Climate Change and Humans

Jim Newton, P.E., DEE

Course Outline

This ten hour course provides valuable information for those individuals who are involved in decisions governing climate change issues.  Completion of this course will provide the student the necessary information and testing to meet the continuing education requirements in order to renew their licenses.  It was designed by an instructor who has developed and implemented numerous similar training courses. 

This course includes a multiple-choice quiz at the end, which is designed to enhance the understanding of the course materials.

Learning Objective

At the conclusion of this course, the student will be able to:

• Understand climate change in the US;
• Understand observed rising temperatures in the US;
• Understand observed precipitation patterns in the US;
• Understand observed rising sea levels;
• Understand observed extreme weather conditions;
• Understand current population trends and migration patterns;
• Understand human and social capital and behaviors;
• Understand the current role of institutions;
• Understand the importance of uncertainty in the evaluation;
• Understand how economics status is affected;
• Understand how technology impacts climate changes;
• Understand current infrastructure issues;
• Understand observed climate sensitive health outcomes;
• Understand thermal extremes and their impacts;
• Understand the effects of extreme events;
• Understand the indirect health impacts of climate change;
• Understand projected health impacts of climate change;
• Understand heat related mortality issues;
• Understand the projected  impacts of hurricanes, floods, wildfires;
• Understand how water and foodborne pathogens are affected;
• Understand the impact of projected air quality issues;
• Understand vulnerable regions and subpopulations;
• Understand which subpopulations are at risk;
• Understand adaptation issues;
• Understand the actors for adaptation;
• Understand adaptation measures to manage health risks;
• Understand climate change impacts on human settlements;
• Understand the vulnerabilities of human settlements;
• Understand how to determine vulnerability of human settlements;
• Understand the impacts of climate change on human settlements;
• Understand the interaction of climate change with non-climate factors;
• Understand opportunities for adaptations of human settlements;
• Understand major categories of adaptation strategies;
• Understand the strategies to enhance adaptive capacity;
• Understand human welfare and quality of life;
• Understand the ways to measure well-being;
• Understand the social indicators for human welfare;
• Understand vulnerable populations, communities covering human welfare;
• Understand an economic approach to human welfare;
• Understand human health research gaps;
• Understand human settlements research gaps; and
• Understand human welfare research gaps.

Intended Audience

The intended audience for this course is any professional who is involved in climate change issues.

Benefit to Attendees

Attendees of this course will understand the impacts of climate change on human health, human settlements and human welfare.  It will suggest new areas of research, and where we are to go from here to reduce or eliminate the impacts.

Course Introduction

Climate change, interacting with changes in land use and demographics, will affect important human dimensions in the United States, especially those related to human health, settlements and welfare. The challenges presented by population growth, an aging population, migration patterns, and urban and coastal development will be affected by changes in temperature, precipitation, and extreme climate-related events. In the future, with continued global warming, heat waves and heavy downpours are very likely to further increase in frequency and intensity. Cold days and cold nights are very likely to become much less frequent over North America. Substantial areas of North America are likely to have more frequent droughts of greater severity. Hurricane wind speeds, rainfall intensity, and storm surge levels are likely to increase. Other changes include measurable sea-level rise and increases in the occurrence of coastal and riverine flooding. The United States is certainly capable of adapting to the collective impacts of climate change. However, there will still be certain individuals and locations where the adaptive capacity is less and these individuals and their communities will be disproportionally impacted by climate change.

This course focuses on impacts of global climate change, especially impacts on three broad dimensions of the human condition: human health, human settlements, and human welfare. The course examines potential impacts of climate change on human society, opportunities for adaptation, and associated recommendations for addressing data gaps and near- and long-term research goals.

Course Content

This course is based upon the following US EPA document  “Analyses of the Effects of Global Change on Human Health and Welfare and Human Systems, Final Report, Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.6”, 2008.

“Analyses of the Effects of Global Change on Human Health and Welfare and Human Systems, Final Report, Synthesis and Assessment Product 4.6”

Please click on the above underlined hypertext to view, download or print the document for your study. Because of the large file size, we recommend that you first save the file to your computer by right clicking the mouse and choosing "Save Target As ...", and then open the file in Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Course Summary

This course discusses the what climate change is, the linkages between climate change and non-climate factors, observed human health, settlement and welfare outcomes, and projected human health, settlement and welfare outcomes.

Related Links

For additional information related to this subject, please visit the following websites or web pages:

US Environmental Protection Agency

 

Quiz

Once you finish studying the above course content, you need to take a quiz to obtain the PDH credits.

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DISCLAIMER: The materials contained in the online course are not intended as a representation or warranty on the part of PDH Center or any other person/organization named herein. The materials are for general information only. They are not a substitute for competent professional advice. Application of this information to a specific project should be reviewed by a registered architect and/or professional engineer/surveyor. Anyone making use of the information set forth herein does so at their own risk and assumes any and all resulting liability arising therefrom.

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