Human health risks from a changing climate—Kristie Ebi

Media are welcome to attend a talk in Victoria this Wednesday by leading health expert Kristie Ebi on how communities should prepare for the risks to human health caused by climate change.

Kristie Ebi is director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment, and a professor in the Departments of Global Health and of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington.

Her public talk, hosted by the University of Victoria-led Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS), will be held on the UVic campus.

Ebi says climate change is having far-reaching consequences for human health and these risks will grow in the coming decades.

“Climate change is affecting everything from changes in the frequency and intensity of heat waves, forest fires and floods, to expanding the geographic range and seasonality of infectious diseases, such as malaria,” she says. “Decreased water availability and agricultural productivity will also affect levels of undernutrition, and we can expect impacts on air quality arising from changing concentrations of ozone, particulate matter, or aeroallergens.”

Ebi says research in British Columbia and elsewhere shows that heat-related morbidity and mortality could increase in southern regions such as the Lower Mainland with additional climate change. And she says adverse changes in air quality and aeroallergens would also affect individuals with allergies and other respiratory diseases.  

Ebi says the choices we make now will impact how vulnerable individuals and communities are to future health risks. She says that policies and programs must consider climate change if they aim to facilitate healthy and sustainable societies in the face of a changing climate.

For more information, visit the PICS website calendar.

What: Free public lecture by leading public health expert Dr. Kristie Ebi
When: Wednesday, Feb. 1 from 7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Where: Bob Wright Centre, room 104, University of Victoria

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