growing…”

“The health sector, a key protector of people's health and survival, is increasingly rising to the challenge. Health-care-related greenhouse gas emissions fell by 12% between 2021 and 2022”

Another recent article from Lancet Planetary Heath is a brief review titled “Groundwater depletion in a drying world”. We tend to focus on climate change, and appropriately so, but there are other threats to our ability to survive and thrive, including ground water depletion (as well as soil depletion, plastics, particularly microplastics in our bodies,  and other forms of pollution). These are all problems we created and are making worse, and for which at least partial solutions are available.

From the article:

“According to Dr Jay Famiglietti, Global Futures Professor at Arizona State University, this freshwater deficit poses a considerable threat to global food security. “Groundwater scarcity means less water available for agriculture and irrigation, which directly translates into a lower quality food product” or even no food product. “Food produced under water-scarce conditions may lack the calorie and nutrient content required for a healthy diet.” It is estimated that 70% of all groundwater withdrawn globally is used for agriculture. Similarly, more than 30% of all irrigation-based agricultural land depends on groundwater systems. This dependence is even more pronounced in arid and semi-arid regions such as the Middle East and parts of the USA and China.”

The author does discuss ways to address the issue and concludes: “Ultimately, there is no one-size-fits-all solution, and a combination of measures that include better monitoring, management, and supply alternatives will be needed to address this situation of groundwater depletion.”

It won’t be easy, it won’t be cheap; e are up against powerful interests and inertia, and these are huge prolbems. But it will be harder and more expensive if we do not to address these issues.  We can do this. We have to do what we can to see to it that this happens. The recent elections in the USA suggest maybe the science deniers won’t be in power forever here. That is part of what we can do: vote. Talk to freinds and family. Support those who are out there making change happen.

Dare to dream.