This year’s challenging heatwaves in the UK with record breaking high temperatures should be a stark reminder to us of the effects of climate change. However, the impact of climate change is a global problem with some areas of the world being more vulnerable to its effects.
According to the World Health Organization: ‘Despite contributing minimally to global emissions, low-income countries and small island developing states (SIDS) endure the harshest health impacts. In vulnerable regions, the death rate from extreme weather events in the last decade was 15 times higher than in less vulnerable ones’
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Climate change is increasingly affecting human health by changing environmental conditions and increasing the frequency and severity of extreme weather events.
The main cause of climate change is from humans burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. This leads to environmental pollution, large rises in temperature and extreme weather events. The consequences of climate change can be both direct and indirect and include forced displacement and loss of livelihood, food and water insecurity, poverty and harm to health and health care systems, increased poor mental health.
A small selection of books on climate change are currently on display in the Library’s Reading Room. You can search for library resources using the library’s search tool Discover.
Books on display:
Parry, M. & Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Working Group II. (2007) Climate change 2007 : impacts, adaptation and vulnerability : contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
Parry, M. L. (2009) Assessing the costs of adaptation to climate change : a review of the UNFCCC estimates. London: International Institute for Environment and Development.
FitzRoy, F. & Papyrakis, E. (2010) An introduction to climate change economics and policy. London ; Earthscan.
Griffiths, J. (2009) The health practitioner’s guide to climate change : diagnosis and cure. London ; Earthscan.
O’Neill, B. C. et al. (2005) Population and climate change. 1st pbk. ver. Cambridge, UK ; Cambridge University Press.
Butler, C. D. (2014) Climate change and global health. Wallingford, Oxfordshire ; CABI.
Global Humanitarian Forum (2009) The anatomy of a silent crisis. Geneva: Global Humanitarian Forum.
Bodansky, D. et al. (2017) International climate change law. First edition. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
Levy, B. S. & Patz, J. (eds.) (2015) Climate change and public health. Oxford ; Oxford University Press.
McMichael, A. J. et al. (2003) Climate change and human health : risks and responses. Geneva: World Health Organization.
Sasser, J. (2018) On infertile ground : population control and women’s rights in the era of climate change. New York: New York University Press.
E Books:
Friel, S. (2019) Climate change and the people’s health. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. [online].
Knowlton, K. (2021) Global climate change and human health : from science to practice. Second edition. Jay Lemery & Cecilia Sorensen (eds). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. [online].
