A new study, which has researched the interrelationships between climate, air quality and agriculture, and the combined impact of all of them on public health, shows that air quality has an impact on our agriculture as well. In turn, it also has an adverse effect on our health.
The research, published in the journal ‘One Earth’, is titled ‘A Systems Lens to Evaluate the Compound Human Health Impacts of Anthropogenic Activities’ (a systemic approach to the evaluation of the overall effects of human activities on human health) and In this, diseases caused by heat are classified as having health effects, such as asthma, increased risk of lung cancer and severe respiratory diseases. Apart from this, nutritional diseases, such as anemia in women of gestational age and iron and zinc deficiency.
This linkage of specific health impacts between climate, agriculture and air quality produces an integrated picture of public health impacts due to environmental changes due to human activities. The attention of determinants has been drawn to consider these diverse and dynamic interrelationships and to look at the topic of public health from a broader scientific perspective. In this study, scientists have emphasized the need for better tools and more intensive data related to health, weather, emissions, air pollution and land-use for the assessment of human activities and environmental impacts on public health, citing the example of India.
Ashwini Chhatre, Associate Professor, Indian School of Business Public Policy, said, “Agriculture activities have an impact on air quality, but air quality also affects agriculture. Their intensity is due to climate impacts due to human-caused activities. It becomes even more so. Policy making should also include this multifaceted dialogue emerging in complex human environmental systems. This study explores how useful and effective policy responses take into account multiple factors and interactions. and this study also underscores the need to ignore the simple explanation.
In addition to ISB, researchers from Columbia University, the University of Washington, Boston University and the University of Delaware contributed to this multi-disciplinary research. Researchers say that India is one of the most vulnerable regions in terms of climate-related health hazards. The main reasons for this are high population density, high rate of poverty, dire food security situation and excessive dependence on agriculture. Such systemic approaches can go a long way in policy development and decision making. especially in the developing countries of the South Asian region.
Dr Deepti Singh, assistant professor at the University of Washington and lead author of the paper, said: “We are presenting an action plan to assess the overall health effects of many parts of the Earth’s natural systems that may be caused by human activities. These changes should be carefully comprehensively examined to conduct effective policy changes at the country as well as the global level.” The authors of this study hope that an integrated region-specific understanding of these interactions can help countries support decision-making and adaptation planning, as well as support sustainable policy development.
Responding to him, Dr. Roxy Mathew Cole, Scientist, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, said, “We are undergoing rapid environmental changes that are complex as well as multi-dimensional. For example, large-scale climate change, Exposure to extreme weather events due to poor air quality due to local air pollution and food and water shortages can lead to health complications and compound problems in developing countries. Another example is when along coastal areas. Seawater infiltration causes diseases such as cholera, as well as the quality of agriculture, food and water in the region. Often we individually try to investigate and address these issues, leading to overall health impacts. The study highlights that we urgently need interdisciplinary scientific efforts that simultaneously accurately measure the threat of increasing environmental hazards and their associated health risks. Security experts and local administration will need to work together and share data. This is a challenge that we have to solve.”
Lead author Dr. Anjal Prakash, Director of Research at Bharti Institute of Public Policy and coordinator of the IPCC Special Report on Ocean and Cryosphere 2019, says, “The recently released IPCC Physical Science Report shows that climate change due to human intervention is unpredictable. Changes are taking place. This study takes this issue further and links climate change to public health, including air quality, management of agricultural land use, and environmental pollution caused by human activities in South Asia. Challenges are mentioned. Such research is rare and it also closes gaps in our understanding of the interactions of the human environmental system. This study has been done at the right time because the Conference of the Parties (COP26) also met Coming soon and the measures outlined in this research may help policy makers take some tough decisions aimed at improving the existing pattern.”
“The interaction between climate and agriculture is of great importance in understanding the health impacts in South Asia, as the region’s agricultural sector has a significant impact on health,” said Kyle Davis, an assistant professor at the University of Delaware and co-author of the study. The resulting land-use change continues to be very rapid, in addition to increased agricultural practices and subsistence based on smallholdings. This paper sheds new light on the ways in which food systems are affected by climate change and climate change. affected by air quality.
main cause of concern
1) Green house gas emissions in India have increased by 260% compared to the year 1990: Green house gas emissions in India have increased by 260% in 2014 as compared to 1990 levels. This is mainly due to the growth in the energy sector. The burning of domestic and agricultural biomass and pollutants from coal power stations and vehicular fumes have led to an increase in the aerosol concentration of harmful pollutants in the atmosphere. Agriculture alone accounts for 19% of the total budget for greenhouse gases in South Asian countries. Nitrous oxide generated from the use of fertilizers, carbon dioxide from tractors and pumps and methane gas from floods, irrigation, soil and fertilizer management, and intestinal fermentation, as well as contributing to ubiquitous rice cultivation in the region Due to the methane gas produced, the intensity of greenhouse gases generated by agriculture is very high. Rapidly changing climate patterns and increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide may cut the nutritional content of cereals and potatoes. However, there is currently very limited data on the scale of their effects in low-income countries.
2) Decline in agricultural productivity due to stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana: Cases of large amounts of fine particulate matter and nitrogen oxides generated due to large-scale stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana at the end of the Kharif season in this study has also been put forward. Similarly, increased surface levels of ozone are also considered to be an important reason for the decline in the productivity of wheat, paddy, cotton and soybean crops in India. All of this indicates that agricultural and atmospheric pollution remain as important as greenhouse gas emissions in influencing regional environmental conditions and their collective consequences on human health.
3) Climate change is harmful to human health: health effects in this study were identified as heat-related diseases (exhaustion heat stroke and cardiovascular diseases), pollution-related diseases (asthma, increased risk of lung cancer, chronic lung diseases). ) and nutritional diseases (anemia in women of reproductive age, iron and zinc deficiency). The analysis linked various interactions between climate, agriculture and air quality to specific health effects to create a holistic picture of the collective health impacts of the interactions.
key recommendations
This study paper incorporates elements from hundreds of studies related to climate change, air quality, agriculture and public health to propose recommendations linking health risks and environmental changes caused by human activities as well.
a. To create an open access data set to measure anthropogenic factors and their environmental impacts on air pollution, agricultural meteorological change and greenhouse gas emissions, and to accurately assess health impacts in South Asia and other developing countries. Collecting long-term epidemiological data on high pollution concentrations.
b. Create a comprehensive environmental human health system model based on an integrated assessment model to measure local impacts on human health from exposure to climate and air pollution, and to predict future health hazards be able to install.
c. To measure the extent of potential environmental changes and impacts on human health, simulations of future climate and pollution trajectories should be developed to identify intervention points for mitigating impacts at each stage and those interventions based on various policy interventions. Addresses economic impacts that respond to environmental systems through anthropogenic drivers and systems models.