Climate Change and Human Health (ATOC 6020)

Fall 2016: Climate Change and Human Health

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Overview: Under the auspices of the newly formed University of Colorado Consortium on Climate Change and Health (), we will explore connections between climate change and human health by reading and discussing peer–reviewed literature on this transdisciplinary subject. We will read a selection of recent papers from five categories of climate/health connections listed below. This fall, the Colorado School of Public Health (SPH) is also offering a new Masters of Public Health (MPH) course on the same subject; interactions and collaborative activities between the two classes are planned. Over the course of the semester, we will also hear from leading researchers across the Boulder and Anschutz campuses. We will push ourselves to read, listen and think well outside of our disciplinary comfort zones.

  1. Heat related problems (heat wave mortality and dehydration/CKD)
  2. Bacterial infections (Vibrio)
  3. Air quality related problems (PM and ozone)
  4. Vector–borne diseases (Malaria)
  5. Psychologically driven health consequences (violent crime)

Prerequisites: Permission of instructor. Also open to interested postdocs.

Credit: Graduate: one credit; may be repeated. Undergraduate: up to three credits (as ATOC 4900).

Meetings: Mondays, 2:00–3:00 PM, SEEC N232. No class 9/5, 9/19, 9/26, or 11/21.

Textbook: None. See reading list below.

Grading: 100% of the student grade will be based on effort and active participation.

Guest speakers

Oct. 17         Dr. Colleen Reed                   ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Boulder                   Air quality, wildfires

Oct. 24         Dr. Rosemary Rochford         ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä SoM/CO SPH         Malaria

Oct. 31         Dr. Kathy James                    ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä SoM/CO SPH         Access to clean drinking water

Nov. 7          Dr. Elizabeth Carlton              CO SPH                       Diarrheal diseases

Nov. 14        Dr. Balaji Rajagopalan           ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä Boulder                   Meningitis in West Africa

Nov. 28        Dr. Richard Johnson              ¶¶ÒõÂÃÐÐÉä SoM                        Chronic kidney disease

Reading list

[0a] The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment, U.S. Global Change Research Program (2016)—Executive Summary
https://health2016.globalchange.gov/downloads

[0b] Human Health: Impacts, Adaptation, and Co-Benefits, IPCC AR5 WG2 Ch. 11 (2014)—Executive Summary and sections 11.1.1, 11.2, 11.3, 11.4.1, 11.4.3, 11.5, 11.6.2, 11.8, 11.1
http://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg2/

[1a] Attributing human mortality during extreme heat waves to anthropogenic climate change, Environmental Research Letters (2016)
http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/7/074006
http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/news/65523

[1b] Climate Change and the Emergent Epidemic of CKD from Heat Stress in Rural Communities: The Case for Heat Stress Nephropathy, Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (2016)
http://cjasn.asnjournals.org/content/early/2016/05/04/CJN.13841215
http://cires.colorado.edu/news/climate-change%E2%80%99s-likely-role-kidney-disease-epidemics

[2] Climate influence on Vibrio and associated human diseases during the past half-century in the coastal North Atlantic, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2016)
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/08/02/1609157113
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/08/08/were-trashing-the-oceans-and-making-ourselves-sick-in-the-process/

[3a] Occurrence and persistence of future atmospheric stagnation events, Nature Climate Change (2014)
http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v4/n8/full/nclimate2272.html
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/stagnation-air-conditions-on-the-rise-20600

[3b] Particulate air pollution from wildfires in the Western US under climate change, Climatic Change (2016)
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-016-1762-6
http://news.yale.edu/2016/08/15/health-risks-wildfires-us-west-increase-under-climate-change

[4] Altitudinal Changes in Malaria Incidence in Highlands of Ethiopia and Colombia, Science (2014)
http://science.sciencemag.org/node/496659.full
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-03/uom-wtp030414.php

[5] Crime, weather, and climate change, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management (2014)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0095069613001289
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/10/22/the-surprisingly-strong-link-between-climate-change-and-violence/

Additional papers and resources

Global Climate Change and Human Health: From Science to Practice, Wiley (2015)
http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1118505573.html

Heat Stress Nephropathy From Exercise-Induced Uric Acid Crystalluria: A Perspective on Mesoamerican Nephropathy, American Journal of Kidney Diseases (2016)
http://www.ajkd.org/article/S0272-6386(15)01156-7/abstract
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151008142416.htm

CKD in Central America: A Hot Issue, American Journal of Kidney Diseases (2012)
http://www.ajkd.org/article/S0272-6386(12)00029-7/fulltext

Climate change, workplace heat exposure, and occupational health and productivity in Central America, International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health (2011)
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/107735211799041931?journalCode=yjoh20

Future Freshwater Stress for Island Populations, Nature Climate Change (2016)
http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v6/n7/full/nclimate2987.html
http://cires.colorado.edu/news/islands-face-drier-future

Human contribution to the European heatwave of 2003, Nature (2004)
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v432/n7017/full/nature03089.html
https://www.carbonbrief.org/study-links-heatwave-deaths-london-paris-climate-change

Dramatically increasing chance of extremely hot summers since the 2003 European heatwave, Nature Climate Change (2015)
http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v5/n1/full/nclimate2468.html
http://www.carbonbrief.org/european-summer-heatwaves-ten-times-more-likely-with-climate-change

El Niño and climate change—contributing factors in the dispersal of Zika virus in the Americas? The Lancet (2016)
http://thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)00256-7/fulltext
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/scientists-tease-out-climate-role-zika-spread-20582
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/zika-virus-climate-change-19970
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/08/will-la-nina-affect-the-spread-of-zika-/

Dengue Vector Dynamics (Aedes aegypti) Influenced by Climate and Social Factors in Ecuador: Implications for Targeted Control, PLoS One (2013)
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0078263

Spatiotemporal clustering, climate periodicity, and social-ecological risk factors for dengue during an outbreak in Machala, Ecuador, in 2010, BMC Infectious Diseases (2014)
http://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-014-0610-4

Warming increases the risk of civil war in Africa, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2009)
http://www.pnas.org/content/106/49/20670.abstract
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/november23/climate-civil-wars-112309.html

North Atlantic salinity as a predictor of Sahel rainfall, Science Advances (2016)
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/2/5/e1501588
https://www.whoi.edu/news-release/sahel-rainfall