Heat Advisory: Protecting Health on a Warming Planet

by Alan H. Lockwood

How climate change can affect our health, from heat-related illnesses to extreme weather events. Climate change affects not just the planet but the people who live on it. In this book, physician Alan Lockwood describes how global warming will be bad for our health. Drawing on peer-reviewed scientific and medical research, Lockwood meticulously details the symptoms of climate change and their medical side effects. Our global ecosystems create webs of interdependence that support life on the planet. Lockwood shows how climate change is affecting these ecosystems and describes the resulting impact on health. For example, rising temperatures create long-duration heat waves during which people sicken and die. Climate change increases the risk for certain infectious diseases, including malaria, dengue fever, West Nile virus, Zika, and Lyme disease. Extreme weather and poor soil conditions cause agricultural shortfalls, leading to undernutrition and famine. There is even evidence that violence increases in warmer weather—including a study showing that pitchers throw “beanballs” (balls thrown with the intention of hitting the batter) significantly more often in hot weather. Climate change is real and it is happening now. We must use what we know to adapt to a warmer world and minimize adverse health make city buildings cooler with air conditioning and “cool roofs,” for example, and mobilize resources for predicted outbreaks of disease. But, Lockwood points out, we also need prevention. The ultimate preventive medicine is reducing greenhouse gas emissions and replacing energy sources that depend on fossil fuels with those that do not.

256 pages, Paperback

Published August 11, 2017

Reviews

[Kes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good introduction to the effect of climate change on humanity. Seven chapters deal on each of the various aspects:

3: Heat and Severe Weather (I had not thought of the impact of heatwaves before, and this part was eye-opening)
4. Infectious Diseases
5. Agriculture (I liked the distinction between C3 and C4 crops, and the difference the increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will have. I also liked the observation that civilisations have fallen due to environmental change.)
6. Sea Level Rise and Environmental Refugees (I had not known of the impact of Cycle Bhola on the eventual establishment of Bangladesh as an independent nation.)
7. Air Pollution, Air Quality, and Climate Change (the revelation that the required minimum American air quality standards have been falling is surprising.)
8. Violence, Conflict and Societal Disruption

I enjoyed the references and the tone is readable. I also enjoyed that he took some time to analyse the various studies and point out the flaws (e.g. they can reference each other to a great extent). This is a good primer for those intending to read further.