5. Climate change
We are continuing our list of biggest health problems in the world in 2016 with the problem number 5 – there may be many voices in the world, some louder than others, that claim climate change is a hoax, but as long as a person that’s in the early 30s can remember a time when the climate they live in was much different, then we have a big problem. These aren’t changes that the world goes through in centuries, but rather a few mere decades, which should make everyone wonder just where we’re heading to. This isn’t just about the extreme weather phenomena taking place due to the changes in climate, but also about the health issues that we all can go through. Asthma, mental illness, cardiovascular diseases and more can be caused by the change in climate.
What has the world done over the past year to make things better? Well, in early November, the Paris Agreement went into effect. This is a worldwide pact to fight against global warming. “A historic day for the planet,” said French President Francois Hollande on November 4th as the pact became law. In order for the pact to take effect, at least 55 parties to the United Nation’s climate convention, responsible for over half the global greenhouse gas emissions, had to ratify it. In the end, 97 of the 197 UNFCCC signed the agreement, with more to do the same in the months and years to come.
The countries signing this agreement will look to fight climate change by reducing the greenhouse gas emissions considerably in the years to come in order to keep the global temperature rise this century below 2 degrees Celsius.
Barnaby Chambers/Shutterstock.com
