Main description:

This open access book not only describes the challenges of climate disruption, but also presents solutions. The challenges described include air pollution, climate change, extreme weather, and related health impacts that range from heat stress, vector-borne diseases, food and water insecurity and chronic diseases to malnutrition and mental well-being.

The influence of humans on climate change has been established through extensive published evidence and reports. However, the connections between climate change, the health of the planet and the impact on human health have not received the same level of attention. Therefore, the global focus on the public health impacts of climate change is a relatively recent area of interest. This focus is timely since scientists have concluded that changes in climate have led to new weather extremes such as floods, storms, heat waves, droughts and fires, in turn leading to more than 600,000 deaths and the displacement of nearly 4 billion people in the last 20 years.

Previous work on the health impacts of climate change was limited mostly to epidemiologic approaches and outcomes and focused less on multidisciplinary, multi-faceted collaborations between physical scientists, public health researchers and policy makers. Further, there was little attention paid to faith-based and ethical approaches to the problem.

The solutions and actions we explore in this book engage diverse sectors of civil society, faith leadership, and political leadership, all oriented by ethics, advocacy, and policy with a special focus on poor and vulnerable populations. The book highlights areas we think will resonate broadly with the public, faith leaders, researchers and students across disciplines including the humanities, and policy makers.

Contents:

The problem

Introduction (Sanches Sorondo, Al-Delaimy, Ramanathan)

a. Dependence of all life on the environment

i. Complexity of life and its dependence on the environment (Arber)

ii. Biological extinction and climate change (Raven)

iii. Sustaining life: human health-planetary health linkages (Frumkin)

b. Air Pollution and Health in the context of climate change

i. Climate Change, Air Pollution and the Environment: The Health Argument (Neira)

ii. Climate Change, Air Pollution and Health: Common sources, Similar impacts and Common solutions (Ramanathan)

iii. Air Pollution: Adverse Effects and Disease Burden (Samet)

iv. Air Pollution and Cardiovascular Disease: A Proven Causality (Estol)

v. Air Pollution, Oxidative Stress and Public Health in the Anthropocene (Poschl)

c. Human health effects of climate change & Specific case studies

i. Sustainable development goals and health (Sachs)

ii. How Do Our Actions Undermine Nature? (Dasgupta)

iii. Climate Change, Public Health, Social Peace (Schellnhuber )

iv. Climate Change Health detection and projection: China Case study (Qiyong)

v. Psychological Impacts of Climate Change and Recommendations (Van Susterin)

vi. Vulnerable populations and regions: Middle East as a case study (Al-Delaimy)

vii. Forest Fires, Air Pollution and Health and the Challenge of Sustainable Development in the Amazon (Viana)

viii. Health of the People, Health of the Planet, Health of the Migrants (Suarez Orozco)

Solutions

a. Overarching Solutions

i. Opportunities for a sustainable planet (Lee)

ii. Carbon neutrality & Climate Stability: Scalable Solutions (Ramanathan, Molina, Zaelke)

iii. World Avoided by Reducing Air Pollution (Lelieveld)

iv. Achieving and Sustaining Good Health in the Anthropocene Epoch

The Potential for Transformative Solutions (Haines)

v. Climate Change Risks for Agriculture, Health and Nutrition (Braun)

vi. Sustaining Water Resources (D'Odorico)

b. Social solutions and advocacy

i. Climate Justice and Public Health: Practical Ethics in Urgent Times (Forman)

ii. Defeating Energy Poverty: A Call to Invest In Scalable, Solutions

to Energy Access for the Poor (Kammen)

iii. Sensor-Enabled Climate Financing for Clean Cooking (Nithya Ramanthan)

iv. Healthy People, Healthy Planet (Harvie)

v. Research is vital to tackling climate change, but it cannot succeed alone (Farrar)

vi. To avert a sustained worldwide public health disaster, health

professionals must convince the world's leaders to double global carbon

pollution reduction commitments: A call to action ( Maibach)

C. Call to Action:

1. Government Leaders

i. California (Brown; De-Leon)

ii. Chile (Carrasco)

iii. USA ( Peters, Congressman)

2. Faith Leaders

i: Faith in God & Health of People (Rev Leith Anderson)

ii. Call to Action from Faith Leaders (Rev. Alastair Redfern)

III. Caring for Creation - The Evangelical's Guide to Climate Change

and a Healthy Environment (Rev Mitch Hescox)

Declaration: Our Planet, Our Health, Our Responsibility: Way Forward: Ramanathan, Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, Partha Dasgupta, Peter Raven, Joachim Von Braun, Jeffrey Sachs