Environmental degradation and its consequences to the daily lives of populations around the globe is a sad and worrisome reality. Wildfires, draughts, floods, higher temperatures, shorter winters, among other phenomena are becoming more common than ever before. The World Economic Forum estimates that the global cost of environmental degradation is immense. Climate and biodiversity damage caused by top global consumers alone reaches 1. 7 trillion to 5. 7 trillion US dollars per year. Broader economic damage from extreme weather and natural degradation costs the world billions to trillions more annually, impacting health, agriculture, and infrastructure.
Environmental degradation triggers chronic respiratory and heart diseases from air pollution, spread waterborne infections from chemical and sewage runoff, and expands vector-borne illnesses through shifting climate patterns. Mosquitoes that could not survive at certain altitudes, now, due to changing weather conditions, are present in cities far from coastal areas where they were traditionally found. Water pollution is responsible for serious diseases, like Minamata disease, a severe and permanent central nervous system disorder caused by mercury poisoning. It was first discovered in Minamata City, Japan, in 1956 after a local chemical factory, Chisso Corporation dumped toxic industrial wastewater into the sea, contaminating the fish and shellfish eaten by local residents from the 1930s to the 1960s. The effects of mercury poisoning include loss of feeling in the hands, feet, and around the mouth; trouble walking, shaking limbs, and poor body coordination (ataxia); reduced field of vision, deafness, and slurred speech; and extreme cases led to madness, paralysis, coma, and death. These effects are permanent, non reversible. The tragedy led to the Minamata Convention on Mercury, a global treaty designed to protect human health and the environment from toxic mercury emissions. This treaty was signed in 2013 and came into force as recent as 2017. Based on the effects of mercury poisoning, the film “Minamata” (2020) by Andrew Levitas with Johnny Depp playing the photojournalist W. Eugene Smith who documented the physical damages of the disease to the inhabitants through pictures released at a special edition of Life magazine exposes decades of negligence and cynicism by the country's Chisso Corporation.
The World Health Organization (WHO) explains that air pollution, including ground-level ozone particulates, and aeroallergens, is associated with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, allergies, and asthma. Fossil fuel combustion is a major contributor to pollution from particulates and is a leading driver of health harms. It is linked to asthma, respiratory diseases, heart disease, certain cancers, adverse birth outcomes, cognitive impairments, and premature death. Air pollution accounts for more than 1 in 8 deaths globally.
Biodiversity loss is credited as a contributor to zoonotic diseases such as coronaviruses, influenza, HIV, Ebola, Zika and others. This is caused in part by urbanization, a trend that the world is facing at a rapid pace that puts societies in contact with species with which interaction was not possible before due to natural and ecosystemic barriers that now are being destroyed.
Then comes higher temperatures and their contribution to wildfires and extreme heat waves responsible for many deaths all over the world. This year the heatwave has dramatically affected Europe. An estimated 10 000 excess deaths during June's heatwave proves a devastating effect. The heatwave is common every year but not as extreme as seen this year. As of early August, water levels are falling, with the River Danube at a record low and threatening the power supply in Hungary; Italy has put most of its major cities on the highest heat alert; and the UK is facing concerns over crop losses and food supply pressures. Huge wildfires have spread across France and Spain, leading to mass evacuations. The WHO chief, Tedros Adanom Gebreyesus explained a few days ago that Europe is the fastest-warming continent on Earth, heating at twice the global average.
Yet, while looking at the Canada-US border wildfires have created the worst quality air conditions in the world. Thick smoke from Canadian wildfires has blanketed Toronto, Detroit, Minneapolis, Chicago, New York, and Washington, DC, in July on the east coast. There were concerns about the air quality during the final match of the World Cup in New Jersey on July 19. At points, Detroit, Toronto, and other North American cities ranked among the worst in the world for air quality. Some US politicians took to social media, blaming Canada as summer activities were curtailed and residents were warned to stay indoors. But the west also faces its own problems: wildfires in the US west are now sending smoke north across the border into British Columbia.
Both in France and California, the impact of the wildfires in viticulture is a cause of concern. California wildfires threaten wine regions like Napa and Sonoma, risking direct property damage and smoke taint that ruins unharvested grapes with an ashy flavor. Although vineyards can make excellent fire breaks because they are typically clear of burnable plant matter, and grape vines themselves are moist enough to be nonflammable. But heat damage and smoke can still destroy a crop. Grapes may be ruined to smoke exposure -you may not like wine with smokey flavors-, and vines need to be replanted at the owner’s cost. On the other side of the Atlantic, in France, wildfires burning outside Bordeaux are underscoring the climate challenges facing the country’s largest wine region. It is believed fires pose no immediate threat to Bordeaux's famed vineyards -for the reasons explained above-, but nearly two months of drought and repeated heatwaves have intensified stress on vines and brought one of the earliest harvests on record, which of course compromises wine quality.
Editor’s Note: The above guest column was penned by María Cristina Rosas, a professor and researcher in the faculty of political and social sciences at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City. The column appears in The Rio Grande Guardian International News Service with the permission of the author. Rosas can be reached via email at: mcrosas@prodigy.net.mx
