The impacts of anthropogenic climate change remain largely unquantified. Here we detail and address limitations in existing methods for attributing health impacts to climate change, including the representation of the climate-health relationship, choices in calculating counterfactual temperatures, assessment of long-term trends and individual events, and estimation of the effects of adaptation. Applying these methods, we found over 1,700 deaths attributable to anthropogenic temperature increases in the Canton of Zürich (Switzerland) over 50 years. Changing exposures and vulnerabilities to heat, including due to adaptation, avoided over 700 deaths. Heat-related deaths peak during heatwaves but also occur throughout summer months and the fraction of deaths attributable to climate change is higher outside heatwaves. Our approach supports targeted adaptation measures, and the analyses described here could be adapted and applied elsewhere to assess the effect of climate change on other health impacts or economic losses.
Teaser Synthesis of climatological and epidemiology methods finds 1,700 heat deaths attributable to climate change in the Canton of Zürich (1969-2018).
Climate change is known to impact men and women differently and yet how it will change the health impact of menopause, specifically hot flashes, has not been well researched or understood. Given the duration of symptoms, the high number of women suffering from them, and the associated consequences, any marginal change in incidence due to climate change could result in a very large number of women being affected. Global health systems need to be prepared for this and ensure that gendered issues like menopause do not fall through the cracks as we prepare for our future climate.
Video Summary:
http://links.lww.com/MENO/A549.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.