News Desk :
In a pioneering research conducted recently revealed some 1 billion people of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable regions can be put back into risk of malaria transmission impacted by solar radiation management (SRM) geoengineering aimed at reducing global warming.
The research was conducted by scientists from icddr,b and other international research institutions and the study was published on April 20 in Nature Communications titled “Solar geoengineering could redistribute malaria risk in developing countries”, said iccdr’b in a press release on Thursday, reports UNB.
A team of eight researchers from the United States, Bangladesh, South Africa, and Germany conducted the research to understand how SRM geoengineering could impact some of the world’s most vulnerable tropical countrieswith the burden of infectious diseases.
Colin Carlson, PhD, an assistant research professor at the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center has led the research team.
Geoengineering means large-scale interventions in how the planet works to slow down or reverse the effects of climate change.
The study focuses on SRM, a hypothetical emergency intervention aimed at reducing the dangerous impacts of climate change by injecting aerosols into the stratosphere that reflect incoming sunlight as a possible to temporarily “pause” to global warming.
Though SRM is often discussed as a way to reduce climate injustice, its potential impacts on health have barely been studied.
“In a planet that’s too hot for humans, it also gets too hot for the malaria parasite. Cooling the planet might be an emergency option to save lives, but it would also reverse course on those declines,” said Carlson.
Mohammad Shafiul Alam, PhD, a Malaria specialist and Scientist at icddr,b said, “The study revealed that if such techniques are implemented, it may cut both ways: some countries will benefit and other countries will suffer.”
Carlson said that one of the most surprising findings was the scale of potential trade-offs between regions. The authors found that geoengineering might substantially reduce malaria risk in the Indian subcontinent even compared to the present day.
However, that protective effect would be offset by an increase in risk in Southeast Asia. For decision-makers, this might complicate the geopolitical reality of climate intervention.
“We’re so early in this process that the conversation is still about increasing Global South leadership in geoengineering research. Our study highlights that the frontlines of climate injustice aren’t one monolithic bloc, especially when it comes to health,” he added.
The team of researchers used climate models to simulate what malaria transmission could look like in two future scenarios, with medium or high levels of global warming, with and without geoengineering.
The models identify which temperatures are most conducive for transmission by the Anopheles mosquito vectors, and identify how many people live in areas where transmission is possible.
