The University of Nebraska Public Policy Center will host a free, public event, "The Intersection of Climate and Health: Connecting Historical Trends to Current Public Health Opportunities – Lessons from the Wisconsin Brace Program," from 3-4:30 p.m., June 18 in the Nebraska East Union.
The presentation will be delivered by Jeff Phillips, climate and health program manager for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS), Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Health (BEOH).
The recently released National Climate Assessment clearly indicates that the nation's climate has changed, and will continue to do so. Climate change impacts are dynamic, and there is mounting evidence of increasing occurrences of a wide range of extreme weather events related to our changing climate. Analysis of climate and weather trend data suggests warming of the earth's climate will lead to significant impacts on our weather patterns, our natural environments, our economy, and the overall health of the public.
This presentation and discussion will review climate trends and projections, and then consider the potential health impacts caused by climate and extreme weather event exposures, including: precipitation changes, heat extremes, drought, winter weather, disease vectors, surface water, and groundwater. The presentation will also provide an overview of the Wisconsin Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) program, its experiences and findings, and offer considerations in this area for Nebraska.
The Wisconsin BRACE Program is working collaboratively to build resiliency in the human population, develop strategic and effective adaptation strategies, and engage in long-term emergency response and public health preparedness planning to provide the mechanisms to address climatic impacts. The Wisconsin BRACE Program is a statewide, CDC-funded program.
Utilizing partnerships, community stakeholder engagement, active research to address knowledge gaps, and leveraging of existing infrastructure, the Wisconsin BRACE Program is seeking to achieve the goal of building capacity to project, prepare for, assess, and effectively respond to extreme weather and climate events to reduce or prevent negative health outcomes.
The event is sponsored by the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Arts and Sciences through the Thomas C. Sorensen Endowment, the National Drought Mitigation Center and the Public Health Association of Nebraska.
For more information, contact Tarik Abdel-Monem at the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center at 402-472-3147 or at tabdelmonem@nebraska.edu.
More details at: http://go.unl.edu/txqj