Climate Change and Public Health

You might want to start with this paper The Imperative for Climate Action to Protect Health from the New England Journal of Medicine - the paper updates some of the risks identified in the previous section, but indicates the areas for action and includes the nice graphic reproduced below:

The Lancet has hosted an excellent and comprehensive series on Health and Climate Change. The last in the series, Public health benefits of strategies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions: overview and implications for policy makers is available by clicking here (you will have to register to see the full article, but registration is free). Please read it carefully. Here is the Abstract: "This Series has examined the health implications of policies aimed at tackling climate change. Assessments of mitigation strategies in four domains -- household energy, transport, food and agriculture, and electricity generation -- suggest an important message: that actions to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions often, although not always, entail net benefits for health. In some cases, the potential benefits seem to be substantial. This evidence provides an additional and immediate rationale for reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions beyond that of climate change mitigation alone. Climate changeis an increasing and evolving threat to the health of populations worldwide. At the same time, major public health burdens remain in many regions. Climate change therefore adds further urgency to the task of addressing international health priorities, such as the UN Millennium Development Goals. Recognition that mitigation strategies can have substantial benefits for both health and climate protection offers the possibility of policy choices that are potentially both more cost effective and socially attractive than are those that address these priorities independently."

A prescription for global public health: no more coal. By Hanna and Sainsbury headlines: "The health of our planet is not the only thing at risk of unabated coal burning. The health of our population suffers when we burn coal too." and refers to a report Coal and Health in the Hunter: Lessons from one valley for the world which identifies population health risks from coal.