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Global Health Final Paper: China and Climate Change Regarding COVID-19

Courtney Vaughan

Department of Public Health, UNF

NGR 6894: Global Health Care and Culture

Dr. Paul

Jul. 24th, 2020

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China is located in East Asia and is the largest country in Asia that also covers 1/14th of

the land mass in the globe (Keightley & Zürcher, 2020). The major cities in China include

Shanghai, which is responsible for most industrial business, and Hong Kong, which is

responsible for commercial center and port (Keightley & Zürcher, 2020). China has a very

versatile climate with the greatest contrast in temperature with many different plant and animal

species across the country and has the highest and lowest point on earth. (Keightley & Zürcher,

2020). The population consist of 1,394,015,977 people, which is the largest population globally

(The World Factbook: China, 2018). With the largest population globally and a large industrial

export leaves this country vulnerable to contributing high numbers of emissions into the air and

being affected firsthand. Contributing these emissions into the air not only can affect climate

change but can affect the health of the population. Another factor to consider with climate

change is the recent events of COVID-19. COVID-19 has provide not only short-term benefits

on the environment status of China but also can result in long term benefits on the health impacts

(Sommer, 2020).

Climate change is ranked the world’s number 1 health challenge that we will face within

the next decade (The 13 biggest threats to global health, according to WHO, 2020). Deaths

relating to pollution from the air claims 7 million of the global population annually and the

pollution can also be responsible for 25% of the deaths that occur due to chronic respiratory

disease, heart attack, lung cancer, and stroke (The 13 biggest threats to global health, according

to WHO, 2020). China’s air pollution has resulted in more the 1 million premature deaths among

their population and can produce fine particle pollution that can enter a person’s body causing

health issue (Sommer, 2020). Climate change has also been thought to increase the spread of

infectious disease and can even add to the malnutrition disparity we see in developing countries
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(The 13 biggest threats to global health, according to WHO, 2020).China has been a huge

contributor when it comes to the effect on the globe and its emissions. The effect that climate

change has had on China is causing a health burden on this population due to the air pollution

(Hong et al., 2019).This can result in a “climate-driven air pollution mortality” and “find that

future climate change is likely to exacerbate air pollution mortality, largely influenced by the

more intense extreme events such as stagnation events and heat waves” (Hong et al., 2019). In

the recent years, China has had health impacts due to climate change regarding serve and

persistent haze pollution (He et al., 2020). China is also recorded to have high levels of

particulate matter that result directly from the “emissions and complex interactions between

meteorology, pollution sources, and atmospheric boundary layer processes” (He et al., 2020).

Climate change in China has also resulted in extreme weather, which can also lead to direct and

indirect health effects (Kan, 2011). The healthcare system in China struggles with the effect of

air pollution and high temperatures on their population. This is where we can see the barriers for

human health, due to the increased risk of disease, especially in respiratory health. As a primary

care provider, we can see increase numbers in the population experiencing adverse health effects

from climate change. Temperatures in China also affects the lives of this population because they

can result in higher mortality during these extreme temperatures (Kan, 2011). This increase

mortality can also be attributed to the respiratory health issues that people in this population

might face which could be amplified or resulted from the pollution in China’s air (Kan, 2011).

We can see a change in the pollution and the impact on a global scale that COVID-19 had

regarding climate change. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, activity among countries and its

populations has decreased, therefore it decreased the amount of pollution emissions. Since

COVID-19 has swept the globe, nitrogen levels have decreased by 30% and air pollution levels
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decreased by almost a quarter due to the closing of power plants and industrial facilities

(Sommer, 2020). There has also been estimates of China’s carbon emissions decreasing by a

quarter during this time period (Sommer, 2020). With the improvement of the air then a

reduction in health-related problems (Sommer, 2020). This also brings the benefit of less stress

on the health care system and the population itself (Sommer, 2020). COVID-19 forced

populations to stay inside and take precaution with face mask requirement, that could also be

beneficial for the health of China’s population. Unfortunately, once everything starts to reopen

and businesses start producing products again, the pollution that China once was emitting will

increase back to its original place or even higher (Sommer, 2020). This is a direct result in China

trying to make up for its economic loss during the time of COVID-19 (Sommer, 2020). This time

during COVID-19 is simulating a global air pollution experiment by stopping the major air

pollutant sources and transport (Monks, 2020). China alone had over a half a billion people who

were quarantine and in lockdown (Monks, 2020). They have made assumptions that air quality

could remain this good if we switch to more energy efficient methods for our transportation i.e.

electric cars (Monks, 2020).

In the future we hope to continue this decrease of the effect that China’s population has

on climate change. Barriers for achieving lower numbers of pollution emissions in China can be

related to a bunch of different aspects. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has given us numbers that

we’ve always wanted to achieve and shows the need for intervention. The lockdown affect is the

direct result in the lower numbers and once lockdowns are fully no longer in effect, we expect to

see the numbers return to normal. However, we should learn from this and seek out clean energy

and more electric-based energies or the continuation of China and it’s admissions will increase

every year. Another consideration for the decrease in adverse health effects pertaining to
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pollution can be resulted in the mandate of mask wearing. Before coronavirus a majority of

China’s population would wear masks to protect their health from the air pollution. So now it

could be unclear if the health impact COVID-19 has brought death and destruction globally but

we must see the silver lining. With COVID-19 hanging over our heads still, we have seen

improvements of climate change in China. To improve China’s overall health continued research

and intervention need to be continued. If these are not continued then China will become

vulnerable to “more serve heat waves and decreased food security” (Hong et al., 2019). This

paper did have its limitations however due to the lack of evidence-based studies since this has

occurred so recent. We hope that efforts in finding cleaner energy and increased research on how

to decrease these emissions. Like stated earlier with the decrease in pollution that we saw during

COVID-19, efforts should be focused to continue the decline of pollution in this population.

Also, since China is one of the biggest export regions with the largest population producing the

highest emissions of pollution, we should start here.

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References:

The 13 biggest threats to global health, according to WHO. (2020). Retrieved July 23, 2020,

from https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2020/01/15/who-health-challenge

Kan, H. (2011, February). Climate change and human health in China. Retrieved July 23, 2020,

from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3040620/

Keightley, D., & Zürcher, E. (2020, July 21). China. Retrieved July 23, 2020, from

https://www.britannica.com/place/China

He, H., Wang, H., Guan, Z., Chen, H., Fu, Q., Wang, M., . . . Zhang, D. (2020, May 01).

Facilitating International Collaboration on Climate Change Research. Retrieved July 23,

2020, from https://journals.ametsoc.org/bams/article/101/5/E650/345610

Hong, C., Zhang, Q., Zhang, Y., Davis, S., Tong, D., Zheng, Y., . . . Schellnhuber, H. (2019,

August 27). Impacts of climate change on future air quality and human health in China.

Retrieved July 23, 2020, from https://www.pnas.org/content/116/35/17193

Sommer, L. (2020, March 04). Why China's Air Has Been Cleaner During The Coronavirus

Outbreak. Retrieved July 23, 2020, from

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/03/04/811019032/why-chinas-air-has-

been-cleaner-during-the-coronavirus-outbreak
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Monks, P. (2020, April 20). Here's how lockdowns have improved air quality around the world.

Retrieved July 23, 2020, from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/04/coronavirus-

lockdowns-air-pollution

The World Factbook: China. (2018, February 01). Retrieved July 23, 2020, from

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html