Report overview: Taking action against climate change will benefit health & improve health equity in the Americas

There is no doubt that climate change has arrived in the Americas. We have already experienced record-breaking increases in mean and extreme temperatures, lengthened wildfire seasons, increased intensity and frequency of extreme precipitation and pluvial floods, ocean warming, permafrost thaw, increased drought, increased aridity, increased frequency of most intense tropical cyclones, sea level rise, and coastal flooding and erosion. The impacts of these events have had widespread and have sweeping implications for all species, including an urgent global public health challenge.
The upcoming IANAS report (release planned for late 2021) documents how climate change has increased heat-related mortality and morbidity, air pollution-related illnesses, nutrition and food security, mental health and wellbeing, respiratory health, and waterborne, foodborne and vectorborne illnesses in the Americas.

This is a short overview of some of the main messages of the upcoming report.