New Discovery On How Climate Change Affects Us

Much has been said about climate change and how it affects our planet. It’s not only heating up the planet but changing it and making shifts in the environment such as creating more heatwaves in some areas while causing more rainstorms in others. While those are things that we should keep in mind, there’s also another, more factor about climate change that affects us all on a more personal basis.

Not quite as much research has gone into how climate change can affect us physically or mentally, but what we do know is that an increase in temperature also increases the spread of more diseases as warmer temperatures will encourage the proliferation of mosquitoes and therefore, its related diseases. Such an effect was seen a few years ago with the pandemic spread of diseases such as Chikungunya, Zika as well as Dengue.

In addition to previously relegated “tropical diseases”, scientists have made a recent discovery about how the change in the environment can affect humans’ health in the long run. In the study led by Dr Nick Obradovich, results showed that people’s sleep patterns take a pretty big hit when temperature rises, as seen with levels of sleepless nights increasing during summer.

This is similar to how one might find it hard to sleep if their room is too hot or cold, but with climate change, those effects could worsen a lot. The study states that people who do not have air conditioning would suffer the brunt of the damage and that in 100 years, every 100 person might spend up to 14 sleepless nights.

The basis for the study was a survey collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the survey asked people about their monthly sleep patterns and compared it to the temperatures that were present at the time.

Comparing the two not only helped in confirming how the weather affected people’s sleep schedules, but it also made it easier to predict how sleeplessness could worsen over the years if greenhouse gases increased.

Unfortunately, while this type of research is something that should be looked into more, researchers are unable to know what the world will be like in one hundred years and how the people of that time will live.

This study goes to show how important it is for us to study and understand the effects of climate change more, as climate change is not just about a change in the environment, but also about the influence it has on our physical and mental wellbeing. That is why deals such as the Paris Climate Agreement, where most of the countries in the world signed, aim for a 2% decrease in CO2 levels and to fight climate change.

Despite some recent events that might’ve affected the goal of that agreement, this should be a reminder for all of us to do a bit more for our planet even if it’s just a little bit. Whether it’d be eating or living healthier, everything that can help in protecting our earth will go our long way into creature a future where we can have sweet dreams.


Photo Credits: Youtube, Stuff.co

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