The agenda for studying atmospheric change and health has emphasized toxic effects of air pollution on human populations. There are other models for studying these relationships. Atmospheric changes affect human health in several ways, including indirect effects of ecosystem change and mechanisms of social adaptation. The enhanced greenhouse effect is used as an example of a problem in which many outcomes relevant to human health are not the result of toxic effects. We examine the issue of cities and air quality.
Urban systems are complicated artificial ecosystems.
Their viability of which depends on natural and agricultural ecosystems both in the surrounding area and at distant venues. These have large direct and indirect effects on the districts in which they are located and are significant determinants of health for the populations, human and nonhuman, residing in the urban area. Urban concentrations are complicated ecosystems in their own right and major determinants of stability or instability in natural ecosystems. Indicators of the relationship between ecosystem and human health are required. The response of communities to problems involving air quality is one such indicator.