Climate change and human health: impacts, vulnerability, and mitigation.
It is now widely accepted that climate change is occurring as a result of the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere arising from the combustion of fossil fuels. Climate change may affect health through a range of pathways--eg, as a result of increased frequency and intensity of heat waves, reduction in cold-related deaths, increased floods and droughts, changes in the distribution of vector-borne diseases, and effects on the risk of disasters and malnutrition. The overall balance of effects on health is likely to be negative and populations in low-income countries are likely to be particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects. The experience of the 2003 heat wave in Europe shows that high-income countries might also be adversely affected. Adaptation to climate change requires public-health strategies and improved surveillance. Mitigation of climate change by reducing the use of fossil fuels and increasing the use of a number of renewable energy technologies should improve health in the near term by reducing exposure to air pollution.
Haines
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London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
Kovats
R S
RS
Campbell-Lendrum
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Corvalan
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C
D000368:Aged; D002980:Climate; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D004190:Disasters; D006801:Humans; D009026:Mortality; D011634:Public Health / Q000639:trends*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors