Extreme Weather Events and Human Health
Description
This edited book assesses the impacts of various extreme weather events on human health and development from a global perspective, and includes several case studies in various geographical regions around the globe.
Covering all continents, it describes the impact of extreme weather conditions such as flash floods, heatwaves, cold waves, droughts, forest fires, strong winds and storms in both developing and developed countries. The contributing authors also investigate the spread of diseases and the risk to food security caused by drought and flooding.Further, the book discusses the economic damage resulting from natural disasters including hurricanes. It has been estimated that in 2017 natural disasters and climate change resulted in economic losses of 309 billion US dollars. Scientists also predict that if nothing is done to curb the effects of climate change, in Europe the death toll due to weather disasters could rise 50-fold by the end of the21st century, with extreme heat alone causing more than 150,000 deaths a year, as the report on global warming of 1.5°C warns that China, Russia and Canada's current climate policies would steer the world above a catastrophic 5°C of warming by the end of 2100. As such, the book highlights how the wellbeing of different populations is threatened by extreme events now and in the foreseeable future.
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Prof. Rais Akhtar is Adjunct Professor CO-P.I. on the Dept. of Science and Technology (Govt. of India) Project on climate change and health, at the International Institute of Health Management and Research, New Delhi, New Delhi.
He has published more than 18 books and numerous articles on medical geography and climate change and health. Prof. Akhtar delivered lectures at a number of medical institutes including, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Johns' Hopkins University School of Public Health and the Institute of Public Health, University of Pisa. He has also received numerous international fellowships, including Lever Hulme and Henry Chapman fellowships of the University of Liverpool and the University of London, and as part of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Prof. Akhtar received Nobel Prize Memento after IPCC shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore in 2007.