Dear Reader,
I guess all of you would agree that the year 2020 has been very challenging and we started the new year hoping for a change for the better. While the COVID-19 pandemic continues to be the dominating topic in the news, different health and environmental risks shouldn´t be forgotten. The year 2020 has been the second warmest year ever recorded and we are observing increasing disruptions from droughts, heatwaves, floods and other extreme events globally. Extreme events are impacting human health and we can no longer “prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system” as agreed already back in the 1994 Rio Convention. Even in these difficult times, we can take action and research can help to raise awareness for health risks, identify vulnerable groups, develop coping mechanisms and sustainable solutions and disseminate information. In this newsletter edition our authors will shed some light on current research on heat and drinking behaviour of the elderly, floods and risk communication, and rain water harvesting as part of water resource management. We hope you enjoy reading it and look forward to hear from you.
Stay motivated and safe!!
Andrea Rechenburg
WHO CC Newsletter No. 31: high (pdf, 3.6 MB) / low (pdf, 0.7 MB)