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About the National Assessment

The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) was created in 1989 by Presidential Initiative and formalized in 1990 by act of Congress. Its mission is to coordinate the global change resources and research activities of several federal agencies. USGCRP's budget supports scientific research on key global change environmental issues. In the authorizing legislation, Congress required the USGCRP to conduct a national assessment of the impacts of climate change and climate variability.

More specifically, the "Global Change Research Act of 1990" (P.L. 101-606) states that the federal interagency committee for global change research of the National Science and Technology Council "shall prepare and submit to the President and the Congress an assessment which -

1. integrates, evaluates, and interprets the findings of the Program and discusses the scientific uncertainties associated with such findings;
2. analyzes the effects of global change on the natural environment, agriculture, energy production and use, land and water resources, transportation, human health and welfare, human social systems, and biological diversity; and
3. analyzes current trends in global change, both human-inducted and natural, and projects major trends for the subsequent 25 to 100 years."

The assessment process emphasizes the participation of government, industry, non-profit organizations, academic and research institutions, and the public. Three levels of assessment were conducted,
including several analyses of regional issues surrounding climate change,
as well as analyses focused on various key national sectors. Among these sectors is the human health sector described below. Other sector groups addressed agriculture, forestry, water resources, and coastal areas. A National Assessment Synthesis Team (NAST) integrated the efforts of the regional and sector teams into a synthesis report that was submitted to Congress November 2000.

About the Health Sector Assessment

The health sector has prepared an assessment that addressed a number of critical questions:

1. What is the current status of the nation's health and what are current stresses on our health?
2. How might climate variability and change affect the country's health and existing or predicted stresses on health?
3. What is the country's capacity to adapt to climate change, for example, through modifications to the health infrastructure or by adopting specific adaptive measures?
4. What essential knowledge gaps must be filled to fully understand the possible impacts of climate variability and change on human health?

Other health outcomes may warrant future study but were beyond the scope of the current assessment.

Executive Summary Report, published in Environmental Health Perspectives

About the Health Sector Assessment Team

The Health Sector Assessment team members were:

• Jonathan A. Patz, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health
• Michael A. McGeehin, Division of Environmental Hazards and Health Effects, National Center for Environmental Health, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• Susan M. Bernard, Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health
• Kristie L. Ebi, EPRI
• Paul R. Epstein, Harvard Medical School
• Anne Grambsch, Environmental Protection Agency
• Duane J. Gubler, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, CDC
• Paul I. Reiter, Entomology Section, Dengue Branch, Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, CDC
• Isabelle Romieu, National Center for Environmental Health, CDC
• Joan B. Rose, Department of Marine Sciences, University of South Florida
• Jonathan Samet, Epidemiology Department, Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health
• Juli Trtanj, Office of Global Programs, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Several other health experts from the public and private sectors were involved in the health sector assessment as additional authors and reviewers.