Poor countries in poor shape over pollution

Western Balkans including Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia, are paying the price for air pollutions caused by the excessive dependence on coal mining and coal-fired power plants through serious illnesses like lung cancer.

These countries are unable to shift to renewable energy sources because they do not have the economic means to do. The contrast is to be found in the European Union (EU) countries which now have 40% less emissions of greenhouse gas emissions since 1990.

It is estimated that it would cost 4.5 billion euros to shift to a coal-free economy. Meanwhile Serbia’s capital Belgrade, Bosnia’s capital Sarajevo, Macedonia’s capital Skopje are shrouded in smog, and people are forced to wear masks. And deaths due to illnesses caused by pollution in coal-belts like lung cancer take their toll.

In an article, “Why we still don’t know the mounting health risks of climate change”, British climate change researcher Dann Mitchell in the British science journal Nature issue of January 23, 2025, raises the question that the climate change impact on public health has not yet been quantified, and it has a serious human and economic impact.

The article has argued that the extremes of weather like heat-waves, droughts are behind the rise in mortality rates of older people and infants because they are not able to bear the extremities in temperature. And it appears that over the long term, kidneys are most likely to be affected by the high temperatures. And the heat will impact the growth of the foetuses, and children with abnormalities would be born. It might be said that this is an alarmist view. But it is not because the heat thresholds are being broken faster than expected. In 2024, the global temperatures have breached the 1.5 degrees Celsius over the 1850-1900 pre-industrial levels, which the climate scientists have said will be the tipping point.

The only solace is that for the decade as such, the rise in average temperature has been 1.3 degrees Celsius, but that is of little solace if the 2024 record is repeated often enough in the next decade.

That is, America’s new President Donald Trump’s announcement that America will drill oil and gas, his announcement that the United States will withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement once again – he did it in 2017 when he became president the first time – and his other announcement that subsidies for electric vehicles (EVs) would be withdrawn are both reckless and irresponsible. Critics are still hoping that better sense would prevail with President Trump, and that he would listen to the right advice from his aides as to how critical the climate change challenge really is.

Referring to the long-term impact of climate change on human health, Mitchell writes, “At the fundamental level, gene expression can be altered by environmental stressors. For example, studies show that people who were exposed to bouts of hot, dry weather while in the womb have an increased likelihood of high blood pressure as adults, decades on. There are many consequences of a warming global climate that researchers are yet to understand, and more we do not even know about.” These intangible factors of climate change have not been taken into account while assessing the impact of rising global temperatures due to sustained greenhouse gas emissions. The debate has to be widened and it has to include what might seem unrelated to the issue of climate change.

The physical wellbeing of human beings is going to take a beating because of drastic weather conditions, and it will affect the social and economic well-being of individuals and countries. The idea of a prosperous and happy society because of increase in economic growth rates becomes much too vulnerable in the face of the threat of climate change.