Department of Environmental Hygiene, German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt/UBA), Corrensplatz 1, 14195 Berlin, Germany.
Unit 'Health in Climate Change', Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und nukleare Sicherheit/BMU), P.O. Box 120629, 53048 Bonn, Germany.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Oct 27;17(21):7862. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17217862.
Global warming with increasing weather extremes, like heat events, is enhancing impacts to public health. This essay focuses on unusual extreme summer heat extremes occurring in Germany at higher frequency, longer duration, and with new temperature records. Large areas of the country are affected, particularly urban settlements, where about 77% of the population lives, which are exposed to multiple inner-city threats, such as urban heat islands. Because harm to public health is directly released by high ambient air temperatures, local and national studies on heat-related morbidity and mortality indicate that vulnerable groups such as the elderly population are predominantly threatened with heat-related health problems. After the severe mortality impacts of the extreme summer heat 2003 in Europe, in 2008, Germany took up the National Adaptation Strategy on Climate Change to tackle and manage the impacts of weather extremes, for example to protect people's health against heat. Public health systems and services need to be better prepared to improve resilience to the effects of extreme heat events, e.g., by implementing heat health action plans. Both climate protection as well as adaptation are necessary in order to be able to respond as adequate as possible to the challenges posed by climate change.
全球变暖伴随着日益增多的极端天气事件，如高温事件，正在加剧对公众健康的影响。本文主要关注德国频繁出现的异常极端夏季高温，这些高温持续时间更长、温度创历史新高。该国大部分地区受到影响，特别是居住着约 77%人口的城市住区，这些地区面临着城市热岛等多种市内威胁。由于高温对公众健康的危害直接释放，因此地方和国家有关与热有关的发病率和死亡率的研究表明，老年人等弱势群体主要受到与热有关的健康问题的威胁。在 2003 年欧洲夏季极端高温造成严重死亡影响之后，德国于 2008 年制定了《国家适应气候变化战略》，以应对和管理极端天气的影响，例如保护人们的健康免受高温影响。公共卫生系统和服务需要更好地做好准备，以提高对极端高温事件的适应能力，例如实施高温健康行动计划。为了能够对气候变化带来的挑战做出尽可能充分的应对，气候保护和适应都是必要的。
