Climate Change and Human Health: Impacts and Pathways to Resilience

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Climate change induced impacts on human health are myriad; they range from direct effects, such as heat related mortality during extreme heat events, to indirect effects on infectious disease transmission systems. Predicting the degree of impact climate change will have on a specific health outcome becomes more difficult as the pathways become more indirect. One such example is determining the potential risk of dengue emergence in the U.S.-Mexico border region where Ae. aegypti mosquito populations that transmit the virus are well-established. A suitable natural environment is necessary but not sufficient for virus transmission. Social, economic, and behavioral factors can all enhance or reduce risk. While these factors make predictions difficult, they also suggest a level of control that we as a society have to reduce our risk of negative health outcomes linked to a changing climate. Both top-down and bottom-up actions must be taken now to mitigate current and future health threats.

Kacey Ernst is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the College of Public Health at the University of Arizona. She is also a Graduate Interdisciplinary Program affiliate in Global Change, Entomology and Arid Lands.