The public health impact of global climate change

Abstract

Accurate predictions of the public health impact of global climatic changes are hampered by the absence of a dose-response relationship between climate change and human health and imprecise, often conflicting, meteorological models of climate change. Public health officials are obligated to educate policy makers and the public about the significant threats posed to population health and quality of life by the inexorable progression of global climate change. Only an enlightened public consciousness can muster the political will required to press for policy changes and to support new technologies to conserve energy and to protect the environment from manmade agents of destruction.