This open access book not only describes the challenges of climate disruption, but also presents solutions. The challenges described include air pollution, climate change, extreme weather, and related health impacts that range from heat stress, vector-borne diseases, food and water insecurity and chronic diseases to malnutrition and mental well-being. The influence of humans on climate change has been established through extensive published evidence and reports. However, the connections between climate change, the health of the planet and the impact on human health have not received the same level of attention. Therefore, the global focus on the public health impacts of climate change is a relatively recent area of interest. This focus is timely since scientists have concluded that changes in climate have led to new weather extremes such as floods, storms, heat waves, droughts and fires, in turn leading to more than 600,000 deaths and the displacement of nearly 4 billion people in the last 20 years. Previous work on the health impacts of climate change was limited mostly to epidemiologic approaches and outcomes and focused less on multidisciplinary, multi-faceted collaborations between physical scientists, public health researchers and policy makers. Further, there was little attention paid to faith-based and ethical approaches to the problem. The solutions and actions we explore in this book engage diverse sectors of civil society, faith leadership, and political leadership, all oriented by ethics, advocacy, and policy with a special focus on poor and vulnerable populations. The book highlights areas we think will resonate broadly with the public, faith leaders, researchers and students across disciplines including the humanities, and policy makers.

The objective of this NATO Advanced Research Workshop was to discuss our current understanding of the role of clouds in climate and chemistry. The range of topics dis cussed during the workshop included: modeling of clouds in GCMs; observations of the cloud micro physical properties; the water vapor cycle; troposphere-stratosphere exchange; role of in-cloud transport in tropospheric ozone; regulation of current and paleo climate by clouds; and anthropogenic sulfate aerosols and modification of cloud properties. The essence of the discussions is captured in the accompanying summary by the rapporteurs and the chapters by some of the speakers. The underlying message is that significant progress has been made, resulting in exciting new developments in our perception of the role of clouds in the global system . .. The tropical convective-cirrus cloud systems emerge as a major influence on the climate system. Micro physical processes, such as the rate of precipitation and re evaporation of ice particles, seem to regulate the large scale vertical distribution of water vapor which is the dominant greenhouse gas. Water vapor data collected during the Central Equatorial Pacific Experiment (CEPEX), document the large moistening effect of deep convection on scales of thousands of kilometers. A major chemical finding in the same region was the observation of extremely low ozone 8 volume mixing ratios of less than 10- in the entire troposphere of the central equatorial Pacific extending over a distance of about 2000 km. This finding establishes the Pacific as a major chemical sink region for tropospheric ozone."

This open access book not only describes the challenges of climate disruption, but also presents solutions. The challenges described include air pollution, climate change, extreme weather, and related health impacts that range from heat stress, vector-borne diseases, food and water insecurity and chronic diseases to malnutrition and mental well-being. The influence of humans on climate change has been established through extensive published evidence and reports. However, the connections between climate change, the health of the planet and the impact on human health have not received the same level of attention. Therefore, the global focus on the public health impacts of climate change is a relatively recent area of interest. This focus is timely since scientists have concluded that changes in climate have led to new weather extremes such as floods, storms, heat waves, droughts and fires, in turn leading to more than 600,000 deaths and the displacement of nearly 4 billion people in the last 20 years. Previous work on the health impacts of climate change was limited mostly to epidemiologic approaches and outcomes and focused less on multidisciplinary, multi-faceted collaborations between physical scientists, public health researchers and policy makers. Further, there was little attention paid to faith-based and ethical approaches to the problem. The solutions and actions we explore in this book engage diverse sectors of civil society, faith leadership, and political leadership, all oriented by ethics, advocacy, and policy with a special focus on poor and vulnerable populations. The book highlights areas we think will resonate broadly with the public, faith leaders, researchers and students across disciplines including the humanities, and policy makers.