For one day every year, a little before the clocks roll forward into summertime, the State's weather-people try to be more than normally conspicuous. Their objective is to focus public attention on the importance of meteorology to our modern way of life, and the occasion is the annual feast-day of their science, World Meteorological Day, which occurs each year on March 23rd.
The date is chosen to commemorate the day on which the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) was established, 49 years ago on March 23rd, 1950. And just as a bishop suggests to the local parish priests within his diocese themes for each Sunday's homily throughout the year, so too does the secretary general of the WMO lay down for meteorologists what they must talk about if they wish to address the public on this day. We are not told what sanctions await those who disobey the ordinance; perhaps they are banished to a place of perpetual thunderstorms and hail, or condemned, Cassandra-like, to have their forecasts nevermore believed. But I have never known a meteorologist to take the risk, and I do not propose to be the first.
I shall write, therefore, on "Weather, Climate and Health", the prescribed theme for World Meteorological Day, 1999.
The current alarm about impending changes in the global climate, combined with the large number of widely-reported weather-related natural disasters experienced in recent years, has focused new attention on the consequences of climate and weather on the welfare of the human race. In some cases, of course, the effects are obvious: exposure to extreme temperatures, for example, may lead to heat stroke or frost bite. Pollution, like smog and ground-level ozone concentrations, as well as the presence in the air of certain pollens, are linked to acute attacks of asthma and other respiratory problems, and the number of people affected varies with the prevailing winds and the humidity; and storms and floods frequently take their toll of human lives.
But tropical cyclones, droughts, severe floods and abnormal monsoons have crucial secondary effects for human health as well. Food supplies may be destroyed, resulting in malnutrition; supplies of clean, fresh, water may deteriorate; the incidence of infectious diseases may increase where there is a breakdown in sanitation; and there may be damage to local healthcare infrastructures.
The theme of World Meteorological Day celebrations this year provides an opportunity for governments, the public and the media to focus on these risks, and to appreciate that the key to their alleviation lies in close co-operation in every region between the authorities responsible for meteorology, the health professionals, and the other decision-makers on matters affecting human health and welfare.