Climate change is harming workers globally
Due to global warming, 23 trillion working hours are wasted worldwide every year. Bangladesh is on the list of the ten most-affected countries. The suffering of mass people is arising due to climate change, global warming, and rising temperatures.
The well-known science journal Nature Communications published a research article on the effects of global warming on working people. Researchers from several renowned universities in the United States, including Stanford University, Duke University, and the University of Washington conducted a joint study entitled
“Increased Labor Losses and Decreased Adaptation Potential in a Warmer World,”
The report mentioned that global warming increases daily due to climate change with increasing humidity. Simultaneous warmth and moisture in the environment are harmful to the human body. In such hot weather, the body sweats. Dry sweat reduces the chances of the body cooling down quickly.
In scorching and humid weather, various complications occur in the bodies of farmers and workers working in the open sky. Thus, their productivity decreases. They get sick repeatedly.
Illness also creates the risk of death. The article also accounts for the loss of working hours due to scorching weather. An average of 22,800 crore working hours is lost every year due to overheating.
Its financial value is 28 to 31 thousand 100 million US dollars. The annual loss in Bangladesh is 1,400 crore-labor hours. The per capita loss is 254 working hours. This calculation comes from analyzing the previous two decades’ data until 2020.
However, the report did not mention the financial value of the loss of labor hours in Bangladesh. The bulk of the global economic loss is in low- and middle-income countries, where more physically healthy labor is required.
Especially in the agriculture and construction sector, the loss is more. Researchers fear that the loss of working hours could increase in the coming days if immediate action does not prevent climate change.
