Staying Healthy: One Battle After Another

Deadly typhoons, tornados, floods, fires & heatwaves – we’re seeing it all this July. On top of these, the war on Iran continues. So this month, we delve into the health crises no one is talking about from coastal flooding to the impacts of war pollution on drinking water, while professors Biswas, Tortajada & Li mull over the war’s capacity to fast track transition. We need to speed this up as even children are alarmed about our planetary health.

Energy-importing Asia has been hit hard by the Strait of Hormuz closure. Fuel shortages have brought inflation, weakened currencies & reduced economic activity. Yet this energy crisis is a turning point, note Biswas, Tortajada & Li, as Asian countries pivot towards greater domestic control over electricity generation via renewable energy expansion.

Check out their opinion on seizing the moment to accelerate the energy transition – not just because it’s “greener” but because it’s the most economically strategic thing to do. It’s already happening. Over in Vietnam, a plan for a new major LNG terminal has just been scrapped while proposals for renewable energy deployment are being considered.

Even South Korean President Lee Jae-myung is saying that fossil fuels can no longer promise stability. That’s because even without the war, all 4 oil importing ports in South Korea are vulnerable to 1m of sea level rise as are major exporting ports in the Middle East – see which ones.

Water security has taken a backseat to energy security concerns. But as threats to bomb desalination plants looms, desal is back in the spotlight leading CWR’s Jamie Chan to ponder whether the Middle East should rethink desal strategies amid rising war & climate risks.

It’s not about how much water is sourced from desal but the number of plants. Heavy reliance on a small number of desal plants brings concentrated risk – our analysis shows Kuwait’s the most exposed. But with desal providing 18-61% of total water usage, are the 7 other countries safe?

Health is another key risk that’s flying under the radar. The Gulf waters are already brewing with heavy metals, PFAS, microplastics and more thanks to a booming petrochemical industry. And now there are also oil spills, missile debris, land mines and so on. Now imagine this toxic soup is processed into your drinking water – yuck. With no end to the war in sight, Chan’s 3 reasons to rethink desal are a must read.

Indeed, health is on our minds this month as back-to-back Typhoons Maysak & Bavi slammed into southern China forcing over 2 million people to evacuate. There was extensive flood damage to Guangxi where floodwaters carried sewage, pesticides and 900 runaway snakes. Not only is the local government working hard to reinstate power, they are also busy preventing the spread of water-borne diseases (cholera, typhoid, malaria & dengue) from stagnant floodwaters. Already, insurance claims for these two typhoons amount to US$1bn.

Floods are here to stay and rising seas make it worse. New research finds that human-driven sea level rise has made extreme coastal flooding 4x more frequent since 1900.

The canary in the coal mine is the Pacific Islands which are rapidly losing land to rising seas. While this eventually leads to stranded assets & financial collapse, it is already taking a toll on people’s health & wellbeing. Sinking hospitals & salty wells are already here… as is the mental trauma of displacement. We give 4 reasons why we must pay attention to sinking Pacific Islands now.

While Hong Kong still “feels safe” from fast rising seas, children and teens are seriously worried about the fate of their homes due to accelerated glacier melt and sea level rise.

This year, CWR collaborated with the HK Arts Centre on its annual student art competition which was glacier-themed to celebrate the UN International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation!

Through collage, students were asked to use their hands to piece together unique works of physical art, all the more important in the age of AI. The competition also came with a sustainable catch – each collage must be made from discarded waste items or scavenged materials.

The final result? Over 100 students aged 3-17 years old stepped up to the challenge and meticulously transformed fragments of waste into powerful visions for our planet’s future.

Among the most striking images was one of a family of four floating away on a cardboard ark as ice caps melted into the rising ocean. Another was penguins crying, screaming “too hot”. Check out these amazing artworks that link what’s happening in Greenland, Antarctica & the Himalayas to our shores, homes & everyday lives.

Art has a wisdom that science cannot touch. Looking at climate challenges through the naive lens of their art makes it all the more poignant. We must step up action to save our cryosphere, our planet.

At this rate, we will face more battles with nature. Typhoons, tornados, floods, fires & heatwaves will continue to be deadly, especially as a Super El Nino is expected this October/ November.

There’s no time to waste – with glaciers & ice sheets melting fast, the newly released 3rd World Ocean Assessment shows that the rate of sea level rise has already doubled within a decade.

It’s time to buckle down this summer and choose health. A healthy cryosphere is a healthy planet and healthy waters are essential for healthy people.