Health Impacts Of Climate Change – Wildfires ravaging California, Washington State, and Oregon, and wildfires affecting air quality in states thousands of miles away, provide the latest reminder of the effects of climate change on our health and well-being.
As we grapple with the immediate and long-term consequences of the current global health pandemic, it can be difficult to think about climate change with the same level of urgency. But if anything, the pandemic has shown us that being unprepared for a global health crisis can lead to widespread death and bring the global economy to its knees within months. Climate change has a direct impact on our health and well-being, and it will worsen in the future. Wildfires ravaging California, Washington state and Oregon are issuing final warnings.
Health Impacts Of Climate Change
With the building and construction sector contributing the most emissions worldwide each year, now is the time for interdisciplinary collaboration to address climate change and health impacts at scale.
Climate Change And Health
As part of Earth Week 2020 programming, our New York office hosted a virtual panel in April with researchers and policymakers focusing on how climate change affects health. Panelists include Laurian Farrell of Global Sustainable Cities, Professor Thaddeus Pawlowski of Columbia University’s Center for Sustainable Cities and Landscapes, Manuela Povidaiko of the New York City Department of Urban Planning, Daphne Lundy of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, and Professor Prathap of the City University of New York’s Urban Flow Observatory. Ramamurthy.
Here are ideas emerging from conversations about the three impacts of global warming, including rising temperatures, air pollution and extreme weather, as well as their health impacts and how the role of the built environment may evolve in a sustainable future.
Organizations and institutions, including the World Health Organization, the International Commission on Climate Change, and the Harvard School of Public Health, have extensively researched and documented the intersection of climate change and public health impacts.
According to these experts, climate change creates a variety of shocks and stresses that can adversely affect health. For example, asthma caused by air pollution, mental health issues caused by exposure to degraded habitats, and cholera due to poor water quality. In the face of increasing threats, risks and vulnerabilities, some solutions are aimed at reducing negative impact, others at adapting to changing conditions.
Doctors Put A Price Tag On The Annual Health Impacts Of Climate Change. It’s $820 Billion.
Discussing with the panel how to design the future, Colombia’s Thaddeus Pawlowski defined sustainability as “enabling communities and ecosystems to survive and thrive in a world in crisis.” Today, nearly 100 cities are collaborating through the Global Sustainable Cities Network to identify climate risks, share resilience strategies and implement adaptation efforts. Our panelist Lorian Farrell from Global Sustainable Cities said that cities are at the forefront of tackling climate impacts. Climate change – and with 7 out of 10 people predicted to live in cities by 2050 – is an increasingly important issue.
Health is critical to survival and development, and as designers we need to understand the relationship between the built environment, climate change and health to drive change and increase resilience.
As a result of climate change, the risk of forest fires has increased significantly through increased hot and dry weather. Six of California’s 10 largest wildfires have occurred since 2018, and five of them have occurred this year. The many health effects associated with these fires include increased risk of death, respiratory disease, and cardiovascular disease.
While building design can help make structures and communities more resilient to smoke and dangerous levels of air quality, reducing global emissions from the construction sector can help prevent further increases in risk. The Rocky Mountain Institute advocates eliminating the use of fossil fuels in the built environment as the only way to meet California’s 2045 carbon goals.
Envisioning Environmental Equity: Climate Change, Health, And Racial Justice
At the 2019 UN Climate Summit, we launched the Cities Climate Challenge (GC3) as a way to commit to making our design carbon neutral by 2030 and call on the entire design industry to do the same. As designers, we can significantly reduce the total amount of fuel needed to operate buildings, design buildings to be fully electric or ready to run on electricity, and advocate for a rapid transition to clean electricity.
This air quality report, September 17, 2020, AirNow reports, reveals the impact of ongoing wildfires on air quality.
Emissions from buildings contribute to air pollution, and long-term exposure to air pollution has been linked to a higher risk of death from COVID-19. It is not only the operation of buildings, but also contributes to the carbon emissions of construction materials. For example, rebar produced from coal can contain up to six times more rebar produced from hydropower in the Pacific Northwest.
Architects can reduce the carbon footprint of existing buildings by retrofitting them, and when it comes to new construction, they can prioritize the use of low-carbon materials such as wood, design structurally efficient buildings to reduce the total amount of materials needed, and choose low-carbon building products. Architects can also advocate for industry partners and manufacturers to disclose the carbon footprint of their products.
Understanding The Health Harms Of Climate Change: A Six Americas Analysis
Maps show (a) 17-year long-term average county level (2000-2016) of US PM2.5 concentrations in g/m3 and (b) county-level number of COVID-19 deaths per million population. According to a report led by Xiao Wu and Rachel C. Nethery, the U.S. will have until April 4, 2020, the Department of Biostatistics at Harvard T.H. Chan Public School.
Cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 people and annual PM2.5 concentrations in the Netherlands (2015-19) according to an article published in The Conversation.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) researchers have found that global warming will increase the amount and intensity of rainfall for tropical cyclones, including hurricanes and typhoons. Many Tri-State residents remember the devastating impact of Hurricane Sandy on much of New York in 2012, including loss of life, environmental and property damage, health infrastructure impacts, but also long-term health effects. a result. Six months after the storm, nearly two-thirds of flooded households still had mold and increased negative mental health problems.
In response, building codes and zoning were updated the following year to reduce the impact of future hurricanes on the built environment. These changes included flood-resistant building standards, such as reducing the types of acceptable spaces below the design flood elevation (DFE) and guidelines for dry flood protection and mechanical equipment placement.
Climate Change Is A Health Crisis
In our panel, Manuela Povidaico, New York City Department of Planning’s Coastal Resilience Zoning Project Manager, reflected on what flood risk management planning means for the density of our cities, affirming the importance of flexibility and resilience.
“If we really want to address environmental justice and good design and give everyone access to good homes and services, we need to change how we think and plan for density, how we design units, and how we develop regulations for buildings. “, – said Povidaiko. “Instead of thinking about the quantity of housing stock, we need to think about density through the lens of scalability. If you have regulations that don’t or don’t plan to build a building with multiple units and allow that building to accommodate more families over time, that’s how we need to plan ahead.”
A logical model of the health effects of coastal storms, according to the report, “Health Effects of Coastal Storms and Floods in Urban Areas: A Review and Vulnerability Assessment,” published in the Journal of Environmental and Public Health.
According to the International Commission on Climate Change, the health of vulnerable populations is disproportionately at risk from the effects of climate change, primarily those with poor health care. That’s why it’s critical that architects and designers intentionally shape the built environment for climate justice by addressing historical and systemic inequities and taking actions to improve air quality, reduce the effects of extreme heat, and help create an inclusive, clean economy. fair job opportunities.
Chapter 7: Health, Wellbeing And The Changing Structure Of Communities
During the panel, Daphne Lundy of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Sustainability made an important point, noting, “We need to look back at the history of inequality to get to where we’re actually addressing climate threats. In all the disasters we’ve experienced in the past, the well-to-do, the well-to-do, and the not-so-well are struggling, and that never changes regardless of the threat. But what can change is our ability to support vulnerable populations so they are not left out when things happen. “
This was echoed by Thad Pawlowski, who added that “the scales of inequality that have been out of control all my life have now reached a fever pitch [and] can’t take it anymore.”
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