Dr. Peter Thorne of the University of Iowa presented on “The Nexus of Climate Change and Health” for the Lester Buresh Family Community Wellness Center’s adult speaker series Thursday, March 6.

Thorne highlighted how the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere leads to increased heating and droughts, as well as other effects like increased pollen from weeds, more severe storms and more algae blooms in water, making those sources undrinkable.

“Eighty-five to 95 percent of diseases is attributable to environmental exposures,” Thorne said. “If you have people who live in poverty or deal with homelessness, that adds to the exposures they encounter, as it adds another stressor to their lives.”

Thorne said that the earth is on track to be housing 10.4 billion people in 2086, which exceeds the Earth’s capacity. The earth’s capacity is roughly 2 billion people.

That increase in population and industrialization have led to the increases of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide gases in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide’s halflife in the atmosphere is 100 years to 1,000 years, nitrous oxide’s half life is 109 years and methane’s half life is roughly 11.9 years.

Thorne said people studying environmental science have been able to determine that our parts per million of carbon dioxide have not been as high as they have been for more than 800,000 years.

“What we’re seeing is unprecedented,” Thorne said.

Burning of oil and coal contributes to the majority of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The global air temperature has risen on average by 2.9 degrees Fahrenheit over the past decades.

“That’s averaged over the entire Earth, which means there are places that experience more of that increase in heat than others,” Thorne said.

Thorne said that increases in temperature are impacting the temperatures in the oceans, which increases the ice caps melting and also the severity of storms we encounter.

China, the United States and the E.U. account for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions, but India’s levels are starting to rise as they modernize and industrialize their continent.

“If India is to increase the usage of items like coal burning power plants like China has done, instead of more renewable energies, that would be devastating,” Thorne said.

When it came to how climate change impacts health, Thorne indicated that happens in multiple ways:

• Increases of temperature means more people contracting heat stress and more water usage

. • Cardiovascular issues increase because of the increase of fine particulates in the air.

• Higher temperatures increase the number of algae blooms in the water streams used by people, which could lead to scarcity of that resource.

• More severe storms increase the possibility of more injury or deaths.

• Rising sea levels increase the possibility of more illnesses from species like mosquitoes who now have more areas to increase.

One of the areas that have knock on effects are the creations of heat domes. Thorne explained that one of those heat domes hit in Canada in 2021, pushing temperatures to 15 degrees higher than usual.

“That’s an area where air conditioning is not usual, which made enduring that more severe,” Thorne said.

Heat domes trap more than heat, they also trap air pollutants, which increases impacts to diseases like cardiovascular or asthma.

Thorne said data said that we could see more increased temperatures for 30-days per year and up to 90 days per year over the next century.

One of the issues that Thorne noted is that while many communities offer cooling stations during heat waves, increasing those hours outside of business hours should be what is practiced, as many of these centers closed at 5 p.m., when temperatures were still in increased heat indexes.

Another area that is impacted has been the fine particulate matter that increases. He reminded of the wildfires in northern Canada in 2023, which impacted air quality in Iowa, thousands of miles away.

“That also increases a positive feedback loop,” Thorne said. “You lose forests, which helped to capture some of the carbon in the atmosphere.”

More particulates in the air increase issues for people with asthma and exacerbation of other diseases.

The increase in temperatures has drastically increased the number of severe weather events in the past several decades, with roughly 27 severe weather events in 2024.

The cost of those severe storms has a cumulative cost of nearly $2.9 trillion in material and loss of time.

Health conditions are also made worse by disasters and storm events.

“When people lose things like power and are reliant on medications like insulin that has to be temperature controlled or lose power and are on concentrated oxygen devices, those power outages can lead to a loss of life,” Thorne said.

Thorne said that things that people can do to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions include:

• Replacing the fossil fuel powered machines in homes

• Consider residential solar

• Switching to a heat pump as opposed to an air conditioner

• Switch to an electronic vehicle

Those decisions have a far bigger impact in reducing the footprint of greenhouse gases in your life.

The United States is currently at 8.8 percent of electrical vehicle usage in 2023. Other countries like Norway at 90 percent and China at 53.9 percent are doing more.

Questioners asked if the greenhouse gases are leading to increased cancer rates. Thorne said that in Iowa, a lot of that is coming from a combination of factors, including allowable items like arsenic and nitrate levels in drinking water, pesticide exposures and alcohol consumption. Iowa also has obesity rates that contribute to some cancers as well.

One area that Thorne said could slowly start impacting one of those greenhouse gases is to start reducing consumption of red meats, like beef. Beef is one of the largest contributors of methane gases in the environment.

He said something he has found in his Climageddon class is that 90 percent of students have some level of climate anxiety, and teaching them some sustainability practices benefit those students.

When it came to innovations that are reducing greenhouse gases, there are efforts in many of the transportation areas, like ships, long haul freight, rail and other areas that are addressing reductions in greenhouse gases that give hope for changes in the future.