lec 6

• Learning objectives


  • Overview of how climate change affects human health
  • Specific focus on human health consequences related to heat
  • Effects of extreme events on human health
  • Changes to vector-borne disease
  • Changes to water-borne disease
• Climate change and human health
• Effects of climate change on human health

  • Respiratory disease: air pollution, pollen and other allergens
  • Food shortages, malnutrition
  • Mental illness
  • Vector borne disease
  • Water borne illness
  • Extreme events
  • Temperature related morbidity and mortality
• Cocaine use in warm environments impairs body's cooling mechanisms - and can be lethal
• Vector-borne diseases


  Diseases that can be transmitted between animals and humans via direct or indirect contact
• Red = introduced vector-borne pathogens; blue = long establishes disease
• Zika virus


  Birth defect rate similar with/without symptoms - lab confirmed infection
• Number of passengers/day 500 largest international airports; > 100 different countries
• Ecological impacts of Computation and the Cloud

  EE = embodied energy = accumulative energy over product's lifecycle - raw materials to disposal
• Injuries from extreme events

  • Fires
  • Floods
  • Rising sea levels
• • Fires - risk of being burned or of smoke inhalation
  • Flooding - drowning and changes terrain introducing hazards
• FFDI = fire forest danger index
• • Direct asphyxiation of fish - gills clogged with ash
  • Bacteria grow in water - deoxygenation of water and kills fish
  • Changes pH of the water
  • Disrupts breeding habitats
  • Prevent/promote phytoplankton growth
  • Drinking water supplies tainted
• Fires killed at least 33 people Oct 2019 - Feb 2020; but 417 excess deaths and thousands of hospital admissions
• Excess air pollution burden of bushfire
• Respiratory disease


  • Climate change affects the air we breathe
  • Air pollution, pollen, ozone
  • Promote or aggravate airways disease
• 7 million premature deaths each year due to the bad quality of the air we breathe (WHO)
• Air pollution


  • Gases
  • Chemicals
  • Particulate Matter (PM)
• Plastics and health
• • Changes in water temperature
  • Droughts/floods/fires
  • Changes in debris in water
  • Changes in microbial content in water
  • Changes in nutrients in water
• Water-borne illness


  • Heated or contaminated water
  • Growth of bacteria, viruses, protozoa
  • Algal blooms release toxins
  • Hazards with drinking, swimming, washing
  • Water itself but plants and animals associated with it
• Noctiluca scintillans (sea sparkle)