Climate and Health2
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What does this El Niño mean for public health?
The IRI has just published a short bulletin to provide an update on this year’s El Niño and what it could mean for the health in different regions of the world. The document gives decision makers key recommendations on how to monitor communities at risk and take steps to reduce their vulnerability. Visit this page…
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Top misconceptions about El Niño and La Niña
Forecasts by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society and other institutions show that a weak El Niño has developed in the equatorial Pacific, and is likely to continue evolving with warmer-than-normal conditions persisting there until early 2010. What exactly is this important climate phenomenon and why should society care about it? Who will…
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Abrupt Climate Change in a Warming World
Early last month, I attended a meeting on Abrupt Climate Change in a Warming World. Climate Matters @ Columbia has discussed abrupt climate change before, referring to the hydrologic cycle, and with regards to melting sea ice or permafrost. Shifts in the earth climate are a known fact: crocodile-like reptiles lived in Greenland 55 million…
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Plasma Gasification: A Solution to the Waste Disposal Dilemma?
Waste not, Want not? The source of this proverb is unknown, but I’m going to hazard a guess and say it wasn’t your average (modern) American. I say this because your average American runs through 56 tons of trash a year – including 500 plastic cups and 650 pounds of paper. If we were to…
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Some Thoughts on the Summer Institute
The Summer Institute, mentioned here, drew to a close last week and while attending a session on final presentations by the participants, I was struck by how participants, depending on their backgrounds, benefited differently from the course and took away unique learnings. For instance, one participant, Daddi Jima Wayessa, Head of Malaria and other Vector-borne…
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Climate and Meningitis in Africa
We hear a lot about the impact of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in Africa. But if you’re keeping track, you may as well add bacterial meningitis to the list of nasty diseases that plague the continent. Bacterial meningitis is an infection of the thin lining that surrounds the brain and the spinal cord, known as…
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Health people, meet climate people!
Since Monday, 12 public-health professionals and climate scientists from ten countries have been at Columbia University’s Lamont campus to learn how to use climate information to make better decisions in health-care planning and disease prevention. They’re taking part in the second Summer Institute on Climate Information for Public Health, organized by the International Research Institute…
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Climate Change and the right to water
The Fifth World Water Forum in Istanbul, Turkey, ended this past Sunday, March 22. Held every three years, the Forum is organized by the World Water Council, an international multi-stakeholder platform designed to facilitate international cooperation on the management and use of water in an environmentally sustainable way. The Forum ended with the Istanbul Ministerial…
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Interdisciplinary Work: Big Challenge, But Not Impossible
Health professionals, epidemiologists, health management workers and health policymakers are increasingly concerned about the potential impact that climate variability and climate change could have on public health. However, many public health professionals are not yet aware of the ways in which climate information can help them manage the impacts of climate on their work. At…