UM experts say climate change puts human health at risk
The human side of global warming

lacial melting, rising sea levels, heavier rainfalls, and more intense heat waves are all unequivocal signs of climate change that point to a planet in peril. But it is more than the Earth’s health that is at stake. Changing environmental conditions around the globe also pose a threat to humans. And unless adequate steps are taken to put the brakes on climate change, its future impact on human health could be catastrophic.

That was the consensus of a group of University of Miami health and science experts who gathered on April 7 for a symposium addressing climate change and its impact on humans.

The symposium’s daylong lineup of panel discussions and lectures, held at the Miller School of Medicine, drew researchers and scholars from across the institution and was part of a series of ceremonies and events held around the country in recognition of World Health Day and National Public Health Week.

“The conclusions by scientists that global warming is a fact makes its impact on public health so much more urgent,” said Jose Szapocznik, professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, which sponsored the conference.

In some parts of the world, environmental impacts on health are already being felt. Widespread deforestation in Latin America, for example, is leading to increased rates of malaria, Dengue fever, and other diseases, while irrigation patterns are being linked to Rift Valley Fever, said Rinku Roy Chowdhury, an assistant professor of geography and regional studies who conducts research on land use and land cover change.

Meanwhile, rising temperatures, more extreme droughts, and heavier rainfall—all consequences of climate change—are proving to be fertile breeding grounds for mosquitoes that carry malaria and West Nile virus, said professor of epidemiology and public health John Beier.

Beier noted that in Nairobi, a spike in temperatures has led to higher incidents of malaria in the Kenyan city’s urban core, a region that had once been essentially free of the disease.

But, despite the clear impact climate change is having on human health, many people “haven’t bought into it,” said Lora Fleming, a Miller School epidemiologist who holds a joint appointment in marine biology and fisheries at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

“Part of the problem,” she said, “is a lack of research that quantifies the impact right now on human populations. How do you make it real to people and at the same time not make it so overwhelming that it seems like there are no solutions out there?”

More education on the effects of climate change, starting with the young, is needed, the experts agreed. But during a midday presentation at the symposium, one presenter touted a different approach, saying people must first be educated on how climate, not climate change, affects human health.

“We may be putting the horse behind the cart,” said bioclimatologist Larry Kalkstein, whose research primarily deals with heat and its effect on all living things. He called heat the most important weather-related issue in the nation, noting that about 1,500 heat-related deaths occur in the U.S. each year.

The experts also examined possible solutions, calling for more effective carbon mitigation programs and the election of public officials who are passionate about the issue.

Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts Harvey Ruvin, who chairs a climate change advisory task force, said it is at the local level where efforts to combat the problem can have the most success. He noted a Miami-Dade program focusing on capping landfills and retrofitting buildings that has resulted in the reduction of 35 million metric tons of carbon in the last 15 years.

While reducing humans’ carbon footprint will help, the Earth, no matter what is done, will still experience a gradual warming trend, said Brian Soden, a Rosenstiel School meteorologist and physical oceanographer who presented some of the most dramatic evidence of the impact of climate change: a map of Florida decades from now that showed its outlying coastal regions nearly submerged due to rising sea levels.

Other panelists and presenters at the symposium included Ken Goodman, codirector of the UM Ethics Programs; Douglas Fuller, a UM geography professor who discussed climate change and dengue fever in the Americas; and Bruce Bagley, an international studies expert who addressed the politics and political impacts of climate change in the Americas.