ESCI 274 Lecture 1: Climate and Health

1. Chemical hazards

2. Physical hazards

3. Biological hazards

4. Cultural hazards

• Includes both artificial and natural chemicals

• Exposure can come from household chemicals such as pesticides

• The sun's ultraviolet radiation is an example

• Too much exposure increases risk of skin cancer

• Exposure to organisms that cause disease

• Some mosquitoes are vectors for certain pathogenic microbes, including those that cause malaria

• Decisions about how we behave as well as constraints pushed on us by socioeconomic factors

• Smoking is a decision that increases the likelihood of cancer.

• The number of animals killed or otherwise affected rises with the dose

• The point at which 50% of animals are killed is labeled lethal dose-50 or LD50.

Below the threshold doses have no measurable effect

• At low doses, the benefits of vitamin A increase with dose

• Until a threshold is reached for no further benefits

• After the threshold is reached if dose continues to increase, negative effects will occur

1. Supporting - Nutrient cycling, soil formation, primary production

2. Provisioning - Food, fresh water, wood and fiber, fuel

3. Regulating - Climate regulation, flood regulation, disease regulation, water purification

4. Cultural - Aesthetic, spiritual, educational, recreational

1. Increase in air pollution related illness

2. Increase in injury, death, and illness from extreme weather events

3. Increase in water-borne diseases

4. Increase in food-borne diseases

5. Vector-borne illness

6. Heat related illness and death

7. Decrease in cold-related deaths

• A popular climatological baseline period is a 30-year "normal" period, as defined by the WMO

• The current WMO normal period is 1961-1990, which provides a standard reference for many impact studies

The point of no return

1. Amazon rainforest - frequent droughts

2. Arctic sea ice – massive losses

3. Atlantic circulation – a slowdown since 1950s

4. Boreal forest – increase in fires

5. Coral reef – mass die-offs

6. Greenland ice sheet – ice loss accelerating

7. Permafrost – melting

8. West Antarctic ice sheet

9. Wilkes basin – east Antarctica ice loss accelerating

(Direct health impacts) - Floods, heatwaves, landslide increased exposure due to UV rays, exposure to pollutants

(Ecosystem mediated health impacts) - Altered infectious disease risk, food yields (malnutrition, stunting), depletion of natural medicine, mental health (personal, community), impacts of aesthetic/ cultural impoverishment

(Indirect, deferred, and displaced health impacts) - Diverse health consequences of livelihood loss, population displacement (including slum dwelling), conflict, inappropriate adapting and migration.