Your Health and a Changing Climate Newsletter, Volume 5, December 2006

International Research Projects

IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) to be Released in 2007

The major activity of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is to prepare in regular intervals comprehensive and up-to-date assessments of policy-relevant scientific, technical and socioeconomic information relevant for the understanding of human induced climate change, potential impacts of climate change and options for mitigation and adaptation. Previous Assessments were released in 1990, 1995, and 2001. Assessment Reports consist of the full scientific, technical and socio-economic assessment reports of the IPCC Working Groups and their Summaries for Policymakers, and a Synthesis Report. At its eighteenth session in September 2001 the Panel decided to continue to prepare comprehensive assessment reports and it agreed that the Fourth Assessment Report would be completed in 2007.

>>> For more information, visit  www.ipcc.ch

NCAR Summer Colloquium on Climate and Health

In July, The Institute for the Study of Society & Environment, held its Second NCAR (National Center for Atmospheric Research) Bi-Annual Colloquium on Climate and Health in Boulder, Colorado. This five day colloquium involved a combination of overview presentations, hands-on application of tools used for studying climate-health interactions, panel discussions and general discussions. Health scientists and health and climatology students benefitted from lectures and hands on tools taught by the top NCAR climatologists and statisticians. Participants were also educated on health databases and epidemiologic methods from leading scientists associated with institutions around the globe.

NCAR scientists discussed important aspects of the climate system and climate change, and they also reviewed tools available to health researchers for analyzing future climate change information, as well as which methods can be used to produce higher resolutions of climate change information. Statistical methods used to analyze climate data in relation to health data, such as time-series analysis, were taught by statisticians. Health scientists presented overviews on the ecology of infectious disease, use of remote sensing for studying disease outbreaks, how to understand climate-health studies, the current status of some vector-borne diseases, and strategies used to assess vulnerability, adaptation and behavioral change. Integrated modeling and strategies for communicating scientific findings and uncertainty were also examined.

>>> For more information please visit the colloquium website at:  http://www.isse.ucar.edu/climatehealth/index.html or contact Veronica Wynne, (303)497-8117