Causes and Impacts of Climate Change

Abstract

Climate change, simply described as “any change in average weather that lasts for a long period of time”, already affects many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe, and there is evidence that observed changes in extremes such as heatwaves, heavy precipitation, droughts, and tropical cyclones and their attribution to human influence has continued to strengthen. Climate change has been called out for specific attention in commentaries on risks to health and human rights during emergency situations. Emergencies caused by climate change-induced drought, famine, rainfall variation and shrinkage of water supplies lead to catastrophic suffering, misery and humanitarian crises and invariably threaten rights to equal protection under international human rights and humanitarian law either as a result of human right violations associated with the emergencies themselves and the associated response or exacerbation of human rights problems that already existed before the emergency situation emerged. More frequent and intense extreme weather and climate-related events, as well as changes in average climate conditions, are expected to continue to damage infrastructure, ecosystems, and social systems that provide essential benefits to communities. The weight of scientific evidence points to human activity as the cause of the current warming trend, and future climate change is expected to further disrupt many areas of life, exacerbating existing challenges to prosperity posed by aging and deteriorating infrastructure, stressed ecosystems, and economic inequality.

Keywords: climate change, older persons, climate action