Climate Change and Infectious Disease

The Heat is On: Imperative for Midwifery Engagement in Climate Change.

This study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of common parasitic and infectious diseases of goat at Babugonj upazilla, Barisal, Bangladesh. The study was performed in Veterinary Clinic, ANSVM, PSTU and Upazilla Veterinary Hospital, Babugonj, Barisal during June, 2014 to May, 2015. The diseases were diagnosed on basis of clinical signs, owner’s statement, general clinical examinations and laboratory diagnosis. A socio-economic survey of 200 destitute women and marginal/poor farmers of Barisal district was also done using a semi-structured questionnaire on their household. 70% of the respondents were females while 30% were males. 65% respondents were involved in agriculture, 13% in own business, 3% in shared business, 2% in govt. service and 17% in non-govt. service. 39% respondents had knowledge about signs of health of goat followed by management (74%), goat diseases (24%), veterinary drugs (20%), animal vaccine (14%) and biosecurity (13%). 53% animal houses were kacha followed by tin (41%) and pukka (2%). Goat received feed from own fodder areas (52%), purchase concentrate (5%) and both (43%). Respondents used tube-well (24%), river (18%), canal (26%) and ponds (32%) as the source of water for their goat. The prevalence of parasitic diseases was 41.33% followed by infectious diseases (39.34%) in goat. The prevalence of parasitic diseases was highest in rainy season 51.28% followed by autumn (41.61%), summer (40.37%) and winter (27.98%). The prevalence of infectious diseases was highest in winter 52.60% followed by autumn (37.55%), summer (37.47%) and rainy season (32.42%). Among viral diseases, prevalence of PPR was highest 8.52% followed by FMD (6.81%), goat pox (2.68%), contagious ecthyma (1.76%) and rabies (0.25%). The prevalence of peste des petits ruminants (PPR) was highest in winter (15.86%). The prevalence of pneumonia was highest 8.71% in whole year among the bacterial diseases. The prevalence of fungal disease (ringworm) was 1.44% in goat. The prevalence of trematodiasis was 12.60% followed by nematodiasis (11.27%), babesiosis (2.18%), tape worm infection (2.03%) and coccidiosis (1.19%). The prevalence of ecto-parasitic diseases was 12.06% .The prevalence of trematodiasis was highest in rainy season (18.01%). The prevalence of babesiosis was highest in summer (3.81%) and coccidiosis in winter (3.81%). The prevalence of ecto-parasitic diseases was lowest in winter (8.88%). The results of the present study will be helpful for scientists, extension service providers and veterinary practitioners for designing appropriate control measures for such diseases of goat.Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. December 2015, 1(3): 449-456

Parents’ perspectives about discussing climate change during well-child visits

The Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that the climate projection using climate models that took account of both human and natural factors provided credible quantitative estimates of future climate change; however, the mismatches between the IPCC AR4 model ensembles and the observations, especially the multi-decadal variability (MDV), have cast shadows on the confidence of the model-based decadal projections of future climate. This paper reports an evaluation of many individual runs of AR4 models in the simulation of past global mean temperature. We find that most of the individual model runs fail to reproduce the MDV of past climate, which may have led to the overestimation of the projection of global warming for the next 40 years or so. Based on such an evaluation, we propose an alternative approach, in which the MDV signal is taken into account, to project the global mean temperature for the next 40 years and obtain that the global warming during 2011–2050 could be much smaller than the AR4 projection. decadal prediction, global warming, multi-decadal climate variability, the Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition, CMIP3 multi-model

The release of Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth and his subsequent training of thousands of Climate Presenters marks a critical transition point in communication around climate change. This paper will show that key elements of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, and the advice and training he gives to Climate Presenters are based on the results of research into marketing approaches to creating behavioural change. This paper will then consider the ultimate effectiveness of this approach to Climate change communication in the light of the critique of such marketing approaches to communicating on environmental issues in the 2008 WWF report, 'Weathercocks & signposts'.

Many climate change scientists do not agree that global warming is happeningEditor-The apocalyptic tone that Smith adopted in relation to the environment bears little relation to reality. 1 In his...

The validity of the manmade global warming alarm requires the support of scientific forecasts of (1) a substantive long-term rise in global mean temperatures in the absence of regulations, (2) serious net harmful effects due to global warming, and (3) cost-effective regulations that would produce net beneficial effects versus alternatives policies, including doing nothing. Without scientific forecasts for all three aspects of the alarm, there is no scientific basis to enact regulations. In effect, the warming alarm is like a three-legged stool: Each leg needs to be strong. Despite repeated appeals to global warming alarmists, we have been unable to find scientific forecasts for any of the three legs. We drew upon scientific (evidence-based) forecasting principles to audit the forecasting procedures used to forecast global mean temperatures by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — leg “1” of the stool. This audit found that the IPCC procedures violated 81% of the 89 relevant forecasting principles. We also audited forecasting procedures, used in two papers, that were written to support regulation regarding the protection of polar bears from global warming — leg “3” of the stool. On average, the forecasting procedures violated 85% of the 90 relevant principles. The warming alarmists have not demonstrated the predictive validity of their procedures. Instead, their argument for predictive validity is based on their claim that nearly all scientists agree with the forecasts. This count of “votes” by scientists is not only an incorrect tally of scientific opinion, it is also, and most importantly, contrary to the scientific method. We conducted a validation test of the IPCC forecasts that were based on the assumption that there would be no regulations. The errors for the IPCC model long-term forecasts (for 91 to 100 years in the future) were 12.6 times larger than those from an evidence-based “no change” model. Based on our own analyses and the documented unscientific behavior of global warming alarmists, we concluded that the global warming alarm is the product of an anti-scientific political movement. Having come to this conclusion, we turned to the “structured analogies” method to forecast the likely outcomes of the warming alarmist movement. In our ongoing study we have, to date, identified 26 similar historical alarmist movements. None of the forecasts behind the analogous alarms proved correct. Twenty-five alarms involved calls for government intervention and the government imposed regulations in 23. None of the 23 interventions was effective and harm was caused by 20 of them. Our findings on the scientific evidence related to global warming forecasts lead to the following recommendations: End government funding for climate change research. End government funding for research predicated on global warming (e.g., alternative energy; CO 2 reduction; habitat loss). End government programs and repeal regulations predicated on global warming. End government support for organizations that lobby or campaign predicated on global warming.

Consequent Effects of Parasitism on Population Dynamics, Food Webs, and Human Health Under Climate Change

The Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change (PCF) was adopted in December 2016. This collaboratively developed federal, provincial and territorial report documents Canada's plans to meet its Paris Agreement commitments and stimulate Canada's economy. This PCF identifies a series of actions that will be addressed through four key pillars: pricing carbon pollution; complementary measures to reduce emissions; adaptation and climate resilience; and enabling economic growth through clean technology, innovation and jobs. Within the PCF, protecting and improving human health and well-being was included as an essential aspect of adaptation and climate resilience. New actions in the PCF included greater federal action to prevent illness from extreme heat events led by Health Canada and to reduce the risks associated with climate-driven infectious diseases led by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). Public health and climate change intersect in the area of infectious disease. To deliver on its new commitments in the PCF, PHAC established the Infectious Diseases and Climate Change (IDCC) program, and a new grants and contributions fund. The program has three principal aims: to increase PHAC's capacity to respond to the increasing demands posed by climate-driven infectious diseases; to provide Canadians access to timely and accurate information to better understand their risks and take measures to prevent infection; and to improve the adaptability or resiliency to the health impacts of infectious diseases through surveillance and monitoring, increased laboratory diagnostic capabilities, and access to education and awareness tools. In the first year of the IDCC Fund, a number of projects on monitoring and surveillance and on education and awareness have been approved. In collaboration with our stakeholders as well as governments at all levels and in all provinces and territories, PHAC will continue to work to raise awareness about the effects of climate change on the prevalence of infectious diseases and help Canadians to prepare for the anticipated and unanticipated impacts.

Climate Change and Health: Strengthening the Evidence Base for Policy

This comparative review of three assessment reports, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, (IPCC), The National Research Council (NRC), and United States Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), respectively is presented in response to comments in the press suggesting that the three reports varied substantially in their assessments of associations between global climate and infectious disease in humans. Comparisons of the assessment teams, approach, reports' findings, views on predictive modeling, recommendations to policymakers and future research are presented. All teams were interdisciplinary, two international, one US-based. Although their approaches differed somewhat, all addressed the role of climate change, El Nino and climate variability, and ultimately, human health, especially infectious disease. The panels agreed that a paucity of long-term data and complexity of relationships among factors affecting climate variability and change and human health rendered projections of current predictive models inadequate as the basis for policy decisions. Each team suggested further study of associations among climate variability/climate change and human infectious disease and downscaled models to project regional and subregional outcomes. Each added additional areas for investigation, e.g., mathematical modeling, effects of socioeconomic factors, emergence of zoonotic disease in humans, transmission dynamics of disease agents. Rather than disagreements, there were differences in emphasis on known components and on hypothesized additional contributing factors and relationships among climate and human infectious disease variables.

This paper describes the rainfall–runoff modelling for New South Wales (NSW) and Australian Capital Territory (ACT) under historical climate and the likely changes to runoff around the year 2030 for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) SRES A1B global warming scenario. Results show that the mean annual historical rainfall and runoff, averaged over the entire region, are 516 and 55 mm, respectively. There is considerable uncertainty in the global climate modelling (GCM) of rainfall response in the region to global warming. The majority of GCMs show a decrease in the mean annual rainfall and the median estimate indicates that future mean annual runoff in the region in ∼2030 relative to ∼1990 will be lower by 0–20% in the southern parts, no change to a slight reduction in the eastern parts and higher by 0–20% in the northwest corner. Averaged across the entire region, the median estimate is a 5% decrease in the mean annual runoff and the extreme estimates range from a 14% decrease to a 10% increase in mean annual runoff. This is the first comprehensive study on the hydrological impacts of climate change done in NSW that covers the entire state. Outputs from this study are being used to underpin the hydrology for a number of major climate change impact studies that are presently underway across NSW. The results and output datasets from this study will be available through a web interface and they can be used by all state government agencies and industries in NSW to plan for and adapt to the impacts of climate change. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Introduction: Mitigation, adaptation and urban form The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Report (2007) stresses the need for a fundamental transition in the structure and functioning of built environments to simultaneously mitigate climate change and adapt to the effects of global warming.Yet, mitigation and adaptation as discussed in Chapter 2, may actually be oppositional. For example, a development pattern that helps mitigate climate change may not be the best to adapt that settlement to the negative effects of global warming in its geographical location.The new chapter in the IPCC Fourth Report, 'Inter-Relationships Between Adaptation and Mitigation' (ch 18), readily acknowledges this challenge and identi-fies the urgent need to create synergies between adaptation and mitigation while acknowledging the difficulty of such interrelationship. Furthermore, mitigation and adaptation appear as two sides of the same coin in the literature on sustainable development and climate change, making an implicit association between sustainable urban form and disaster-resilient cities (Berke, 1995; Bury, 1998; El-Masri and Tapple, 2002; Bulkeley and Betsill, 2005). The IPCC (2007) claims that, 'making development more sustainable can enhance both mitigative and adaptive capacity, and reduce emissions and vulnerability to climate change' (p22). It also argues that 'enhancing society's response capacity through the pursuit of sustainable development is […] one way of promoting both adaptation and mitigation' (IPCC, 2007, p747). On the other hand, the literature on sustainable development has identified sustainable urban form with compactness as it is in the compact city where it is possible to achieve higher densities, mixed uses, pedestrian environments and mass public transit systems (Van der Ryb and Calthorpe, 1986; Elkin et al, 1991; Frey, 1999; Rudlin and Falk, 1999; Beatley, 2000; Jenks et al, 2002; Beatley and Wheeler, 2004; Girling and Kellet, 2005; Jenksand Dempsey, 2005; Jabareen, 2006).1 The corollary from the connection between sustainable urban form, compactness and the IPCC postulates above is that an urban form that is compact, dense, high-rise and transit-oriented is best positioned to mitigate climate change and, at the same time, to respond to the impacts of global warming. In this chapter, however, I argue that while sustainable development is indeed a desirable planning goal, as it produces more energy-efficient cities that help mitigate global warming, the association between compact urban form and disaster-resilient cities (i.e. cities that have the capacity to adapt to global warming) can be misleading; one thing does not necessarily imply the other. Furthermore, the implicit association between those two concepts may actually hinder our understanding of the connections between urban form and climate change.

In May 2021, a total of 67 infectious diseases were reported globally, affecting 225 countries and regions. Except for influenza, the top five infectious diseases affecting greatest number of countries and regions were corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19, 225), dengue fever (30), measles (29), poliomyelitis (15) and malaria (9). The top five infectious diseases with highest case fatality rates were Ebola virus disease (52.2%), Middle East respiratory syndrome (34.4%), lassa fever (20.3%), plague (6.0%) and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (5.3%). The top five infectious diseases with greatest number of deaths were COVID-19, malaria, measles, dengue fever and cholera. The prevalent infectious diseases in Asia were COVID-19 and dengue fever, the prevalent infectious diseases in Africa were COVID-19, Ebola virus disease, plague, cholera, yellow fever, lassa fever and Rift valley fever, the prevalent infectious diseases in America were COVID-19 and dengue fever, the prevalent infectious disease in Europe was COVID-19.

Better information on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and mitigation potential in the agricultural sector is necessary to manage these emissions and identify responses that are consistent with the food security and economic development priorities of countries. Critical activity data (what crops or livestock are managed in what way) are poor or lacking for many agricultural systems, especially in developing countries. In addition, the currently available methods for quantifying emissions and mitigation are often too expensive or complex or not sufficiently user friendly for widespread use.The purpose of this focus issue is to capture the state of the art in quantifying greenhouse gases from agricultural systems, with the goal of better understanding our current capabilities and near-term potential for improvement, with particular attention to quantification issues relevant to smallholders in developing countries. This work is timely in light of international discussions and negotiations around how agriculture should be included in efforts to reduce and adapt to climate change impacts, and considering that significant climate financing to developing countries in post-2012 agreements may be linked to their increased ability to identify and report GHG emissions (Murphy et al 2010, CCAFS 2011, FAO 2011).