scholarly journals Increasing mitigation ambition to meet the Paris Agreement’s temperature goal avoids substantial heat-related mortality in U.S. cities

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. eaau4373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. T. Eunice Lo ◽  
Daniel M. Mitchell ◽  
Antonio Gasparrini ◽  
Ana M. Vicedo-Cabrera ◽  
Kristie L. Ebi ◽  
...  

Current greenhouse gas mitigation ambition is consistent with ~3°C global mean warming above preindustrial levels. There is a clear need to strengthen mitigation ambition to stabilize the climate at the Paris Agreement goal of warming of less than 2°C. We specify the differences in city-level heat-related mortality between the 3°C trajectory and warming of 2° and 1.5°C. Focusing on 15 U.S. cities where reliable climate and health data are available, we show that ratcheting up mitigation ambition to achieve the 2°C threshold could avoid between 70 and 1980 annual heat-related deaths per city during extreme events (30-year return period). Achieving the 1.5°C threshold could avoid between 110 and 2720 annual heat-related deaths. Population changes and adaptation investments would alter these numbers. Our results provide compelling evidence for the heat-related health benefits of limiting global warming to 1.5°C in the United States.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eunice Lo ◽  
Dann Mitchell ◽  
Antonio Gasparrini ◽  
Ana Vicedo-Cabrera

<p>Extreme heat is associated with increased risks of human mortality. In a warming climate, extreme heat events are projected to intensify and become more frequent, potentially adversely affecting human health. The Paris Agreement aims at limiting global mean temperature rise this century to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, but mitigation ambition as established in nations’ initial Nationally Determined Contributions still implies ~3°C warming. Quantifying the differences in extreme heat-related mortality between 1.5, 2 and 3°C warming is essential to understanding the public health impacts of climate policies and how societies may adapt to a warming climate.</p><p>In this talk, I will show a new approach to projecting extreme heat-related mortality using the Half a degree Additional warming, Prognosis and Projected Impacts (HAPPI) large ensemble and health models. The large ensemble of HAPPI simulations of the 1.5, 2 and 3°C warmer worlds allows extreme heat events and their health impacts in these worlds to be examined, rather than the mean climates. Using published case studies of the United States and Europe; I will demonstrate that limiting global mean warming from 3°C to 2°C or 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels could reduce heat-related mortality associated with extreme heat events, with the 1.5°C limit being substantially more beneficial to public health than 2°C. In addition to climate change, I will discuss the roles of urbanisation, population changes and adaptation in future extreme heat exposure and heat-related mortality.</p>


AJIL Unbound ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 115 ◽  
pp. 80-85
Author(s):  
Daniel Bodansky

After four years of not simply inaction but significant retrogression in U.S. climate change policy, the Biden administration has its work cut out. As a start, it needs to undo what Trump did. The Biden administration took a step in that direction on Day 1 by rejoining the Paris Agreement. But simply restoring the pre-Trump status quo ante is not enough. The United States also needs to push for more ambitious global action. In part, this will require strengthening parties’ nationally determined contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement; but it will also require actions by what Sue Biniaz, the former State Department climate change lawyer, likes to call the Greater Metropolitan Paris Agreement—that is, the array of other international actors that help advance the Paris Agreement's goals, including global institutions such as the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the Montreal Protocol, and the World Bank, as well as regional organizations and non-state actors. Although the Biden administration can pursue some of these international initiatives directly through executive action, new regulatory initiatives will face an uncertain fate in the Supreme Court. So how much the Biden Administration is able to achieve will likely depend significantly on how much a nearly evenly-divided Congress is willing to support.


2015 ◽  
Vol 126 (2) ◽  
pp. 258-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne Zane ◽  
Andreea A. Creanga ◽  
Cynthia J. Berg ◽  
Karen Pazol ◽  
Danielle B. Suchdev ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-79
Author(s):  
Carmela Alcántara ◽  
Shakira F. Suglia ◽  
Irene Perez Ibarra ◽  
A. Louise Falzon ◽  
Elliot McCullough ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Esteban Correa-Agudelo ◽  
Tesfaye B. Mersha ◽  
Adam J. Branscum ◽  
Neil J. MacKinnon ◽  
Diego F. Cuadros

We characterized vulnerable populations located in areas at higher risk of COVID-19-related mortality and low critical healthcare capacity during the early stage of the epidemic in the United States. We analyze data obtained from a Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 database to assess the county-level spatial variation of COVID-19-related mortality risk during the early stage of the epidemic in relation to health determinants and health infrastructure. Overall, we identified highly populated and polluted areas, regional air hub areas, race minorities (non-white population), and Hispanic or Latino population with an increased risk of COVID-19-related death during the first phase of the epidemic. The 10 highest COVID-19 mortality risk areas in highly populated counties had on average a lower proportion of white population (48.0%) and higher proportions of black population (18.7%) and other races (33.3%) compared to the national averages of 83.0%, 9.1%, and 7.9%, respectively. The Hispanic and Latino population proportion was higher in these 10 counties (29.3%, compared to the national average of 9.3%). Counties with major air hubs had a 31% increase in mortality risk compared to counties with no airport connectivity. Sixty-eight percent of the counties with high COVID-19-related mortality risk also had lower critical care capacity than the national average. The disparity in health and environmental risk factors might have exacerbated the COVID-19-related mortality risk in vulnerable groups during the early stage of the epidemic.


Author(s):  
Manjul Gupta ◽  
Carlos M. Parra ◽  
Denis Dennehy

AbstractOne realm of AI, recommender systems have attracted significant research attention due to concerns about its devastating effects to society’s most vulnerable and marginalised communities. Both media press and academic literature provide compelling evidence that AI-based recommendations help to perpetuate and exacerbate racial and gender biases. Yet, there is limited knowledge about the extent to which individuals might question AI-based recommendations when perceived as biased. To address this gap in knowledge, we investigate the effects of espoused national cultural values on AI questionability, by examining how individuals might question AI-based recommendations due to perceived racial or gender bias. Data collected from 387 survey respondents in the United States indicate that individuals with espoused national cultural values associated to collectivism, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance are more likely to question biased AI-based recommendations. This study advances understanding of how cultural values affect AI questionability due to perceived bias and it contributes to current academic discourse about the need to hold AI accountable.


2004 ◽  
Vol 50 (8) ◽  
pp. 1301-1314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shawn D Carrigan ◽  
George Scott ◽  
Maryam Tabrizian

Abstract Sepsis in the United States has an estimated annual healthcare cost of $16.7 billion and leads to 120 000 deaths. Insufficient development in both medical diagnosis and treatment of sepsis has led to continued growth in reported cases of sepsis over the past two decades with little improvement in mortality statistics. Efforts over the last decade to improve diagnosis have unsuccessfully sought to identify a “magic bullet” proteic biomarker that provides high sensitivity and specificity for infectious inflammation. More recently, genetic methods have made tracking regulation of the genes responsible for these biomarkers possible, giving current research new direction in the search to understand how host immune response combats infection. Despite the breadth of research, inadequate treatment as a result of delayed diagnosis continues to affect approximately one fourth of septic patients. In this report we review past and present diagnostic methods for sepsis and their respective limitations, and discuss the requirements for more timely diagnosis as the next step in curtailing sepsis-related mortality. We also present a proposal toward revision of the current diagnostic paradigm to include real-time immune monitoring.


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