Dr Christian Lueme Lokotola is a planetary and public health medical lecturer and researcher.
Dr Christian Lueme Lokotola
In 2009, the UCL (University College London)-Lancet Commission on Climate Change declared that “climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st Century”. Since then, this statement has become foundational in planetary health and climate-health literature, arguing against any delay to action to protect the planet and safeguard life.The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report (2022) consistently identifies climate change as a severe and escalating threat to human health, food systems, water security, livelihoods, and ecosystems.
Climate change continues to have major impacts on humans, animals and plants. Several major international organisations, commissions, and global health bodies have proclaimed it as either the greatest or one of the greatest global health threats of the 21st century. However, the impact of climate change is often conflated with climate variability, which refers to short- to medium-term fluctuations in weather conditions resulting in El Nino and La Nina events in the Pacific Ocean and volcanic activities. Climate change consists of long-term changes in average climate conditions with periods of frequent and severe abnormal weather conditions lasting from decades to a century.
