Thomas C. Sorensen Seminar: The Intersection of Climate and Health: Connecting Historical Trends to Current Public Health Opportunities – Lessons from the Wisconsin BRACE Program

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Location
East Campus Student Union, Great Plains Room, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

This event is free and open to the community and UNL students, staff, and faculty.

We recommend parking at the metered lots or pay by phone stalls directly north of the East Campus Union. Other metered parking spaces are in front of the Food Industry Complex, or Hardin Hall. Additional metered parking places are indicated on this map of East Campus.

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.

Sponsored by: The University of Nebraska Public Policy CenterUniversity 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.

 

Jeff Phillips is the Climate and Health Program Manager for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS), Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Health (BEOH). Jeff has been a Wisconsin Registered Sanitarian since 1988, has 28 years of local environmental health experience, and has been an Environmental Health Supervisor/Team Leader in three county public health agencies in Wisconsin. Under the Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) grant supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Jeff’s projects are leading a national effort to engage and assist states, cities, and local public health agencies to understand climate change projections, identify environmental impacts, estimate the potential burden of disease related to climate change, and prepare adaptation plans for climate and extreme weather events.

For more information about Wisconsin’s Climate Health Profile Report, or to learn more about the Wisconsin BRACE project, please contact Jeff Phillips, Wisconsin BRACE Program Manager at Jeffrey.Phillips@dhs.wisconsin.gov

A PDF of the presentation materials:
Intersection of Climate and Health 2 6-2014
Wisconsin Climate Health Profile Report

Audio of the Seminar.

Contact Information:
Tarik Abdel-Monem
University of Nebraska Public Policy Center
(402) 472-3147
tarik@unl.edu