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Associations between elevated atmospheric temperature and human mortality: A critical review of the literature

Gosling, Simon N.; Lowe, Jason A.; McGregor, Glenn R.; Pelling, Mark; Malamud, Bruce D.

Authors

Dr SIMON GOSLING SIMON.GOSLING@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Professor of Climate Risks and Environmental Modelling

Jason A. Lowe

Glenn R. McGregor

Mark Pelling

Bruce D. Malamud



Abstract

The effects of the anomalously warm European summer of 2003 highlighted the importance of understanding the relationship between elevated atmospheric temperature and human mortality. This review is an extension of the brief evidence examining this relationship provided in the IPCC's Assessment Reports. A comprehensive and critical review of the literature is presented, which highlights avenues for further research, and the respective merits and limitations of the methods used to analyse the relationships. In contrast to previous reviews that concentrate on the epidemiological evidence, this review acknowledges the inter-disciplinary nature of the topic and examines the evidence presented in epidemiological, environmental health, and climatological journals. As such, present temperature-mortality relationships are reviewed, followed by a discussion of how these are likely to change under climate change scenarios. The importance of uncertainty, and methods to include it in future work, are also considered. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Journal Article Type Review
Acceptance Date May 19, 2008
Online Publication Date Aug 19, 2008
Publication Date Feb 1, 2009
Deposit Date Jan 17, 2024
Journal Climatic Change
Print ISSN 0165-0009
Publisher Springer Verlag
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 92
Issue 3-4
Pages 299-341
DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-008-9441-x
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/3185415
Publisher URL https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-008-9441-x