Climate Information for Adaptation

Climate change was likened to the fifth horseman of the apocalypse by Margaret Chan in November 2007 in the first speech on the subject by a World Health Organization Director. Instead of presenting a comprehensive overview of the causes and consequences of anthropogenic climate change, illustrate some of the ways by which health is affected by focusing on one of the main greenhouse gases of concern, namely CO₂. The steady increase of CO₂ in atmosphere, associated with burning fossil fuels, deforestation and agricultural practices, is routinely observed. In 1958, Charles Keeling began collecting data on CO₂ in the air at the Mauna Loa Observatory, in Hawaii, and on Antarctica. The Antarctica site was discontinued because of lack of funding, but the site at Mauna Loa has been operating continuously to this day. The data from Mauna Loa constitute the oldest continuous record of atmospheric CO₂.