Welcome to Adobe GoLive 4 by Paul R. Epstein Climate change and the biological responses to it are occurring at a rate unforeseen just several years ago. Worldwide, extreme weather events, compounded by long-term warming, are profoundly impacting public health, and the aftershocks of the events are rippling through economies. If more frequent and intense extreme weather events continue to be a primary manifestation of climate change, harnessing climate data to better forecast future disease outbreaks can enable early warnings and motivate prevention. Wide swings in weather and sequential extremes can yield surprises. But the conditions favoring diseases that cycle among birds, urban mosquitoes and humans are well understood.
Mild winters reduce snow cover, thus diminish spring run-off, exacerbating subsequent droughts.
West Nile virus may have recently evolved in virulence, as it has not previously killed birds in such numbers. Early warnings of conditions conducive to disease outbreaks can give sufficient time for interventions, such as vaccination of livestock and treatment of mosquito breeding sites. In general, climate constrains the range of infectious diseases, while weather affects the timing and intensity of outbreaks. Uncovering these associations is aided by increased understanding of the Earth's climate system, in particular how land and sea surface temperatures and pressure gradients drive winds and weather. Changes in atmospheric chemistry may have so altered Earth's heat budget that natural climate modes such as ENSO have been modified.