Rising Temperatures, Raising Funding: The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health
May 19, 2022 | Annie Vesey, Victoria DiMelis, Natalie Koh
What do you think about when you think of climate change?
Do you think of deforestation?
Do you think about the polar ice caps?
Do you think about health?
Since the recognition of climate change, research has been done to connect the planet's changing temperature, increase in air pollution, and myriad of other changes to impacts on human health. Funding and grants from all over the world have been created to support institutions performing research on a micro and macro scale (NIH, Climate Change Health Initiative). In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) named air pollution and climate change one of the top threats to global health (WHO, 10 Threats to Global Health in 2019). We see great momentum accruing as researchers and doctors gain momentum in understanding and documenting climate change's impact on life on earth.
Are we seeing a Swerve?
Who is doing the research and where is the research emerging from? On PubMed, we used the search criteria "climate change and human impacts" and date restrictions (2012 - 2022) to generate 192 articles for analysis. We systematically went through and collected data on where, when, why, and how this research was conducted. Below, you can see a charted and catalogued analysis (scroll over graph to see data for specific countries):
Research Articles Written Globally
Number of Articles
Are the areas and, by extension, the people, in the world most impacted by climate change on the receiving end of funded research which could very well be life-changing? On the map below, we plotted mean population exposure to PM2.5 for each country (scroll over map to see specific data by country). As we can see, countries such as the US and China are receiving the resources and funding to explore the health impacts they are seeing in their environment. Other countries, such as India, should be supporting and receiving funding for much more research to explore the health implications of the changing environment. How do we ensure more equitable outcomes in this fight against climate change? How do we ensure the people being impacted are the ones receiving support?
Areas of the World Experiencing Air Pollution
Mean Population
Exposure to PM2.5
But what do "health impacts" mean?
We went through all articles on PubMED that mentioned "climate change", "health impact", and specific systems of the body (cardiovascular, etc.) since 2012 and recorded the generated number of articles. These articles each represent research that has been conducted to demonstrate a tie between our changing planet and a greater degree of risk associated with a specific organ or bodily system.
216 on cardiovascular impact
41 on liver impact
347 on respiratory impact
50 on kidney impact
30 on brain impact
58 on stomach impact
28 on intestinal impact
These impacts are relevant and scientifically documented to be connected to climate change. When looking at reproduction, we can see even greater risk: 69 articles showed greater risk to pregnancy and 179 articles showed greater risk to infants.
Not to mention 432 articles discussing increased relevance of vector-borne diseases.
But is our swerve in research and understanding of health impacts from climate change producing action?
Funding not only fuels research - it is also a powerful enabler of action to address the effects of climate on health. In recent years, we have seen a swerve in funding going into healthcare and rapid production of innovative healthcare solutions across a diverse spectrum of needs including those relevant to the research-proven impacts on health wrought by climate change.
Below, we assembled a series of meters to see show the overall state of funding in the North American healthcare startup space, and the individual meters of the specific areas of funding the comprise the overall industry. Global data was not publicly available. While this serves as a surrogate, it cannot be concluded that the findings are generalizable globally.
Total Funding In Health Care Startups Years 2018 till 2021 (Billion), North America
Health Care Funding 2018 to 2021 By Sector/Services (Billion), North America
Sources:
https://rockhealth.com/insights/q1-2022-digital-health-funding-staying-the-course-in-choppy-waters/
CB Insights: State of Venture: Q1 2022 Report
The funding meters show a swerve toward increased spend by year 2021 (colored green) in proportion to prior years, in total and also across all dimensions of health. The 9 dimensions of health studied included monitoring of disease, treatment of disease, care coordination, mental health, oncology, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, reproductive and mental health and lastly, primary care.
These 9 dimensions of health Iin aggregate cover the organ systems proven by research to be impacted directly by climate change. The implications of such swerves are two-fold:
1) evidence is being generated by funded research proving the effects of climate change on multiple organ systems
2) actionable intervention is being taken in the form of increasing health care funding in innovation and startups to generate myriad solutions that could address the health care issues that intersect with climate-driven impacts.
The evidence we have gathered suggests that a swerve in science (discovery) and technology (action) has taken place that shows at least an acknowledgement in North America of the effects of climate change on health, and the intention to fund innovation that could solve some of these problems.
Nevertheless we are left with several questions: What about about global trends? Is this swerve sufficient to break the momentum of climate change impacts on health? How can we measure this?
What can we do to encourage this swerve? What can we do to stop and reverse the climate change driven harm to our health as individuals and as a society?
What should you do?
Stay up to date on research as it emerges. Support non-profits and organizations that seek to mitigate the unequal health impacts of climate change across the globe. Do your best to minimize your personal contributions to climate change. Research and funding on climate related health impacts must keep increasing. The next swerve should be investment in countries that are most directly effected by its impacts now.