Global Climate Change And Stratospheric Ozone Depletion

A balanced assessment based on currently available scientific knowledge of the effects that climate change may have on the environment in Europe and the health of its populations. Written in non-technical language the book responds to growing public and political concern about the consequences of such widely publicized phenomena as global warming and stratospheric ozone depletion. The book also responds to evidence that recent warming trends in Europe have already affected health. The book opens with a brief explanation of the causes of climate change and stratospheric ozone depletion followed by an overview of recent European and global initiatives aimed at monitoring trends and assessing their impact on health. The first main chapter on climate change in Europe summarizes currently documented trends and provides a scenario of possible changes throughout the rest of this century. The second and most extensive chapter reviews scientific evidence on specific health consequences. These include effects related to increased episodes of thermal stress and air pollution; changes in foodborne water-related vector-borne and rodent-borne diseases; mortality from floods and other weather extremes; and changes in the production of aeroallergens associated with respiratory disorders including asthma. Chapter three considers health effects linked to stratospheric ozone depletion giving particular attention to adverse effects on the eye and immune system and skin cancer. The remaining chapters discuss health effects expected in the next decade and outline actions urgently needed in the areas of policy monitoring and surveillance and research.

In recent years, several new concepts have emerged in the field of stratospheric ozone depletion, creating a need for a concise in-depth publication covering the ozone-climate issue. This monograph fills that void in the literature and gives detailed treatment of recent advances in the field of stratospheric ozone depletion. It puts particular emphasis on the coupling between changes in the ozone layer and atmospheric change caused by a changing climate. The book, written by leading experts in the field, brings the reader the most recent research in this area and fills the gap between advanced textbooks and assessments.

Proceedings of a conference sponsored by the Air Resources Information Clearinghouse ARIC, a project of the Center for Environmental Information, Inc.

Ozone depletion in the stratosphere and increases in greenhouse gases in the troposphere are both subjects of growing concernâ€"even alarmâ€"among scientists, policymakers, and the public. At the same time, recent data show that these atmospheric developments are interconnected and in turn profoundly affect climatic conditions. This volume presents the most up-to-date data and theories available on ozone depletion, greenhouse gases, and climatic change. These questions and more are addressed: What is the current understanding of the processes that destroy ozone in the atmosphere? What role do greenhouse gases play in ozone depletion?

'Understanding how complex ecological and climatic change can influence human health is the new challenge before us. The book confronts these multidimensional risk assessments head-on and will catalyse the important interdisciplinary and integrated approach that is the new paradigm now required for environmental and public health research.' Dr JONATHAN PATZ Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health 'This book provides a sturdy foundation for thinking about how best to tackle a varied spectrum of population health hazards posed by different aspects and combinations of global change processes it alsogoes that extra mile by estimating the attributable population burdens of disease or mortality that are likely to result from these aspects of global change. It is heartening to see the results of this mathematical modeling being presented in policy-relevant terms.' From the Foreword by TONY McMICHAEL Health and Climate Change is the first major study of the potentially devastating health impacts of the global atmospheric changes which are under way. Using the best available data, the author presents models of the most plausible future courses of vector-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and schistosomiasis; skin cancer caused by nozone depletion; and cardiovascular and respiratory disorders caused by higher temperatures. Current epidemiological research methods are not well adapted to analysing complex systems influenced by human intervention, or more simple processes calculated to take place within the distant future. Health and Climate Change proposes a new paradigm of integrated eco-epidemiological models for these areas of study. It will be essential reading for those concerned with public health and epidemiology, environmental studies, climate change and development studies. Originally published in 1998