The World Health Organisation estimates that the warming and precipitation trends due to anthropogenic climate change of the past 30 years already claim over 150,000 lives annually. Many prevalent human diseases are linked to climate fluctuations, from cardiovascular mortality and respiratory illnesses due to heatwaves, to altered transmission of infectious diseases and malnutrition from crop failures. Uncertainty remains in attributing the expansion or resurgence of diseases to climate change, owing to lack of long-term, high-quality data sets as well as the large influence of socio-economic factors and changes in immunity and drug resistance. Here we review the growing evidence that climate-health relationships pose increasing health risks under future projections of climate change and that the warming trend over recent decades has already contributed to increased morbidity and mortality in many regions of the world. Potentially vulnerable regions include the temperate latitudes, which are projected to warm disproportionately, the regions around the Pacific and Indian oceans that are currently subjected to large rainfall variability due to the El Nino/Southern Oscillation sub-Saharan Africa and sprawling cities where the urban heat island effect could intensify extreme climatic events.

https://faculty.washington.edu/jhannah/geog270aut07/readings/ClimateChange/Patz%20-%20impact%20of%20climate%20change%20on%20health.pdf

Impact of regional climate change on human health

Until recently, continuous monitoring of global vegetation productivity has not been possible because of technological limitations. This article introduces a new satellite-driven monitor of the global biosphere that regularly computes daily gross primary production (GPP) and annual net primary production (NPP) at 1-kilometer (km) resolution over 109,782,756 km 2 of vegetated land surface. We summarize the history of global NPP science, as well as the derivation of this calculation, and current data production activity. The first data on NPP from the EOS (Earth Observing System) MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) sensor are presented with different types of validation. We offer examples of how this new type of data set can serve ecological science, land management, and environmental policy. To enhance the use of these data by nonspecialists, we are now producing monthly anomaly maps for GPP and annual NPP that compare the current value with an 18-year average value for each pixel, clearly identifying regions where vegetation growth is higher or lower than normal.

https://bioone.org/journals/BioScience/volume-54/issue-6/0006-3568(2004)054[0547:ACSMOG]2.0.CO;2/A-Continuous-Satellite-Derived-Measure-of-Global-Terrestrial-Primary-Production/10.1641/0006-3568(2004)054[0547:ACSMOG]2.0.CO;2.pdf

A Continuous Satellite-Derived Measure of Global Terrestrial Primary Production

Bats (order Chiroptera, suborders Megachiroptera and Microchiroptera) are abundant, diverse, and geographically widespread. These mammals provide us with resources, but their importance is minimized and many of their populations and species are at risk, even threatened or endangered. Some of their characteristics (food choices, colonial or solitary nature, population structure, ability to fly, seasonal migration and daily movement patterns, torpor and hibernation, life span, roosting behaviors, ability to echolocate, virus susceptibility) make them exquisitely suitable hosts of viruses and other disease agents. Bats of certain species are well recognized as being capable of transmitting rabies virus, but recent observations of outbreaks and epidemics of newly recognized human and livestock diseases caused by viruses transmitted by various megachiropteran and microchiropteran bats have drawn attention anew to these remarkable mammals. This paper summarizes information regarding chiropteran characteristics and information regarding 66 viruses that have been isolated from bats. From these summaries, it is clear that we do not know enough about bat biology, that we are doing too little in terms of bat conservation, and that there remain a multitude of questions regarding the role of bats in disease emergence.

/pdf/bats-important-reservoir-hosts-of-emerging-viruses-2dtmvz7nz3.pdf

Bats: Important Reservoir Hosts of Emerging Viruses

ResumenEl cambio clima´tico y las enfermedades transmitidas por vectores: un ana´lisis regional La vida humana depende de la dina´mica del sistemaclima´tico de la Tierra. Las interacciones entre laatmo´sfera, los oce´anos, las biosferas terrestre y marina,lacriosferaylasuperficieterrestredeterminanelclimadelasuperficiedelplaneta.Laconcentracio´natmosfe´ricadelosgasesdeefectoinvernaderoesta´ aumentandodebidoprincipalmente a la actividad humana, provocando unrecalentamiento de la superficie terrestre.Se estima que la temperatura mundial habra´aumentado como promedio 1,0-3,5 o C para 2100, conlo que aumentara´ tambie´n el riesgo de enfermedadestransmitidas por vectores. El mayor efecto del cambioclima´tico en ese sentido se observara´ probablemente enlos extremos del intervalo de temperaturas requeridopara la transmisio´n (14-18 o C como li´mite inferior, y 35-40 o C como li´mite superior).El clima africano tropical favorece la transmisio´nde la mayori´a de las principales enfermedades mediadaspor vectores, entre ellas el paludismo, la esquistosomia-sis, la oncocercosis, la tripanosomiasis, la filariasis, laleishmaniasis, la peste, la fiebre del Valle del Rift, lafiebre amarilla y las fiebres hemorra´gicas transmitidaspor garrapatas. Se calcula que para 2050 el Sa´hara y laszonas semia´ridas de A´ frica meridional podri´an expe-rimentar un aumento medio de 1,6

/pdf/climate-change-and-vector-borne-diseases-a-regional-analysis-4xtd6drx90.pdf

Climate change and vector-borne diseases: a regional analysis.

Planning and decision-making can be improved by access to reliable forecasts of ecosystem state, ecosystem services, and natural capital. Availability of new data sets, together with progress in computation and statistics, will increase our ability to forecast ecosystem change. An agenda that would lead toward a capacity to produce, evaluate, and communicate forecasts of critical ecosystem services requires a process that engages scientists and decision-makers. Interdisciplinary linkages are necessary because of the climate and societal controls on ecosystems, the feedbacks involving social change, and the decision-making relevance of forecasts.

/pdf/ecological-forecasts-an-emerging-imperative-4e6qpt4sjp.pdf

Ecological forecasts: an emerging imperative.

The 1993 U.S. hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) outbreak was attributed to environmental conditions and increased rodent populations caused by unusual weather in 1991- 92. In a case-control study to test this hypothesis, we estimated precipitation at 28 HPS and 170 control sites during the springs of 1992 and 1993 and compared it with precipitation during the previous 6 years by using rainfall patterns at 196 weather stations. We also used elevation data and Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite imagery collected the year before the outbreak to estimate HPS risk by logistic regression analysis. Rainfall at case sites was not higher during 1992-93 than in previous years. However, elevation, as well as satellite data, showed association between environmental conditions and HPS risk the following year. Repeated analysis using satellite imagery from 1995 showed substantial decrease in medium- to high-risk areas. Only one case of HPS was identified in 1996.

/pdf/using-remotely-sensed-data-to-identify-areas-at-risk-for-4p7pvrk5sz.pdf

Darcy K. Hunt

Papers

Using Remotely Sensed Data To Identify Areas at Risk For Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome