Climate change is a reality widely accepted by the scientific community. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, increasing temperatures worldwide are a crucial component of climate change and the alterations in temperature will impact nearly every area of human interactions resulting in “greater likelihood of injury, disease and death”. However, according to The Lancet, climate change could also be “the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century”. In this presentation, we will discuss the health impacts of climate change in three areas: respiratory health, vector-borne diseases and mental health.
Cecilia Sierra-Heredia is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University (SFU). She has taught courses in Environmental Health and Research Methods.