Lecture 14: climate change

Question 1

Direct ways climate change effects health

Answer 1

Heat waves 
Floods and storms and draughts 
Water scarcity and quality
Communicable diseases, gated by vectors (insects) 
Air pollution 
Changing agriculture

Question 2

Indirect ways climate change effects health

Answer 2

Migration (climate refugees)
Insecurity
Economic effects

Question 3

Heat ways

Answer 3

Kills thousands every year
India is particularly effected
Since 2010, more people live in cities than not in cities
o Cities have pavements, less tress, therefore you are more susceptible to heat waves
o Increasing local carbon dioxide production

Heave waves kill more than deadly storms

Question 4

Floods and Storms

Answer 4

Affects poor people disproportionately
Most poor countries live adjacent to bodies of water
Places most susceptible to flooding
o Islands, such as the Nile in Egypt, Bangladesh, Marshall and Tuvalu and Maldives

Question 5

Communicable diseases

Answer 5

Growth of swamps have always been cyclical, however now it is not, so we can no longer predict
Clustering people into tighter groups making them more susceptible to things
Dengue zone increasing as vectors move

Question 6

Water Quality and Scarcity

Answer 6

Well water is underwater river system that affect everything
No water in the rural areas, so people rush to the urban slums, same issue and more
Synergistic effects that play into mobility, geography and more

Question 7

Air Pollution

Answer 7

Pollution effects can be local,
The hotter the temperature the higher amount of pollutants will stick around
Exasperating in cities with poor planning

Question 8

Agriculture

Answer 8

Poor agriculture leads to poor nutrition leads to poor health
Insects are changing, so we don’t know what pesticides to use
Building on good land resulting in less land to grow food
Plants are already at their limits of tolerance for environmental conditions

Question 9

Migration

Answer 9

The one that gets politicians interested

Refugee populations are weak and undernourished causing the a health concern

Question 10

Insecurity

Answer 10

War
o South Asian (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh) share one source of water

In Canada, our wealth is primarily built on service,
o A lot of the wealthiest nations are built on a service economy
o We don’t manufacture a lot of things, therefore we don’t need running water

Any time you make interventions in your water supplies (Dams) your effecting other countries and are at risk for conflict

Correlation of war and temperature we think has something to do with water supply

Question 11

Economic Effects

Answer 11

Done for wealthy countries, don’t know the analysis done on poor countries
Coral bleaching done by UV from the sun and the collapse of world’s fisheries

Question 12

Synergistic Effects

Answer 12

Drought causes people to migrate where they are susceptible to new diseases
Floods can cause cholera and diarrhea and damage to infrastructure

Question 13

WHO’s position on climate change

Answer 13

The political force denying climate change is the human involvement piece

Question 14

What is being done

Answer 14

Creating a global fund for analysis so that poor countries can be used as a model
Global disease surveillance
International bodies for managing resources
Research – being able to predict changes in vectors and climate

Question 15

Atlas of Health and Climate

Answer 15

Book in 2020 to show how the world is changing as a result of climate
If you stopped everything right now, temperature will still rise because there is a lag
o Doesn’t mean it is to late, but that it will take a while for it to get better and it might not get better in our lifetime