Understanding climate’s effect on the health of Americans

The Water, Climate and Health Program brings together experts from UNMC, DWFI and the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska to address Nebraska’s most pressing public health issues related to water and climate. Water, Climate and Health Program Director Jesse Bell also serves on DWFI’s leadership team. The program makes an impact both in Nebraska and around the globe.

WCHP contributes to National Climate Assessment

The WCHP has taken a leading role in the Fifth National Climate Assessment. After three years of collaboration, Bell and Ali S. Khan, dean of UNMC’s College of Public Health will make their final contributions to the assessment this fall.

Federally mandated by Congress in the Global Change Research Act of 1990, the National Climate Assessment is released every five years to serve as the foremost review of research on the current and future impacts of climate change in the United States. After a national search for contributors, Bell and Khan were nominated in 2020 to serve as authors of the assessment’s chapter on human health.

UNMC is among a small number of academic institutions to have multiple representatives contribute to the Fifth National Climate Assessment, which involves 450 authors and 850 total collaborators.

“The Fifth National Climate Assessment is the most complete and accurate assessment of the impact of climate change on Americans to inform actions and policy changes,” Khan said. “The review process includes multiple rounds of public comments and federal agency reviews and a final review by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.”

“The initial findings are unequivocal — humans are responsible for global warming and the health (and multitude of other) impacts are already happening,” he said. “With political action, we can mitigate additional damage to our health and environment and adapt to the impacts that are already occurring and will continue to occur.”

Bell said the assessment has been one of the most thorough projects he has ever worked on and brings together diverse expertise from multiple perspectives.

“The impacts of climate change are here now. We live in a changed climate and see the current impacts of climate change on human health and will continue to see them in the future,” he said.

The Fifth National Climate Assessment is undergoing final review and will be published in full later this year.

Drought brings heat, health issues

Drought is one of the costliest and deadliest climate-related disasters in the United States, necessitating public health engagement at a national level. Although drought is not typically thought of as a health hazard, human health outcomes related to drought are prevalent and numerous. To better understand these pathways and actions that could be taken to reduce health impacts associated with drought, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) supported the first comprehensive assessment of drought and health.

In partnership with the WCHP, NIDIS hosted a national summit and five regional workshops on the topic of drought and health between 2019–2022 to meet these objectives. To supplement the information shared during the regional workshops, and in response to delays in the regional in-person workshops caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the partnership also conducted one-on-one interviews with state health departments across the United States.

The resulting report, Drought and Public Health: A Roadmap for Advancing Engagement and Preparedness, represents the culmination of knowledge gathering from those events and interviews. It provides insights into the connection between drought events and human health impacts, along with specific examples and an overview of the principles of public health and engagement. In addition, the report gives a list of key opportunities and recommended actions to advance drought and public health engagement and preparedness based upon extensive dialogue and feedback from academic and practitioner communities across drought and public health disciplines.

The report, developed through the NIDIS and UNMC partnership, also received funding and other support from the Claire M. Hubbard Foundation and DWFI. The report is intended to inform and direct future efforts and investments in drought and public health by federal, state, and local agencies, with the goal of mitigating the public health impacts of drought events.