Download or read book Three Essays on Extreme Heat Wildfires and Air Pollution in the United States written by Zeying Huang and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past several decades, more frequent and intense extreme heat events have been an increasing threat to human health and economic performance. These extreme heat events result in more fatalities than all other types of extreme weather events, as well as a series of clinical syndromes and chronic diseases, which may expose those with underlying health problems to higher mortality risks. At the same time, extreme heat increases wildfire risks. In recent decades, the United States (U.S.) has experienced upward trends in total acreages burned by wildfires and the average size of wildfires. These trends are expected to grow with the changing climate and as more households move to the wildland-urban interface (WUI). Wildfires can lead to direct injuries and fatalities as well as direct damage to properties and infrastructures. Also, wildfires can lead to environmental changes in many ecosystems. The burning of biomass and soil-based organic matter can generate a large amount of haze and smoke composed primarily of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), which is another threat in and of itself but also because it exacerbates the impacts of extreme heat, influences economic development patterns, and interferes with the enjoyment of environmental goods and services directly or indirectly.Based on the evidence of the inter-relatedness of heat and air pollution and the health risks of heat and air pollution, the first chapter provides nationally representative, robust, and precise estimates of the joint impacts of heat and PM2.5 on mortality in the U.S. The chapter employs a county-year balanced panel dataset covering 2,992 U.S. counties from 2001 through 2011 and applies a Fixed-effect Poisson model. I correct the endogeneity of PM2.5 by applying the control function approach and exploring transboundary externalities of all-source and wildfire-caused PM2.5. I find that the heat index and PM2.5 are positively and significantly associated with all mortalities. PM2.5 is a positive confounder of heat and vice versa. Failure to consider the endogeneity of PM2.5 leads to a substantial underestimation of PM2.5 risk. The overestimation bias caused by ignoring the potential confounding effect between heat and PM2.5 is magnified once the endogeneity of PM2.5 is further addressed. My evaluation also offers evidence of the spillover effects of both PM2.5 and wildfires.Wildfires affect human health directly and indirectly via the environmental (dis)amenities induced by wildfires. The second chapter employs the same dataset and further explores the mechanisms by which wildfires affect human health by examining the extent of the direct and indirect health impacts by applying a mediation analysis. In particular, it focuses on the air pollution (PM2.5) channel. It finds that complementary mediations exist for all-cause, respiratory system disease, and circulatory system disease mortality, and the indirect impacts of wildfires through PM2.5 account for 58%, 47%, and 21% of the total effects of wildfires, respectively. I do not find evidence of a mediation effect through PM2.5 for suicide, but the result suggests a potential delayed direct impact of wildfires on suicide. In addition, the analysis suggests that the spillover effect of wildfires is substantially larger than the local wildfire effect. Although most previous studies assume that wildfires are exogenous, this study finds that failing to consider the causes of wildfires will lead to upwardly biased estimates of health impacts.The last chapter conducts a non-market valuation of the impact of wildfires and wildfire-induced PM2.5 on the housing market by applying a hedonic price model and mediation analysis approach. This study also explores the potential reasons why more people choose to move in or near the wildland-urban interface (WUI). In particular, I examine the degree to which people may underestimate wildfire risks and the tradeoff between the enjoyment of natural resources and increased wildfire risks. I employ a nationwide repeat-sale dataset between 2010 and 2018, which covers 3,945,340 transaction records of 1,886,684 houses. I find that wildfires, especially distant wildfires, have a statistically significant detrimental impact on house prices via emitting PM2.5. There are also significant price disparities between houses located upwind and downwind locations of the wildfires, which may be explained by the substitution effect, externality, and the existence of other channels other than air pollution by which wildfires affect house prices. Moreover, the longer the property's adjacent areas remain free of wildfires, and the farther the nearest recent wildfire, the higher the property's sale price. While I find that households place a higher value on homes in locations with more greenery, they are also aware of the dangers of living near a wildland-urban interface.
Download or read book Exposure Vulnerability and Adaptation to Heat and Wildfire in the Southwestern United States written by Noam Rosenthal and published by . This book was released on 2023 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dissertation presents three papers examining exposure to extreme heat and wildfire in the Western United States. In the first chapter, I develop a framework for analyzing transit passenger exposure to extreme heat in Maricopa County and then implement an optimization algorithm for minimizing wait times through the reallocation of buses across the transit network. In simulating the reconfiguration of buses, I find the potential for small adjustments to produce large reductions in wait time for vulnerable populations. This work also formulates a way to measure passenger vulnerability with an activity-based model that accounts for the distinct demographics of transit riders. In the second chapter, I study the prevalence of ground level wildfire smoke, specifically particulate matter 2.5 m in diameter, in California during the 2020 wildfire season - the most severe wildfire season ever recorded by the state. For the first time, I study how frequently extreme smoke levels at surface level coincide with extreme heat in space and time. These interactions can influence adaptive behaviors and studies show evidence of increased hospitalizations when these hazards co-occur. I find that a majority of Californians experienced at least one day of concurrent heat and smoke in 2020 and that these events were concentrated in more rural areas of the State. This case study motivates the integration of multi-hazard frameworks in both public and private sector risk planning. In the final chapter, I examine wildfire risk factors for residential property in California. I leverage a dataset collected by CAL FIRE enumerators who record the features of a home and categorize the level of damage after every named incident. I enhance this dataset using remotely sensed detections of wildfire to impute the date when a home burned from which I then estimate time-varying weather risk factors like humidity, temperature and wind as well as fire intensity. I then use these features to train a predictive model to be used by homeowners or insurance carriers to better estimate the vulnerability of their property.
Download or read book Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States written by U.S. Global Change Research Program and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-08-24 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Summarizes the science of climate change and impacts on the United States, for the public and policymakers.
Download or read book Implications of the California Wildfires for Health Communities and Preparedness written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2020-08-31 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: California and other wildfire-prone western states have experienced a substantial increase in the number and intensity of wildfires in recent years. Wildlands and climate experts expect these trends to continue and quite likely to worsen in coming years. Wildfires and other disasters can be particularly devastating for vulnerable communities. Members of these communities tend to experience worse health outcomes from disasters, have fewer resources for responding and rebuilding, and receive less assistance from state, local, and federal agencies. Because burning wood releases particulate matter and other toxicants, the health effects of wildfires extend well beyond burns. In addition, deposition of toxicants in soil and water can result in chronic as well as acute exposures. On June 4-5, 2019, four different entities within the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop titled Implications of the California Wildfires for Health, Communities, and Preparedness at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at the University of California, Davis. The workshop explored the population health, environmental health, emergency preparedness, and health equity consequences of increasingly strong and numerous wildfires, particularly in California. This publication is a summary of the presentations and discussion of the workshop.
Download or read book Three Essays in Search of a Conversation written by Sherman Lewis and published by Hayward Area Planning Association. This book was released on 2022-08-27 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These essays are for Americans concerned about the future of our country and for policy wonks. By and large, the political process is controlled by those who take an intertest in politics, large in number but small as a percent of population. Are you a member of the political class? Membership is voluntary. Our first 800 years of thinking: science culture and empathy from the Enlightenment ~1600 to ~ 2400 The Crisis of the Anthropocene: The most comprehensive description of all issues of the crisis in less than 100 pages. For the purpose of going through your mind to influence your brain. Musings on our Present Discontent: America, not advanced, not a democracy. Right to life for baby; right to choose for mom. Taxation. The security of a free state. Issues not discussed. The threat from within, Trumpism. The threat from without: Putinism. How to participate. Renewal.
Download or read book Communities in Action written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2017-04-27 with total page 583 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.
Download or read book The Inside Story written by and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Exertional Heat Illnesses written by Lawrence E. Armstrong and published by Human Kinetics. This book was released on 2003 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The only text to focus exclusively on heat-related illnesses. Full of practical advice for professionals in a variety of medical, academic, & commercial settings. Learn how to identify, treat & prevent exertional heat illnesses & ensure your sporting events are safe.
Download or read book Firestorm written by Edward Struzik and published by Island Press. This book was released on 2017-10-05 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Frightening...Firestorm comes alive when Struzik discusses the work of offbeat scientists." —New York Times Book Review "Comprehensive and compelling." —Booklist "A powerful message." —Kirkus "Should be required reading." —Library Journal For two months in the spring of 2016, the world watched as wildfire ravaged the Canadian town of Fort McMurray. Firefighters named the fire “the Beast.” It acted like a mythical animal, alive with destructive energy, and they hoped never to see anything like it again. Yet it’s not a stretch to imagine we will all soon live in a world in which fires like the Beast are commonplace. A glance at international headlines shows a remarkable increase in higher temperatures, stronger winds, and drier lands– a trifecta for igniting wildfires like we’ve rarely seen before. This change is particularly noticeable in the northern forests of the United States and Canada. These forests require fire to maintain healthy ecosystems, but as the human population grows, and as changes in climate, animal and insect species, and disease cause further destabilization, wildfires have turned into a potentially uncontrollable threat to human lives and livelihoods. Our understanding of the role fire plays in healthy forests has come a long way in the past century. Despite this, we are not prepared to deal with an escalation of fire during periods of intense drought and shorter winters, earlier springs, potentially more lightning strikes and hotter summers. There is too much fuel on the ground, too many people and assets to protect, and no plan in place to deal with these challenges. In Firestorm, journalist Edward Struzik visits scorched earth from Alaska to Maine, and introduces the scientists, firefighters, and resource managers making the case for a radically different approach to managing wildfire in the 21st century. Wildfires can no longer be treated as avoidable events because the risk and dangers are becoming too great and costly. Struzik weaves a heart-pumping narrative of science, economics, politics, and human determination and points to the ways that we, and the wilder inhabitants of the forests around our cities and towns, might yet flourish in an age of growing megafires.
Download or read book Smoke and Mirrors written by E. Melanie Dupuis and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2004-07 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of the politics of air pollution.
Download or read book The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate written by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2022-04-30 with total page 755 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading international body for assessing the science related to climate change. It provides policymakers with regular assessments of the scientific basis of human-induced climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation. This IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate is the most comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the observed and projected changes to the ocean and cryosphere and their associated impacts and risks, with a focus on resilience, risk management response options, and adaptation measures, considering both their potential and limitations. It brings together knowledge on physical and biogeochemical changes, the interplay with ecosystem changes, and the implications for human communities. It serves policymakers, decision makers, stakeholders, and all interested parties with unbiased, up-to-date, policy-relevant information. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Download or read book Advancing the Science of Climate Change written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2011-01-10 with total page 526 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for-and in many cases is already affecting-a broad range of human and natural systems. The compelling case for these conclusions is provided in Advancing the Science of Climate Change, part of a congressionally requested suite of studies known as America's Climate Choices. While noting that there is always more to learn and that the scientific process is never closed, the book shows that hypotheses about climate change are supported by multiple lines of evidence and have stood firm in the face of serious debate and careful evaluation of alternative explanations. As decision makers respond to these risks, the nation's scientific enterprise can contribute through research that improves understanding of the causes and consequences of climate change and also is useful to decision makers at the local, regional, national, and international levels. The book identifies decisions being made in 12 sectors, ranging from agriculture to transportation, to identify decisions being made in response to climate change. Advancing the Science of Climate Change calls for a single federal entity or program to coordinate a national, multidisciplinary research effort aimed at improving both understanding and responses to climate change. Seven cross-cutting research themes are identified to support this scientific enterprise. In addition, leaders of federal climate research should redouble efforts to deploy a comprehensive climate observing system, improve climate models and other analytical tools, invest in human capital, and improve linkages between research and decisions by forming partnerships with action-oriented programs.
Download or read book The Potential Effects of Global Climate Change on the United States written by and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Shock Waves written by Stephane Hallegatte and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2015-11-23 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ending poverty and stabilizing climate change will be two unprecedented global achievements and two major steps toward sustainable development. But the two objectives cannot be considered in isolation: they need to be jointly tackled through an integrated strategy. This report brings together those two objectives and explores how they can more easily be achieved if considered together. It examines the potential impact of climate change and climate policies on poverty reduction. It also provides guidance on how to create a “win-win†? situation so that climate change policies contribute to poverty reduction and poverty-reduction policies contribute to climate change mitigation and resilience building. The key finding of the report is that climate change represents a significant obstacle to the sustained eradication of poverty, but future impacts on poverty are determined by policy choices: rapid, inclusive, and climate-informed development can prevent most short-term impacts whereas immediate pro-poor, emissions-reduction policies can drastically limit long-term ones.
Download or read book Quarterly Essay 81 Getting to Zero written by Alan Finkel and published by Black Inc.. This book was released on 2021-03-22 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world is overheating, and despite good intentions and significant efforts, emissions increase nearly every year. The challenge is immense, but there are solutions. In this lucid, inspiring essay, Alan Finkel maps Australia’s path forward. He explains the solar and wind revolution, and addresses the challenge of intermittent supply. He introduces hydrogen, the energy hope of the future. He traces the rise and rise of the electric car. He shows how we can build a zero-emissions world. Taking into account economics, science and emotions, Getting to Zero is an essential guide to how Australia can tackle the climate crisis with realism and ingenuity. “Change is in the air. I sense we will live through a technological revolution this decade as exciting as the conquest of space in the 1960s. If Australia handles the challenge well, we can build an economy that takes advantage of the transition. If we cling to the past, we will miss opportunities that the rest of the world will seize.” —Alan Finkel, Getting to Zero
Download or read book Global Trends 2040 written by National Intelligence Council and published by Cosimo Reports. This book was released on 2021-03 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.
Download or read book Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2009-07-29 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scores of talented and dedicated people serve the forensic science community, performing vitally important work. However, they are often constrained by lack of adequate resources, sound policies, and national support. It is clear that change and advancements, both systematic and scientific, are needed in a number of forensic science disciplines to ensure the reliability of work, establish enforceable standards, and promote best practices with consistent application. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward provides a detailed plan for addressing these needs and suggests the creation of a new government entity, the National Institute of Forensic Science, to establish and enforce standards within the forensic science community. The benefits of improving and regulating the forensic science disciplines are clear: assisting law enforcement officials, enhancing homeland security, and reducing the risk of wrongful conviction and exoneration. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States gives a full account of what is needed to advance the forensic science disciplines, including upgrading of systems and organizational structures, better training, widespread adoption of uniform and enforceable best practices, and mandatory certification and accreditation programs. While this book provides an essential call-to-action for congress and policy makers, it also serves as a vital tool for law enforcement agencies, criminal prosecutors and attorneys, and forensic science educators.
