Jonathan A. Patz1,2, Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum3, Tracey Holloway1 and Jonathan A. Foley1
1Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies
2the Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin, 1710 University Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53726, USA
3Department of Protection of the Human Environment, World Health Organization, Geneva, Avenue Appia, Geneva CH-1211, Switzerland.
3Department of Protection of the Human Environment, World Health Organization, Geneva, Avenue Appia, Geneva CH-1211, Switzerland.
The World Health Organisation estimates that the warming and precipitation trends due to anthropogenic climate change of the past 30 years already claim over 150,000 lives annually. Many prevalent human diseases are linked to climate fluctuations, from cardiovascular mortality and respiratory illnesses due to heatwaves, to altered transmission of infectious diseases and malnutrition from crop failures. Uncertainty remains in attributing the expansion or resurgence of diseases to climate change, owing to lack of long-term, high-quality data sets as well as the large influence of socio-economic factors and changes in immunity and drug resistance. Here we review the growing evidence that climate–health relationships pose increasing health risks under future projections of climate change and that the warming trend over recent decades has already contributed to increased morbidity and mortality in many regions of the world. Potentially vulnerable regions include the temperate latitudes, which are projected to warm disproportionately, the regions around the Pacific and Indian oceans that are currently subjected to large rainfall variability due to the El Nin˜o/Southern Oscillation sub-Saharan Africa and sprawling cities where the urban heat island effect could intensify extreme climatic events.
สอบถามข้อมูลเพิ่มเติม: Jonathan A. Patz Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (SAGE), Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, and the Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin, 1710 University Avenue, Madison, Wisconsin 53726, USA