ABSTRACT
As temperatures and sea levels rise and precipitation patterns change, human systems are expected to suffer damages. Like forestry and fisheries, described in Chapter 3, agriculture, coastal settlements, and human health are expected to undergo the most direct impacts from climate change. In the coolest regions, agriculture output may show modest gains from the first few degrees of climate change, but in most temperate and almost all tropical regions, changes to temperature and precipitation are expected to lower yields in the coming century. Low-lying coastal settlements are extremely vulnerable to rising sea levels, from both permanent inundation and greater storm damage. Human health is affected not just by high temperatures but also by climate-induced changes in disease vectors and by decreasing water availability, which is expected to have the biggest impact on already-dry regions.
