Temperature-disease network reveals global health risks of climate change

Climate change poses an escalating threat to global public health. However, the diseases related to climate change have not been fully recognized due to the lack of a direct mechanistic link between nonoptimal ambient temperature exposure and human diseases. Here, we present a multi-scale network framework integrating transient receptor potential ion channel biology with human disease interactome to comprehensively delineate the potential impacts of climate change on 299 human diseases. We find the majority of known diseases are closely linked to ambient temperature exposure at the molecular mechanistic level. Our projections indicate that global warming will directly lead to an increase of over 12% in the risks of non-communicable and non-congenital human diseases across over 95% of the world’s inhabited land by the mid-21st century, thereby impacting over 97% of the global population, compared with the early 21st century. Limiting warming to below 2 ℃ this century can effectively control this surge in disease risks. This work uncovers previously unrecognized health risks directly attributable to temperature exposure from climate change, offers a new paradigm for reshaping our understanding of climate-health causality, and provides scalable tools to mitigate climate-driven disease burdens in an increasingly warming world.