Climate change: Its importance to global health and its solutions

• Main Author: LePore, Elizabeth
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: JayScholar 2018
• Subjects: climate change; global health; environmental health; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://jayscholar.etown.edu/otstu/18; https://jayscholar.etown.edu/context/otstu/article/1013/viewcontent/auto_convert.pdf

Recently, the WHO described climate change as the most important human health issue of the 21st century, and with good reason. Climate change has many human health impacts including increased risk of disease, increased flooding, more frequent and intense storms and hurricanes, increased temperature, more frequent and intense heat waves, food insecurity, water scarcity, rising sea level, and ocean acidification. Not everyone will be equally impacted by climate change; the most vulnerable populations will be most at risk of the effects of climate change. Moving forward, climate change must be combatted by a combination of mitigation and adaptation strategies. Mitigation is decreasing climate change itself, usually through lowering CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions. Adaptation is learning to live with the effects of climate change, such as how to monitor and control climate-sensitive diseases. Some places more impacted by climate change have already implemented mitigation and adaptation policies to varying degrees of success.