Global Climate Change and Human Health

From Science to Practice

Jay Lemery, Kim Knowlton, Cecilia Sorensen

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781119669999
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Public Health, Administration & Care

Learn more about the impact of global warming and climate change on human health and disease

The Second Edition of Global Climate Change and Human Health delivers an accessible and comprehensive exploration of the rapidly accelerating and increasingly ubiquitous effects of climate change and global warming on human health and disease. The distinguished and accomplished authors discuss the health impacts of the economic, climatological, and geopolitical effects of global warming.

You'll learn about:

• The effect of extreme weather events on public health and the effects of changing meteorological conditions on human health
• How changes in hydrology impact the spread of waterborne disease and noninfectious waterborne threats
• Adaptation to, and the mitigation and governance of, climate change, including international perspectives on climate change adaptation

Perfect for students of public health, medicine, nursing, and pharmacy, Global Climate Change and Human Health, Second Edition is an invaluable resource for anyone with an interest in the intersection of climate and human health and disease.

CHAPTER 1
PRIMER ON CLIMATE SCIENCE

Christopher K. Uejio, James D. Tamerius, Yoonjung Ahn, and Elaina Gonsoroski

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KEY CONCEPTS

• Climate scientists state that the evidence is unequivocal; increasing global temperatures and climate change in the past century are due to human caused emissions of greenhouse gases.
• Human activities have increased the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which have augmented the greenhouse effect and increased average global temperatures by approximately 0.9°C (1.6°F) since the 1850s.
• Average global temperatures are expected to increase between approximately 0.8°C and 4.9°C (1.4°F and 8.8°F) by the end of this century, and there will likely be an increase in extreme heat events associated with climate change.
• The hydrologic cycle is changing, and extreme rainfall events will likely become more intense and frequent.
• Snow, glaciers, and sea ice cover are decreasing, and the average global sea level will continue to rise.

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The notion that carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions could accumulate in the Earth's atmosphere and increase global surface temperatures was first proposed in the nineteenth century. In 1856, U.S. scientist Eunice Newton Foote theorized that altering atmospheric CO₂ could change the earth's temperature (Foote 1856). However, the idea was mostly forgotten until rising global temperatures in the middle of the twentieth century sparked renewed interest in the hypothesis.

In the late 1950s, David Keeling began measuring the atmospheric concentration of CO₂ at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. The remote location of this observatory is minimally affected by local CO₂ sources and thus best reflects an average global atmospheric CO₂ level. Over decades, repeated measurements at Mauna Loa have shown a consistent upward trend in the concentration of atmospheric CO₂. Indeed, this atmospheric concentration has increased more than 40 percent—from 280 parts per million (ppm) to 405 ppm—since the dawn of the industrial revolution (Siegenthaler and Oeschger 1987). This increase is consistent with the quantity of CO₂ emitted into the atmosphere by humans through the burning of fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and natural gas, and it continues to grow. Worldwide average fossil fuels and industrial CO₂ emissions increased from 3.1 gigatons of carbon (GtC) per year in the 1960s to an average of 9.3 GtC per year over 2006–2015 (Le Quéré et al. 2016).

Scientific Consensus

As a result of increasingly complex mathematical models of climatologic processes and the development of techniques to study past climates, there is now unequivocal evidence among climate scientists that the altered composition of the atmosphere because of emissions of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases (GHG) from human activities is causing an increase in mean global temperatures. An analysis of 11,944 peer-reviewed global warming studies published between 1991 and 2011 found that 97.7 percent of the studies stated that humans are causing global warming (Oreskes 2004; Cook et al. 2013). The science that has shaped this consensus is synthesized by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a nonpartisan intergovernmental organization that was created in 1988 and was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. The IPCC performs periodic assessments on the status of climate change science, potential impacts, and mitigation (strategies to limit and or remove GHG) and adaptation (actions to increase the resilience of social and ecologic systems).

The IPCC reports reflect the evolving state of climate science. The IPCC (1990) stated that “the unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect from observations is not likely for a decade or more.” In the Third Assessment (IPCC 2001), the panel concluded that there was better evidence that human activities were responsible for the majority of the observed temperature increases. The Fourth Assessment Report (IPCC 2007) collectively determined with “very high confidence” (very low uncertainty) that human activities have increased global temperatures over the past fifty years. Over five hundred scientists and two thousand reviewers voluntarily contributed to the report. The Fifth Assessment (IPCC 2013) issued the strongest statement that observed warming in the past fifty years was “unequivocal.” By comparison, the strength of this scientific consensus is similar to the evidence linking smoking to carcinogens and the development of cancer (Shwed and Bearman 2010).

This book examines the climatologic processes that affect human health. This chapter, however, focuses on the physical processes associated with climate change to provide a foundation for subsequent discussions. In particular, we clarify how greenhouse gases alter the Earth's energy balance and describe recent climate trends and projections of future climate change. In addition, we present multiple converging lines of evidence that support that the climate is indeed changing and that the changes are primarily caused by human activities.

Weather, Climate Variability, Climate Change, and Scientific Theory

It is important to distinguish the differences between short-term weather changes, natural climate variability, and long-term climate change. People are intricately familiar with short-term weather changes in atmospheric conditions from their everyday experiences. However, it can be difficult to sense changes to the climate because of its relatively slow progression amidst the background of natural climatic fluctuations. Confusion about these concepts leads to common misconceptions and incorrect interpretations and conclusions regarding climate change.

We experience weather—the state of the atmosphere at any given moment in time—through changes in temperature, humidity, precipitation, cloudiness, and wind. Although weather may change from moment to moment, weather events such as storms may last from several hours to several days. Specific locations around the world tend to experience relatively unique weather patterns based on features of latitude, proximity to large water bodies, and unique terrain (e.g., mountains). Collectively these features and the general circulation of the Earth's atmosphere and oceans shape a location's climate. Climate can be defined as the long-term average weather patterns for a specific region. More colloquially, Robert Heinlein (1973) stated, “Climate is what on an average we may expect; weather is what we actually get.” J. Marshall Shepherd, former president of the American Meteorological Society, analogously stated, “Weather is your mood and climate is your personality.” A more precise, operational climate definition is the average weather conditions over a period of thirty to fifty years.

Climate change als...

Table of contents

• COVER
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT
• DEDICATION
• PREFACE
• FOREWORD: CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE PANDEMIC
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• THE EDITORS
• THE CONTRIBUTORS
• COMMENTARY ON COVID-19, CLIMATE CHANGE, AND HUMAN HEALTH
• CHAPTER 1: PRIMER ON CLIMATE SCIENCE
• CHAPTER 2: CLIMATE-RELATED DISASTERS: THE ROLE OF PREVENTION FOR MANAGING HEALTH RISK
• CHAPTER 3: HEALTH IMPACTS OF EXTREME HEAT
• CHAPTER 4: CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS ON THE HYDROLOGIC CYCLE AND WATERBORNE DISEASES
• CHAPTER 5: DEGRADED AIR QUALITY
• CHAPTER 6: POTENTIAL RISKS FROM CYANOBACTERIAL AND ALGAL BLOOMS
• CHAPTER 7: CLIMATE CHANGE, CARBON DIOXIDE, AND PUBLIC HEALTH: THE PLANT BIOLOGY PERSPECTIVE
• CHAPTER 8: CLIMATE AND ITS IMPACTS ON VECTOR-BORNE DISEASES
• CHAPTER 9: FOOD SYSTEMS TRANSFORMATION: TOWARD SUSTAINABLE AND HEALTHY DIETS FOR ALL
• CHAPTER 10: CLIMATE CHANGE AND POPULATION MENTAL HEALTH
• CHAPTER 11: WORKER HEALTH
• CHAPTER 12: WOMEN'S HEALTH AND CLIMATE CHANGE: THE IMPACT OF GENDER
• CHAPTER 13: CLIMATE MODELING FOR HEALTH IMPACTS
• CHAPTER 14: CLIMATE AND HEALTH VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENTS: NEW APPROACHES AND TOOLS FOR ADAPTATION PLANNING
• CHAPTER 15: CLIMATE CHANGE HEALTH IMPACT PROJECTIONS: LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE
• CHAPTER 16: PROTECTING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE COMMUNITIES FROM THE DETRIMENTAL IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE
• CHAPTER 17: CLIMATE CHANGE COMMUNICATION
• CHAPTER 18: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON CLIMATE CHANGE ADAPTATION
• CHAPTER 19: HEALTH CO-BENEFITS OF CLIMATE MITIGATION STRATEGIES
• CHAPTER 20: INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND GLOBAL GOVERNANCE ON CLIMATE CHANGE
• CHAPTER 21: CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE RIGHT TO HEALTH
• CHAPTER 22: CLIMATE CHANGE AND DISASTER RISK REDUCTION
• CHAPTER 23: CLIMATE CHANGE AND FORCED MIGRATION
• CHAPTER 24: VALUING CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS ON HUMAN HEALTH
• CHAPTER 25: HEALTH CARE SYSTEM RESILIENCE
• CHAPTER 26: HEALTH PROFESSIONAL CLIMATE ENGAGEMENT
• CHAPTER 27: SPECIFIC IMPACTS UPON HUMAN HEALTH
• CHAPTER 28: CLIMATE CHANGE AND LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY
• CHAPTER 29: ECOSYSTEM SERVICES
• CHAPTER 30: CLIMATE CHANGE AND HEALTH IN ALASKA: HOW DO THINGS COMPARE WITH THE “LOWER 48”?
• CHAPTER 31: THE GLOBAL ENERGY TRANSITION AND PUBLIC HEALTH IN A CHANGING CLIMATE
• LOSS OF THE WORLD'S CORAL REEFS AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR HUMAN HEALTH AND WELL-BEING: THREATS TO SEAFOOD SECURITY, NUTRITION, DISEASE RISK, PHYSICAL HAZARDS, AND LIVELIHOODS
• THE NURSES CLIMATE CHALLENGE: A MODEL FOR HEALTH PROFESSIONAL CLIMATE ACTION
• GLOSSARY
• INDEX
• END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT