Climate Change and Human Health

This chapter focuses on the consequences to human health from climate change. We argue that the prospects for global human health are more ominous than most informed activists for global health realise. Unsurprisingly, risks to human health increase with the severity of climate change. After reviewing the history of the concerns about climate change and health, the chapter reviews some of the primary (heatwaves and other extreme weather events), secondary (kidney disease) and tertiary (large-scale violence) health risks. The mental health effects of some of these issues, which can arise in association with any of these categories, are also discussed. We also mention some possible effects, specific to children. Healthcares own considerable carbon footprint and resource consumption are described, with suggestions for improvement. While the focus of the chapter is mostly global, we briefly mention air pollution from coal-fired electricity generation in Australia, where a comparatively high proportion of electricity is generated by this method.