Climate Change Planetary Health Frameworks
Seminario Internacional Salud Planetaria: ¿Qué estamos haciendo para adaptarnos a las olas de calor?
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WHAT IS PLANETARY HEALTH?
Climate Change
Increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, driven by human activity, negatively impacts global ecological systems and human health.
Human-driven emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and black carbon are primarily responsible for an unstable and changing climate, and most are produced by burning fossil fuels and altering natural habitats. Glacial melting, rising sea levels, increased global temperatures, more frequent extreme weather events, and changes in the abundance, distribution, and composition of species are all linked to the changing climate.
Globally, nearly twice as many natural disasters occurred between 2000 and 2019 and affected roughly 1 billion more people than the period spanning 1980 and 1999. Heat waves, droughts, fires, floods, tropical storms, and other extreme weather events pose both near- and long-term threats to human health and intergenerational equity. For example, particulate matter from fires reduces air quality and causes morbidity and mortality from cardiorespiratory disease; flooding leads to biological contamination of water supplies, displacement, injury, and trauma; and more intense coastal storms, combined with sea level rise and loss of coastal barrier systems (mangrove forests, vegetated dunes, coral reefs, and wetlands), generate a “triple threat” for inhabitants of low-lying coastal areas. Survivors of extreme weather events face long-term, serious physical and mental health impacts.
Climate change and ecosystem transformations are inextricably connected and often mutually exacerbated.
The field of Planetary Health uses a systems approach to connect the complexities of anthropogenic drivers of climate change to natural hazards. Understanding these relationships in terms of cause-and-effect is the first step in addressing climate change and its widespread effects on the planet’s ecosystems and well-being of its inhabitants.
We must take note of these causal relationships and advocate for living within planetary boundaries to preserve what climate stability we can for the safety of future generations and our biosphere.
Climate Change Resources
Climate Change Resource Scarcity
Why We Need Scientists Now, More Than Ever. Reuters.
Amid climate crisis and rising anti-science sentiment, this piece calls for urgent global investment in scientific research, Indigenous knowledge, and collective action to ensure a stable, healthy planet for future generations.
• News
Climate Change Health and Care Systems
Perceptions of medical and public health professionals on climate change and emerging health challenges in Pakistan: A multi-scale approach. BMC Medical Education.
• Research & Reports
Infectious Diseases Noncommunicable Diseases
Killer fungi to spread as climate heats up. Financial Times.
Climate change is accelerating the global spread of the deadly fungus Aspergillus, which infects millions of people annually. Rising temperatures could expose millions more to infections, especially the immunocompromised, threatening human health and food security.
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Noncommunicable Diseases Climate Change
Estimating the urban heat-related mortality burden due to greenness: a global modelling study. The Lancet Planetary Health.
This study aimed to estimate the effects of increased greenness in urban areas on heat-related deaths. Modeling suggests that preserving and expanding greenness is a potential solution to lower ambient temperatures and reduce the health impacts of heat exposure.
• Research & Reports
News Related to Climate Change
European PHA Monthly Scientific Webinar Series Relaunch- Sam Myers
