CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENCE PROGRAM (CCSP) HUMAN HEALTH PRODUCT 4.6

Climate variability and change challenge even the world’s most advanced societies. In the United States, the Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) coordinates and integrates federal research on climate and global change through thirteen executive agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency. The CCSP’s Strategic Plan calls for the completion of a series of 21 synthesis and assessment products (SAPs). NCEA is the lead office on two of three EPA-led reports. NCEA’s reports focus on understanding the sensitivity and adaptability of different natural and managed ecosystems and human systems to climate and related global changes.

Janet Gamble, part of NCEA’s Global Change Assessment staff, is the lead author on the Analyses and Effects of Global Change on Human Health and Welfare and Human Systems. This report focuses on how climate change affects what people care most about. It analyzes the effects of global change, especially the effects of climate variability and change, along with the associated impacts of land use and population dynamics, on three broad dimensions of the human condition: human health, human settlements, and human welfare. Clearly, the impacts of climate variability and change are a human problem, not simply a problem for the natural or the physical world.

The report is based on an assessment of the peer-reviewed scientific literature and is designed to inform discussion and decision making regarding climate variability and change by policy makers, resource managers, stakeholders, the media, and the general public. Executive oversight for this SAP is provided by the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Council on Environmental Quality, and the Office of Management and Budget.

For more information on the NCEA’s Synthesis and Assessment Products please visit https://www.epa.gov/ncea.