Environmental Health Impacts of Global Climate Change

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Environmental Health Impacts of Global Climate
Change

• Crispin Pierce, Ph.D.
• piercech_at_uwec.edu
• Environmental Public Health Program

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Outline

• Global Human Environmental Threats
• Experiment Challenge
• Direct Human Effects
• Heat deaths
• Adverse weather events
• Costs of extreme weather events
• Relationship Between Climate Change and Other
  Environmental Issues

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• Associated Climate Changes and Surprises
• Flooding of Low-Lying Areas
• Spread of Waterborne Diseases
• Climate Change and Food Production
• Effects on Plant and Animal Communities
• Phenology
• Greening of the North
• Coral Bleaching
• Species Extinction
• Benefits of Stabilizing CO2 Concentrations

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Global Human Environmental Threats

1. Overpopulation
2. Global Climate Change
3. Loss of Biodiversity

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Experimental Challenge

• A reporter for the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram
  contacts you for information on an article
  concerning global warming. She asks you the
  question, If air and sea temperatures rise, will
  the melting of icebergs lead to sea level
  increases? What is your response.
• Use the materials in front of you (ice cubes, a
  graduated cylinder, and a water faucet), how
  would you test your answer?

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Direct Human Effects

• Hotter, Drier Summers and Warmer, Wetter Winters
• Increased Adverse Weather Events
• Property and Crop Losses

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Quick Quiz

• About how many people in Europe died during the
  heat wave of 2003?
• 350
• 3,500
• 35,000
• Heat is the primary cause of weather-related
  deaths.

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Adverse Weather Events

• Increased Sea Surface Temperatures and Greater
  Hurricane Intensity (Science 16 September
  2005Vol. 309. no. 5742, pp. 1844 - 1846)
• Net Hurricane Power Dissipation Highly Correlated
  with Tropical Sea Surface Temperature (Nature
  advance online publication published online 31
  July 2005 doi 10.1038/nature03906)

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Costs of Extreme Weather Events
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Relationship Between Climate Change and Other
Environmental Issues

• The complex effects of warming of our atmosphere,
  water, and soil are very difficult to measure and
  predict.
• Accumulation of evidence from many fields, such
  as chemistry, biology, geology, and environmental
  health is essential.
• The accumulated evidence provides a clearer and
  clearer picture of whats going on.

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Associated Climate Changes

• Global sea-level has increased 1-2 mm/yr in 100
  years a rise in sea level between 3.5 and 34.6
  in. (9-88 cm) is expected
• Duration of ice cover of rivers and lakes
  decreased by 2 weeks in N. Hemisphere
• Arctic ice has thinned substantially, decreased
  in extent by 10-15

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• Reduced permafrost in polar, sub-polar,
  mountainous regions
• Growing season lengthened by 1-4 days in N.
  Hemisphere
• Retreat of continental glaciers on all continents
• Snow cover decreased by 10 (reduced solar
  reflection)

Source Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, 2001 Report
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Since 1979, the size of the summer polar ice cap
has shrunk more than 20 percent. (Illustration
from NASA) (http//www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/qth
inice.asp)
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Climate Surprises

• Slowing of the ocean thermohaline circulation

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• Breakoff of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet

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Flooding of Low-Lying Coastal Areas
Source U.S. National Assessment, 2000.
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Kennedy Space Center
Impact of a 1-m rise in sea level on low-lying
areas
Areas subjected to Inundation with a 1 m (3 ft)
rise in sea level
Miami
Source Corell, R. W., 2004 Impacts of a
warming Arctic. Arctic Climate Impact Assessment
(www.acia.uaf.edu) Cambridge University Press
(www.cambridge.org).
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Who Will be First Affected?

• AOSIS is a coalition of small island and
  low-lying coastal countries, including Africa,
  Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, Pacific,
  South China Sea
• These countries share risk factors for
  warming-induced disasters
• Small physical size
• Surrounded by large expanses of ocean
• Relative isolation
• Limited natural resources
• Growing populations
• Exposure to damaging natural disasters
• Low economic diversification
• Limited funds, human resources, skills

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• Rising sea levels will cause
• Displacement of coastal communities
• Disturbance of agricultural activity
• Coastal erosion, beach loss, decline in tourism
• Intrusion of sea water into freshwater aquifers

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• Other risks faced by AOSIS
• More frequent droughts and floods
• Water supply contamination
• The experience of AOSIS countries is a microcosm
  of the global picture

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Spread of Waterborne Diseases

• Malaria
• Dengue Fever
• Cholera
• Typhoid fever
• Hantavirus
• Diptheria
• Lyme Disease

• Evidence the Caribbean region has experienced a
  marked increase in the incidence of dengue and
  dengue hemorrhagic fever in the past decade
  (Caribbean Epidemiology Centre - CAREC).

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Climate Change and Food

• The growth of crops depends on many factors,
  including temperature, precipitation, soil
  fertility, and surrounding land uses.
• Extreme weather events (drought, hurricanes,
  floods, etc.) are very damaging to crops. The
  effects of more gradual affects (e.g., average
  temperature increase) are difficult to predict.
• Developing countries will be much harder hit than
  developed countries, due to limited agricultural
  flexibility.

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Effects on Plant and Animal Communities

• The effects are difficult to measure, but
  potentially dramatic.
• Many species inhabit precisely bounded ecological
  niches, and so small changes in climate can cause
  disruptions in habitat or food availability.
• In the past, mobile animals could respond to
  these pressures by moving from one place to
  another. Land development, however, has
  constrained and fragmented ranges and travel
  routes, making migration much more difficult.
• Loss of key predator or prey species affects the
  life cycles of other organisms in the food
  chain.

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Phenology (Timing of Natural Events)

• Evidence of earlier leafing and flowering.

http//www.exploratorium.edu/climate/biosphere/dat
a1.html
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Greening of the North

• More vegetative growth in the last 20 years.
• Many scientists predict greater desertification.

Ranga B. Myneni, Department of Geography, Boston
University
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Coral Bleaching

• Increased sea temperatures
• Increased CO2 concentrations

http//www.awi-bremerhaven.de/Carbon/calcif.html
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Species Extinction

• Extinction of the golden toad
• Over the past 30 years, the dry season in the
  Costa Ricas cloud forest has become warmer and
  drier.
• 20 out of 50 species of frogs and toads have
  disappeared from a 30-square-kilometer study area
• Toucans and other bird species have shifted their
  range to higher altitudes.

• Frog extinction in the Central and South
  American tropics

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Biological Shifts

• Shifts in the ranges of 35 species of
  non-migratory butterflies.
• Decline in body weight of polar bears, resulting
  from early melting of sea ice and lowered food
  availability.
• Changes in the abundance of winter songbirds in
  four Great Plains states
• Shifts in Californias tidepools species
• Reduction of phytoplankton growth in the Ross Sea
  that could disrupt the Antarctic food chain

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Stabilizing CO2 Atmospheric Levels

• Efficient Transportation
• Energy Conservation
• Sustainable Energy Sources
• Sustainable Land Use
• Population Stabilization

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References

• Exploratorium.edu
• Eugene S. Takle, Iowa State University
• Joan L. Aron, Vulnerability Associated with
  Climate Variability and Climate Change in Central
  America and the Caribbean
• Union of Concerned Scientists
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

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Extra Slides

• Scientists predict that continued global warming
  on the order of 2.5-10.4F over the next 100
  years (as projected in the IPCC's Third
  Assessment Report) is likely to result in
• severe stress on many forests, wetlands, alpine
  regions, and other natural ecosystems
• greater threats to human health as mosquitoes and
  other disease-carrying insects and rodents spread
  diseases over larger geographical regions
• disruption of agriculture in some parts of the
  world due to increased temperature, water stress,
  and sea-level rise in low-lying areas such as
  Bangladesh or the Mississippi River delta.