CLIMATE CHANGE AND GLOBAL PUBLIC HEALTH

606 Pages·2020·20.273 MB·English

Respiratory Medicine
Series Editors: Sharon I.S. Rounds · Anne Dixon · Lynn M. Schnapp
Kent E. Pinkerton
William N. Rom   Editors
Climate
Change and
Global Public
Health
Second Edition
Respiratory Medicine
Series Editors
Sharon I.S. Rounds
Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Providence, RI 
USA
Anne Dixon
University of Vermont, Larner College of Medicine
Burlington, VT 
USA
Lynn M. Schnapp
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Madison, WI 
USA
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/7665
Kent E. Pinkerton • William N. Rom
Editors
Climate Change and Global
Public Health
Second Edition
Editors
Kent E. Pinkerton William N. Rom
Department of Pediatrics NYU School of Global Public Health
School of Medicine New York University
University of California, Davis New York, NY
Davis, CA USA
USA
ISSN 2197-7372 ISSN 2197-7380 (electronic)
Respiratory Medicine
ISBN 978-3-030-54745-5 ISBN 978-3-030-54746-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54746-2
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Foreword
This 2nd edition of Climate Change and Global Public Health provides a wealth of
new and updated information about the impact of climate change on our planet, our
communities, and our health. Since the 1st edition 5 years ago, the scientific under-
standing of climate change has progressed substantially. Unfortunately, so have the
impacts. Climate change is rapidly becoming one of the most significant public
health crises in human history. We face an increasingly urgent problem that could
claim a quarter million lives annually by 2030 without concerted global action to
rapidly cut greenhouse gas emissions.
As detailed in the most recent IPCC report, the buildup of climate forcing gases
in the atmosphere is accelerating. Seventeen of the 18 hottest years on record have
occurred since 2000. The visible impacts of climate change are increasingly appar-
ent across the planet in the form of heatwaves, drought, catastrophic wildfires, rising
seas, and destructive hurricanes. These increasingly frequent extreme weather
events present acute public heath challenges. At the same time, climate change is
exacerbating the deadly effects of air pollution, especially among vulnerable popu-
lations like children and the elderly.
The last few years have been a mixed bag in terms of our collective response to
the climate crisis. President Obama established the USA as a global leader on cli-
mate action by setting an ambitious national carbon reduction target and put in place
a range of strategies to cut emissions from the energy, transportation, oil and gas,
and agriculture sectors. In 2016, nearly 200 countries signed onto the Paris Accord
pledging to undertake ambitious action to begin driving down emissions in line with
scientifically determined levels.
Unfortunately, much of this progress has slowed or altogether halted since the
election of President Trump. The Trump Administration has waged an all-out assault
on climate science and is actively working to undermine efforts to cut greenhouse
gas emissions despite the overwhelming economic and scientific rationale to do so.
In the absence of US leadership, a number of major global actors have also wavered
in their commitments.
However, despite the Trump Administration’s failure to take action, a growing
number of states across the country are moving ahead. For example, the United
v
vi Foreword
States Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of states that represent more than half
of the US population and a combined economy that is the third largest in the world,
are working across a range of sectors to cut greenhouse gas emissions in line with
the Paris Accord.
As we wait for renewed political leadership at the federal level, California con-
tinues to stand out as a leader in demonstrating ways to tackle climate change and
grow our economy. Over the past decade, California’s economic growth has out-
paced the national average while at the same time cutting greenhouse gas emissions
ahead of schedule. The Golden State is proof that smart climate policy is also smart
economic policy.
This book presents a sobering assessment of the impact that climate change is
already having on public health. By effectively making this connection, it provides
a strong tool that we can use to mobilize action across the planet to take on this
challenge.
Sacramento, CA, USA Mary D. Nichols
Contents
1 Introduction: Consequences of Global Warming to Planetary
and Human Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
William N. Rom and Kent E. Pinkerton
2 Climate Variability and Change Data and Information for Global
Public Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Juli M. Trtanj and Tamara G. Houston
3 Climate Change: Updates on Recent Global and United States
Temperature Anomalies and Impacts to Water, Forests,
and Environmental Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
David H. Levinson and Christopher J. Fettig
4 Eyewitness to Climate Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Will Steger and Nicole Rom
5 Arctic Connections to Global Warming and Health . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
M. Torre Jorgenson and Janet C. Jorgenson
6 Assessing the Health Risks of Climate Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Kristie L. Ebi
7 Heat Waves and Rising Temperatures: Human Health Impacts
and the Determinants of Vulnerability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Helene G. Margolis
8 Climate, Air Quality, and Allergy: Emerging Methods for Detecting
Linkages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Patrick L. Kinney, Perry E. Sheffield, and Kate R. Weinberger
9 The Human Health Co-benefits of Air Quality Improvements
Associated with Climate Change Mitigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
George D. Thurston and Michelle L. Bell
vii
viii Contents
10 Asthma, Hay Fever, Pollen, and Climate Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Anthony Szema, Jonathan Li, Ashlee Pagnotta, Malvika Singh,
and Jo’ Ale White
11 California and Climate Changes: An Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Rupa Basu
12 Vector-Borne Diseases in a Changing Climate and World . . . . . . . . . 253
Yesim Tozan, Ora Lee H. Branch, and Joacim Rocklöv
13 Dengue Fever and Climate Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
Lauren Cromar and Kevin Cromar
14 Climate Variability and Change: Food, Water, and Societal
Impacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Jonathan A. Patz
15 Hurricanes and Health: Vulnerability in an Age of Climate
Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Alexis A. Merdjanoff and Rachael Piltch-Loeb
16 The Impact of Climate Change and Extreme Weather Conditions
on Agricultural Health and Safety in California . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Heather E. Riden, Emily Felt, and Kent E. Pinkerton
17 Household Air Pollution from Cookstoves: Impacts on Health and
Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
William J. Martin II, Tara Ramanathan,
and Veerabhadran Ramanathan
18 Biomass Fuel and Lung Diseases: An Indian Perspective . . . . . . . . . . 391
Rajendra Prasad, Rajiv Garg, and Nikhil Gupta
19 Climate Change and Women’s Health: Risks and Opportunities . . . 403
Cecilia J. Sorensen and John Balbus
20 The Impact of Climate Change on Public Health in Small
Island States and Caribbean Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
Muge Akpinar-Elci and Hugh Sealy
21 Global Climate Change, Desertification, and Its Consequences
in Turkey and the Middle East. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Hasan Bayram and Ayşe Bilge Öztürk
22 Climate Change and the Risk of Desertification with a Focus
in the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
Huda Asif and Mehdi Mirsaeidi
23 Federal Programs in Climate Change and Health Research . . . . . . . 483
Cecilia J. Sorensen, Caitlin Rublee, and John Balbus
Contents ix
24 Management of Climate Change Adaptation at the United States
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
Jeremy J. Hess, Gino Marinucci, Paul J. Schramm, Arie Manangan,
and George Luber
25 Rules, Rulings, and Repeals: The Shifting State of Climate Policy at
U.S. EPA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
Jack Lienke
26 California’s Integrated Approach to Air Quality and Climate
Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541
John R. Balmes
27 Climate Change and Public Health Interventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549
Kathryn C. Conlon and Chelsea M. Austin
28 Integrating Climate Change, the Environment, and Sustainability
Themes Into Professional Health Sciences Courses: A Case Study
Across a University System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 565
Tammy Nicastro, Arianne Teherani, Helene G. Margolis,
and Sheri Weiser
29 The Physician’s Response to Climate Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
Mary B. Rice and Alexander S. Rabin
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593
Contributors
Muge Akpinar-Elci, MD, MPH Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA
Huda Asif, MD Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, University of Miami,
Miami, FL, USA
Chelsea M. Austin, MPH Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Yale
School of Public Health, New Haven, CT, USA
John Balbus, MD, MPH National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences,
Bethesda, MD, USA
John R. Balmes, MD University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
Rupa Basu, PhD, MPH Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, Air
and Climate Epidemiology Section, Oakland, CA, USA
Hasan Bayram, MD, PhD Department of Pulmonary Medicine, Koc University
School of Medicine, Koc University Research Center for Translational Medicine
(KUTTAM), İstanbul, Turkey
Michelle  L.  Bell, PhD School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale
University, New Haven, CT, USA
Ora Lee H. Branch, PhD Department of Research, College of Health & Human
Services, Concordia University, Portland, OR, USA
Kathryn C. Conlon, PhD, MPH Department of Public Health Sciences, University
of California Davis, Davis, CA, USA
Kevin Cromar, PhD Marron Institute of Urban Management, New York University,
New York, NY, USA
Lauren Cromar, MS Tahoe Consulting, LLC, North Salt Lake, UT, USA
Kristie L. Ebi, PhD, MPH University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA
Emily Felt, MPP Center for Health and the Environment, University of California,
Davis, Davis, CA, USA
xi