Dozens of protesters invaded the restricted area of the UN climate summit in Belém (COP30) on Tuesday to protest against the impact of global warming on people’s health.
The participants bypassed the security arches and entered the lobby of the large tent administered by the UN in which the climate negotiations take place at night.
This caused a scene of chaos because just at that moment many members of the national delegations were preparing to leave the premises.
After a few minutes, the UN security team expelled the protesters from the area.
“The climate crisis is a health crisis!” chanted the participants of the march, among whom were health professionals and Amazonian indigenous people.
In few regions is the impact of climate change on health felt more than in the Amazon, where Belém is located and which in 2024 was hit by a historic drought, aggravated by multiple fires.
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Cases of respiratory diseases and also dengue fever increased, since rising temperatures accelerate the reproduction of mosquitoes that transmit the virus.
“I lived for decades in Belém and never had dengue; now everyone gets it… it has become an urban disease,” protester Lena Peres, a 63-year-old infectious disease specialist who works for the Brazilian Ministry of Health, told EFE.
Peres added that global warming has been accompanied by a greater proliferation of cardiovascular and kidney diseases, which is why he concluded that “the connection between climate change and health can no longer be ignored.”
The blow is also felt thousands of kilometers north of the Amazon, in cold countries like Canada, where family doctor Melissa Lem has to deal with the effect on her patients of increasingly intense fire seasons.
“During these times, there are more asthma attacks and cases of diabetes,” explained this professional who chairs the Canadian Association of Doctors for the Environment and who has traveled from Vancouver to participate in COP30 accompanied by her stethoscope.
In this scenario, the doctors who participated in the protest defended stopping the extraction of fossil fuels, the main cause of global warming, but they also pointed to the need for short-term solutions to face what is already a reality.
To prevent respiratory diseases, masks and isolation inside homes; for tropical viruses such as dengue, the innovative Wolbachia method, which consists of introducing a bacteria into mosquitoes that prevents them from reproducing the virus.
Others, such as the Argentine doctor Sergio Sosa-Estaní, director for Latin America of DNDi, an NGO dedicated to scientific research, are committed to strengthening health surveillance systems and developing accessible medications for underserved populations.
“Authorities are just becoming aware of the climate impact on health; it is something that must be part of the adaptation agenda,” he said.
With information from EFE.
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