Climate Change and Human Health: An Assessment Prepared by a Task Group on Behalf of the World Health Organization, the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme.

Abstract

The sustained health of human populations requires the continued integrity of Earths natural systems. These systems are now threatened by global climate change and other environmental changes such as those resulting from unsustainable use of natural resources from air water and soil pollution and from overcrowding. Divided into 10 chapters this book examines the potential health hazards of human population from global climate change--defined as a complex of meteorological processes driven by the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Climate change consequences considered in this text include changes in temperature and precipitation changes in the frequency of extreme weather events and sea level rise. Chapter 1 describes the historical and economic context within which the climate change issue has arisen and discusses the scale complexity and fundamental “newness” of the problem. Chapter 2 reviews the science of greenhouse gas accumulation and its effects upon the climate system. Moreover it discusses the associated problem of stratospheric ozone depletion. The various possible impacts of climate change and stratospheric ozone depletion upon human health are examined in chapters 3 to 8. Chapters 9 and 10 address the implications of global climate change for research monitoring and social-policy response.