title: Climate change and human health: impacts, vulnerability, and mitigation.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Haines
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Kovats
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Campbell-Lendrum
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Corvalan
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002980:Climate; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000209:etiology*; D004190:Disasters; D006801:Humans; D009026:Mortality; D011634:Public Health / Q000639:trends*; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors