ROLE OF GEOSCIENCE IN ADDRESSING CLIMATE-INDUCED HEALTH ISSUES

Among the various fields of sciences, geoscience is the core discipline that is best suited to understand and address the wide range of problems related to climate change, including human and ecological health. Some of the major health impacts associated with climate change are projected to be: higher incidence of heat related morbidity and mortality, pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases; infectious and zoonotic diseases resulting from shift in vector habitats; and mental illnesses. The fact that climate change is the underlying cause of all of these problems, proper understanding of the processes and factors influencing earth’s natural cycles is a pre-requisite for policy formulation and adaptation of any strategies aimed at mitigating climate-induced health impacts. Various specialty areas in the broad field of geosciences, especially atmospheric science, geography, and geology, play a pivotal role in understanding the variability in earth’s processes, the factors responsible for these variations, and their impact on human and ecosystem health. Global warming, disruption of the hydrologic cycle, imbalance of precipitation patterns, shifts in habitats of disease-propagating organisms, acidification of ocean waters, and their projected impacts on human and ecological health are all within the realm of geosciences. The presentation discusses how a sound knowledge of geosciences can offer the tools needed to delineate and monitor the spatial and temporal occurrence and distribution of various diseases and their mitigation. Selected case studies are included to illustrate use of geoscientific knowledge in the health care field.