Radon: Facts, Exposure and Effects
- Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive element
- Radon is heavier and denser than air so often accumulates in basements.
- Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking.
Resources: Climate Change & Health
The Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: from 25 years of inaction to a global transformation for public health
Why it is important:
" tracks progress on health and climate change and provides an independent assessment of the health effects of climate change, the implementation of the Paris Agreement,1 and the health implications of these actions"
Global and regional health effects of future food production under climate change: a modelling study
Why it is important:
"It presents a model that estimates the effects of climate change on agriculture and concludes that "excess mortality attributable to agriculturally mediated changes in dietary and weight-related risk factors by cause of death for 155 world regions in the year 2050."
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World
2017 FAO
Why it is important:
It links the increase of conflict in the nearly past decade to climate related food and resource insecurity:
"The concurrence of conflict and climate-related natural disasters is likely to increase with climate change, as climate change not only threatens food insecurity and malnutrition, but can also contribute to further downward deterioration into conflict, protracted crisis and continued fragility.
"In some cases the root cause of the conflict is competition over natural resources."
Modelling the Health Risks of Climate Change
Workshop Summary(2015)
Why it is important:
It lays out the interrelationship of converging crises that will come into play and require coordinating resources and preparedness
Resources to keep checking:
Reports for Decision Makers in Security & Public Policy
Climate Science Special Report: Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4), Volume I
This 2017 report from the US government includes:
"This assessment concludes, based on extensive evidence, that it is extremely likely that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century. For the warming over the last century, there is no convincing alternative explanation supported by the extent of the observational evidence."
Extreme Weather and Climate Change
The 2017 study by The Centre for Energy and climate solutions presents work that suggests:
"A combination of observed trends, theoretical understanding of the climate system, and numerical modeling demonstrates that global warming is increasing the risk of these types of events today."
Confronting climate change as an accelerator of crisis
"Development in the Arab region has always been complex, but climate change is now acting as an accelerator of fragility, disrupting ecosystems and triggering displacement. Yet despite this growing complexity, decision making remains focused on sectoral, linear approaches. More integrated policies and institutions are needed that address the multi-dimensional nature of risk today"
Climate change: A catalyst for conflict
"The effects of climate change, alongside other social, economic and political components, contribute to the violence with which conflicts are resolved."
Attribution of Extreme Weather Events in the Context of Climate Change
The study links climate change to certain extreme events that decision makers will have to predict and prepare for:
"Warming increases the likelihood of extremely hot days and nights, favors increased atmospheric moisture that may result in more frequent heavy rainfall and snowfall, and leads to evaporation that can exacerbate droughts"
Climate and Social Stress: Implications for Security Analysis(2013)
A study that looks at climate change in the national security and social stress context:
"During the coming decade, certain climate-related events will produce consequences that exceed the capacity of the affected societies or global systems to manage; these may have global security implications"
“potential impacts of climate change on water, energy, and agriculture will make it a central driver of conflict. The impacts of climate change combine to make it a clear threat to collective security and global order in the first half of the 21st Century.” ”
A main driver or an intermediate variable? Climate change, water and security in the Middle East
"The nexus between climate change and violent conflict is at the center of intensifying political and academic debate. Yet research on the extent and strength of this relationship remains inconclusive and much of the literature is largely empirical, lacking a sufficient theoretical underpinning. This study advances a conceptual framework linking climate change induced droughts and conflict, in potentially iterative relations"
Modelling impacts of climate change on global food security
"projections of a rapidly growing population, coupled with global climate change, is expected to have significant negative impacts on food security"
Climate Change & Health
The changing climate, due to global warming, is having serious effects on global health. We highlight what we are already experiencing and what is predicted to get worse.
“Warmer temperatures will speed up the parasite’s development rate and just make the region more suitable for transmission of diseases.”
Vector Borne Diseases
Thanks to a warming climate, disease bearing insects are finding suitably warm habitats further north than their usual borders and are spreading life-threatening illnesses like malaria more easily than before.
Countries will have greater stress placed on their health systems by vector borne diseases and waterborne diseases as the climate allows for their spread in areas unprepared & not resistant to their effects.
Food Security
The warming world is placing great pressure on food production as droughts spread, floods increase and rainfall patterns become unpredictable. The new world will see reduced crop yields and an increase in plant diseases.
In a world whose agriculture was reliant upon the type of climate we have had for centuries, the sudden shifts in climate will outpace possible adaptation. In the meantime violence and humanitarian crises will result from the struggle over dwindling resources.
“All the water sources here dried up four months ago. The pasture has gone too. Water and pasture – these are the two things we pastoralists depend on”
Heat Stress
As heat waves increase and extreme heat puts lives at risk, not only will the health services worldwide be under extreme pressure but energy systems will need to work to improve cooling and building designs will require adjustments and updating.
Photo: Pedro Kümmel
The 2003 European heat wave caused more than 70,000 deaths with 14,802 in France alone.
Climate change already poses grave health risks worldwide, and communities must deal with the social and financial burdens of these effects over the short and long term. Without a clear understanding of the danger posed by climate change and an investment in mitigation and preparedness, many countries will face a series of health related crises.
“The increasing frequency of extreme weather events increases the likelihood of complex emergencies – “disasters within a disaster”.”