Events
February 9, 2011
Climate change will impact public health
Get ready for the heat. "[Scientists] think 2012 is going to be a whopper," said Jeremy Hess at the Feb. 2 Institute of Developing Nations' "Making a Difference" speaker series.
"For the last 10 years, we've been setting temperature records every year. And it's expected to continue," said the assistant professor of emergency medicine and environmental health.
"There will be very dramatic changes in the weather as a result of climate change," Hess said. "There is a very clear warming trend; last year tied for warmest on record."
There will be more storms from ocean warming, "and we're seeing more extreme storms," he said, like the floods in Australia and Hurricane Katrina.
However, he added, "It's hard to attribute an event to climate change, but we can attribute trends."
Hess showed maps with the historical increases in temperature from 1880-2009, with average temperatures increasing .5 degrees Celsius.
"The rise we're talking about will actually be 10 times greater than what we've seen," he said.
