Groundbreaking Assessment Provides Insight on the Potential Impact of Climate Change on U.S. Health
A new report, The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment, from the U.S. Global Change Research Program provides a comprehensive assessment of climate change’s potential future health impacts in the United States. The report relies on available scientific evidence to summarize the likelihood of these impacts and, where possible, quantifies them. The report is part of the ongoing National Climate Assessment (NCA) process and was called for under the President’s Climate Action Plan. The assessment was developed by more than 100 experts working across many U.S. Federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). In addition to the interagency effort, contractors, affiliates, and the public were also part of the assessment, which was reviewed by a committee of the National Academies of Sciences. The report was released April 4 at the White House.
Abt Senior Associate David Mills is a lead author and Alexis St. Juliana, Abt Senior Analyst, is a contributing author for the report’s chapter Temperature-Related Death and Illness (Chapter 2). Among the chapter’s key findings, is that without additional adaptation, climate change could result in thousands of additional temperature-attributable deaths per year by the end of the century in the United States. This finding is supported by novel research highlighted in the chapter that was co-authored by Mills, St. Juliana and Abt Global’s Russell Jones and Jennifer Peers with critical support from Anna Belova, Hardee Mahoney, and Pearl Zheng.
David Mills, Senior Associate “This report shows every U.S. resident is vulnerable to the health impacts associated with climate change,” said Mills. “The comprehensive nature of this report, and its exhaustive review of available information, provides those interested in understanding and addressing the potential adverse health impacts of climate change in the U.S. with a critical resource to advance their efforts.”
Read the report.
