Dr Amit Purushottam (Climate Change and Ethics)

CLIMATE CHANGE –
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
GOALS AND RESEARCH NEEDS
Dr. Amit Purushottam
carcs.in(Non Profit Consultancy)
6299893489

OUT LINES OF PRESENTATION
• CLIMATE CHANGE IDENTIFIED BY THE FACTS
• SUSTAINABILITY GOALS
• RESEARCH NEEDS
PRESENT STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENT
REDUCING THE POLLUTION
ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT
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CLIMATE CHANGE IDENTIFIED BY THE FACTS
If we observe the state of environmental
change in the last five decades there is
Temperature raise / greenhouse gases
Pollution of air, water soil etc.,
Polar ice melting
Sea level rise
Floods, tsunamis, earth quakes, unseasonal rains.

SUSTAINABILITY GOALS
Sustainable goals are
promote sustainable agriculture for
poverty alleviation, end hunger, achieve food
security and improve nutrition.
Conservation of Biodiversity.
Natural resource use especially water
Energy use,
Economic growth and employment,
Sustainable production and consumption,
Climate change,
Ecosystem management in water and on land.

RESEARCH NEEDS
1.Monitoring and surveillance of the present status of the environment at
local, regional, national and global level and the impact assessment.
still in many regions this data is required as new emerging pollutants are
still damaging the environment and biota and as a whole the ecosystem by
increasing use of drugs, personal care products, pesticides, fertilizers and
chemicals from emissions and effluents from new industries etc.,
2. Development of technologies for reducing pollution
for eg. Methods development for carbon sequestration to reduce carbon content
in the environment.
3.Development of methods / technologies for alternative utilization of
resources.
for eg. Use of biofuels / solar energy
- Studies on ecological and human health impacts due to climate change
study of an overview of drivers and their potential impacts on ecological
and human health
Development of methods and tools for assessing impacts of climate
change on human health
Study on risk analysis and methods for determining appropriate adaptive
responses. CopyRight protected carcs.in

PRESENT STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENT
Evaluation of the following at local, regional, national to
global level and impact assessment on the ecosystem is
to be done
Pollution status
Study of agricultural practices to meet the needs of
population growth
Natural resources both renewable and non
renewable resources availability, utilization,
depletion rate etc.,
Ecosystem damage
Human health status.
Forest cover
Biodiversity.

REDUCING THE POLLUTION
• To conduct various studies on the ways and
means to reduce the pollution – reduce, reuse
and recover practices.
• Technology development for detoxifying the
pollutants.
• Innovation and use of degradable chemicals.
• Reduce, reuse and recovery technologies
development.
• Forest cover maintenance with biodiversity
maintenance.

ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT
• Development of innovative technologies for
alternative use of energy like solar energy
utilization, biofuel development etc.
• Less polluting process technologies
development for industries and use of
chemicals and gases that are released as
emissions and effluents from the industries.
• Innovation of conservative technologies for
the minimum utilization of natural resources
especially non renewable resources.

Human health related studies with
respect to climate change
• Climate change and health
• Pathways for weather to affect health
• Potential health impacts of climate change
– Extreme weather events
• Temperature
• Storms/floods
– Drinking water supply
– Air quality
– Food production and security
– Vector-borne diseases
– Food and water borne disease
• Diarrhoeal diseases
– Other indirect impacts.

• There is consideration worldwide on the potential health impacts from
global climate change.
• Three kinds of health impacts have been identified:
– Relatively direct impacts, usually caused by weather extremes
– Consequences of environmental change and ecological disruption in
response to climatic change
– Consequences that occur when populations are demoralised and
displaced by the following climate change induced factors:
• economic dislocation,
• environmental decline and conflict situations including traumatic,
infectious, nutritional, psychological and other health
consequences.

For example Direct Impacts to Health from Heat
• The human body maintains body temperature in ambient
temperatures not exceeding 32 degrees C
• Above this temperature, heat lost through the skin and
sweating
• Heat-related illness occurs when the body unable to adequately
cool
• Minimum ambient temperatures are also important:
a) Difficulties cooling when minimum temperature is greater
than 22 degrees C
• High humidity reduces effectiveness of sweating and increases
the risk of heat-related illness at any given temperature.

Impacts to Health from Increased Temperatures
• Direct impacts to health:
a) Heat cramps – muscular pains and spasms
b) Heat exhaustion – body fluids are lost through heavy sweating
c) Heat stroke – is life threatening.
• Indirect impacts:
a) Range of areas that can potentially be affected with gradual and
extreme temperature increases
b) Includes impacts on ecosystems, water, food, disease-carrying
vectors, lifestyle, community resilience.
c) The innovative strategy is how best we can able to reduce the
environmental temperatures by knowing the source of the
generation and reduce the temperature.

Health Impacts of Floods
• Immediate deaths and injuries
• Non-specific increases in mortality
• Infectious diseases – leptospirosis,
hepatitis, diarrheal, respiratory, and
vector-borne diseases
• Exposure to toxic substances
• Mental health effects
• Indirect effects
• Increased demands on health
systems.

Environmental
Conditions
Social Conditions
(upstream determinants
of health
Health System
Conditions
Climate
Change
Direct Exposures
Indirect
Exposures
(Changes in food
quality, disease
vectors,
ecosystem
changes)
Changes in Social
Disruption
Health
Impacts
Modifying
Influence
Pathways for Weather to Affect Health

Health effects
Temperature-related illness and
death
Extreme weather- related health
effects
Air pollution-related health
effects
Water and food-borne diseases
Vector-borne and rodent- borne
diseases
Effects of food and water
shortages
Effects of population
displacement
CLIMATE
CHANGE
Human exposures
Regional weather
changes
Heat waves
Extreme weather
Temperature
Precipitation
Source: based on Patz, et al., 2000
Modulating
influences
Mapping Links Between Climate Change and Health
• Most expected impacts will be adverse but some will be beneficial.
• Expectations are not for new health risks, but rather changes in frequency or
severity of familiar health risks
Contamination
pathways
Transmission
dynamics
Agro-ecosystems,
hydrology
Socioeconomics,
demographics

Vulnerability
• Degree to which individuals and systems are susceptible to,
or unable to cope with, the adverse effects of climate
change, including climate variability and extremes
• Integration of:
• Need to identify and address the vulnerability components
individually and integrated for specific sectors and
communities.
Regional Economi
c
Social Infrastructure
& Services
Overall
Vulnerability

Climatic Change: Drinking Water
Supply• Drying climate causes:
– Changes to land cover and run-off patterns
(erosion)
– Increased bushfire risk
– Increased sediment, nutrient and debris.
• Flooding can also affect drinking water supplies:
– Coastal intrusion
– Contamination.

Climatic Change: Drinking Water Supply
• Reduction in flows to dams and groundwater
aquifers
• Increased evaporation from surface water storages
• Salt water intrusion into coastal aquifers
• Acidification of susceptible inland aquifers
• Increased risk from the:
a) Concentration of nutrient and
chemical contaminants
b) Formation of toxic algal bloom

Climatic Change: Air Quality
• Weather has a major role in the
development, transport,
dispersion and deposition of air
pollutants
• Air pollution episodes are often
associated with stationary or
slowly moving air masses
• Air pollutants and fine
particulate matter may change
in response to climate change.

Climatic Change: Air Quality
• Airflow on edges of a high-pressure
system can transport ozone
precursors. Ozone levels are
increasing in many areas
• An increase in fire events will mean
increased toxic gases and particulates
• Changes in wind pattern may
increase long-range transport of air
pollutants
• Weather patterns can enhance
urban “heat islands” which can lead
to elevated pollution levels.

Potential health Impacts
• Ozone – pneumonia, COPD, asthma,
allergic rhinitis and others – premature
mortality
• Particulate matter (PM) – known to affect
morbidity and mortality
• Toxic gases and PM from fires contribute
to acute and chronic respiratory illness.
Evidence from 1997 Indonesia fires –
transboundary impacts
• Wind blown dust (respirable particles,
trace elements) from desert regions can
affect populations in remote areas.
Evidence that mortality is increased in the
days after a dust storm.

Mosquito-borne-disease: Environmental Changes
Distribution of vectors will change
arising from:
• Increasing temperature
• Changing rainfall:
a) Increase or decrease
b) Seasonality
• Cyclones, flooding
• Changes in animal host/reservoir
populations
• Rising sea levels
• Extreme tides
• Loss of coastal margins.

Mosquito-borne-disease: Human Factors
Location of population:
– Geographic location
– Proximity to water bodies
Urban environment:
– Peri-domestic breeding
Mobility of population
– Arrival of infected people
a) International
b) Interstate
c) Intrastate
Living standards:
– Insect screens, air conditioning
– Social/political breakdown.

Mosquito-borne-disease: Water
Management
Breeding is also influenced by:
• Water hoarding/storage:
a) Rainwater tanks
b)Uncovered containers
• Dams
• Irrigation
• Groundwater recharge.

Food Production: Land
Land based agriculture:
• Food production, loss of soil
fertility, erosion and salinization:
– Changes in crop yields and
protein levels (+/-)
– Effects on feed intakes and animal
reproduction
– Changes to pests, weeds and
diseases
– Changes to use of agrochemicals
• Dietary and nutritional changes

Food Production: Fisheries
Oceanic and coastal fisheries:
• A change in coastal circulation patterns
can affect:
– Nutrient supply
– Lagoon flushing
– Coastal erosion
– Ocean acidity and coral bleaching
– Decline in productivity.

Food Safety
• Food borne disease may
cause food poisoning:
– May increase the
proliferation of bacterial
pathogens including
Salmonella, Campylobacter
and Listeria spp.
– May increase mycotoxins
and aflatoxins in seafood.

Studies on Social Impacts
Lifestyle and behaviour are likely to be affected in the following
ways:
• Increased temperatures:
– Increases in crime - particularly involving aggression
– Accidents - workplace and traffic
– Decline in physical health
– Hot nights may cause sleep deprivation
– Recreational opportunities - changes to exercise patterns
– Changes in alcohol consumption
– Stress
– Lack of cold water- reduced ability to cool down

Establish Scenario of Potential Climate Projection
• Obtain climate data from a range of sources including the IPCC:
– Use 2030 as a starting point for health impacts
Example:
• Expected average temperature increases: (e.g. 10 to 30C)
• Increases in the number of days over 350C (heatwave temp)
– Choose your regions
• Rainfall changes in:
– Seasonal changes across regions
• Sea-level increases by x cm by 2030 and y cm by 2100
• Extreme weather events such as:
– Heatwaves – more per year
– Droughts – more frequent and severe
– Bushfires – increased risk
– Flooding – increased intensity
– Storms – increased intensity
– Tropical cyclones – increased intensity.

Expected effects on coast and sea
Sea level rise
Increased water temperatures
Changes in meteorological events
Changes in wind climate
Changes in the hydrological cycle and water
balance

1. Topics: eutrophication, climate change, wetlands
2. Data: listing of available databases, overview of data
3. Tools: models, measurements
4. Case studies: regionally, thematic
5. Relevant projects: listing
6. Best practice, recommendations for Policy making
7. Networking, globally
8. Capacity building
The research should includes

What is Needed?
Knowledge need to understand the likely impacts of
climate change on health and the
effectiveness of existing adaptation
strategies
Awareness need to develop awareness of the threats
from climate change and the need for action
Action need to begin planning and then implementing
effective adaptation strategies
Integration Bring health perspective to other municipal
activities (e.g., transportation, urban planning,
greencover, social services, affordable housing,
agriculture, etc.)
The Public Health Response

(d) Determine priorities for planning (vulnerability assessment)
(b) Make the commitment to prepare for climate change
(a) Information gathering – how will climate change affect my
community/region? (an ongoing part of the process)
(c) Assemble your planning “team” and bring them up to speed
(e) Develop and implement your adaptation “plan”
(f) Periodically revisit your adaptation plan for needed adjustments
– how has the science, your community changed?
TheBasicProcess

THE MITIGATION CHALLENGE: NEED FOR APPLYING KNOWN RESEARCH
AND DEVELOP NEW ONES
• Human activity (combustion of fossil fuels and to some extent the reduction
of terrestrial forests and other land-use changes) has significantly altered the
global climate system due to increasing concentration of GHG in the
atmosphere
• Carbon dioxide is by far the dominant contributor of the greenhouse gases
inducing an enhanced GHG effect
• IPCC-TAR show that by the year 2100, up to 1500 GtC eq. of cumulative
emissions need to be avoided to achieve stabilisation of atmospheric GHG,
however it could be reduced by a factor of 5 if development pathways of
nations and regions become more sustainable (B1-SRES)
• Changing the way we produce and use energy is a major contributor though
other sectoral changes are required-using existing knowledge and
development of new knowledge

Research needs
1. Quantitative assessments, with emphasis on extremes, range of
climate variation
2. Thresholds at which strongly discontinuous responses triggered
3. Understanding dynamic responses of ecosystems to multiple
stresses at a range of scales
4. Adaptation: estimation of effectiveness and costs of options,
opportunities, obstacles, by region, nation, population
5. Assessment of impacts in multiple metrics, with consistent
treatment of uncertainties, taking into account stabilization and
other policy scenarios
6. Tools: integrated assessment, risk assessment
7. Opportunities to include scientific information in decision making
8. Improvement of systems and methods for long-term monitoring

Summary
• Climate change is real and we need to be doing
something about it
• The longer we wait, the fewer our options
• Regional patterns of warming will be complicated
• Climate surprises can’t be discounted
• Climate change will create regional
agricultural winners and losers
• Climate change carries ethical implications.
.

Do something today for better living tomorrow
DO ADD YOUR RESEARCH FINDINGS OF YOUR AREA TO
CONTRIBUTE FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE
CLIMATE CHANGE AND ITS EFFECTS ON ECOSYSTEM AND
HUMAN HEALTH. WHICH IS THE NEED OF THE HOUR.
THIS INFORMATION MIGHT HAVE HELPED YOU ALL FOR
GETTING INNOVATIVE IDEAS FOR MANAGING YOUR LOCAL
ENVIRONMENT.

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THANK YOU

• For Queries Contact:
• Dr. Amit Purushottam,Hazaribagh,Jharkhand.
• +91-6299893489
• Thank You

Dr Amit Purushottam (Climate Change and Ethics)

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