UNEP reports pollution, melting microbes, undamming rivers, risks to elders

By Anjali Sharma

UNITED NATIONS – UN Environmental agency new report issued on Saturday indicated that the environmental experts warned four rapidly emerging threats to elderly people could reshape life for millions unless urgent action is takenin a world increasingly shaped by climate extremes.

The experts at UNEP stated that ancient microbes awakening in melting glaciers to toxic pollutants unleashed by floods, the dangers are no longer distant or theoretical. They are growing.

The Frontiers Report 2025, released by the UNEP highlighted 4 critical areas where environmental degradation intersects with human vulnerability: legacy pollution, melting glacier microbes, undamming rivers and climate risks for an ageing population that is growing.

The report pointed to a grim picture of how climate change is not only altering ecosystems but exposing communities especially the most vulnerable to new and intensifying dangers. Some issues may be local or relatively small-scale issues today, but have the potential to become issues of regional or global concern if not addressed early, the report warned.

UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen said action must be taken “to protect people, nature and economies from threats that will only grow with each passing year”.

The report said that climate scientists stated many glaciers will not survive this century unless action is taking to slow the melting rate caused by climate change.

Those living downstream will face a tide of floods alongside threats posed by reactivated microbes in a warming cryosphere or frozen parts of the Earth.

The report stated that frozen in ice sheets, glaciers and permafrost are bacteria, fungi and viruses. Most are dead, some are dormant and some are active. As global temperatures hit record highs, these microorganisms will become more active in many ecosystems. Even if the melting can be slowed down by mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, efforts must assess and prepare for possible threats from potential pathogens.

The crucial is documenting and preserving cryospheric microorganisms, which can shed light on the history of climate and evolution, help in finding therapies for diseases and develop innovative biotechnologies.

The report cited that in the Colombian Amazon, river water levels have dropped by up to 80% restricting access to drinking water and food supplies, leading to shuttering 130 schools, increasing children’s risk of recruitment, use and exploitation by non-State armed groups and resulting in increased respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases, malaria and acute malnutrition among youngsters under age 5.

According to UNICEF report, the problem is worse in Colombia and other hot spots around the world are the plethora of dams operating at a time when climate change is triggering droughts around the world. Drought is keeping more than 420,000 children out of school in Brazil, Colombia and Peru.

There is a growing need to remove dams and other barriers to rehabilitate river ecosystems, a process increasingly initiated by local communities, Indigenous Peoples, women and youth.

Rivers and streams can recover remarkably once barriers are gone, but other stressors, from pollution to climate change, need to be addressed in parallel. Understanding the restoration outcomes of barrier removal is necessary not only to guide future removals, but also to inform decisions about existing and future barriers.

Older people face increased risks during extreme weather and suffer more from ongoing environmental degradation.

World Meteorological Organization predicts ever more hot weather, the elderly are suffering as seen in rising numbers of deaths and illnesses amid recent heat waves around the world.

The world’s ageing population is growing: the global share of people over 65 years old will rise from 10 per cent in 2024 to 16 per cent by 2050.

Most will live in cities, where they will be exposed to extreme heat and air pollution and experience more frequent disasters.

Older people are more at risk, so effective adaptation strategies will need to evolve to protect these older populations.

Floods have crippled communities in all regions of the world as the number of extreme weather events climb.

The hidden dangers are legacy pollutants that have been secreted into the ground over time and released as extreme rainfall and floods wash away sediments and debris, the report stated.

It noted that the Pakistan floods of 2010, flooding in the Niger Delta in 2012 and Hurricane Harvey off the coast of Texas in 2017 are examples when floodwaters stirred up sediments, releasing heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants.

Experts stressed that evaluating sediments to understand hazards, rethinking flood protection to lean on nature-based solutions and investments in natural remediation of contaminated sediments are all options to deal with this problem.