Climate change harms health through extreme heat, poor air quality, stronger storms, and disrupted food and water systems. Rising temperatures increase heat-related illness, worsen chronic respiratory and heart conditions through air pollution, and intensify mental health stress after disasters. Climate-driven changes also influence access to safe water, food security, and the emergence of infectious diseases. Project Echo’s resource library is great! HERE is a video of climate scientist, Kris Karnauskus, describing the science of climate change and HERE is a more in-depth course.Learn more about climate change on extreme weather HERE.

Learn more about healthcare mitigation/adaptation.

Learn more about air quality.

Learn more about water and food-related illnesses impacted by climate change.

Learn more about mental health and climate change.

Learn more about temperature-related illness.

Shifting climates expand the geographic range of disease vectors like mosquitoes, ticks, and sandflies. This allows diseases such as malaria, dengue, Zika, and Lyme disease to appear in areas that previously lacked them. Additionally, warmer waters foster harmful algal blooms, leading to more cases of foodborne and waterborne illness. Emerging pathogens, including drug-resistant fungi such as Candida auris, have been linked to rising environmental temperatures, showing how the warming climate pressures microbes to adapt in dangerous ways. We recently interviewed pediatric infectious diseases experts on changing infectious diseases patterns. 

Case studies 

https://www.medicineforachangingplanet.org/