“Effects of Climate Change on Public Health”

A  Hybrid Lunchtime Lecture by Dr. John Pipoly

• Has your asthma or hay fever seemed worse lately? Thanks to herbarium studies, we now know that alder, blackberry, sycamore, oaks, elms ragweed and grasses have increased their pollen grain production by 50% due to changes in climate!
• Did you know that farmers are faced with woody instead of herbaceous weeds in their crops because changes in climate favor woody plants
• European farmers are reporting increases in seeds from poisonous shrubs, mostly tropane alkaloids in harvests from corn, soybeans, linseed, millet, sorghum, sunflowers, amaranth and buckwheat.
• The USDA plant hardiness zones are shifting northward… the line of the true subtropics, (Zone 11) has gone from a latitude corresponding to Reynosa, TX to approximately Corpus Cristi since 2012. South of Corpus Cristi the temperature should never dip below 40°F again. That is scary!
• Avian influenza’s geographic range has grown, as have ranges for mosquito-vectored malaria, dengue, encephalitis, hantavirus, Chikungunya, and Zika
• Ranges are expanding for tick-borne diseases like Lyme, Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, Powassan virus, and Borrelia miyamotoi
• Water-borne diseases have also spread such as cholera, Cyclospora, Cryptosporidiosis, Campylobacter and Leptospirosis.
• Water-caused displacement causing infectious disease such as measles, cholera, cutaneous leshmaniasis, dengue, Cryptosporidium, diarrhea (from Giardia lambdia and/or amoebae), and pneumonia.
• Did you know that elevated CO₂ has caused plants that cause dermatitis to become more potent because of their increased metabolism?
• We have seen increases of salt intrusion into our coastal aquifers.
• Owing to high levels of UV Indices (close to or at 12) we have seen increases in cases of melanoma.
• EPA reports increases in skin cancer, cataracts and premature aging of skin with high UV indices.
• Through Repetitive Loss program, FEMA will help homeowners in flood prone areas to move somewhere else. These folks become environmental refugees.
• We are losing rainforests as carbon sinks as evening temperatures are warming, which directly cause inefficient Calvin-Benson cycles (respiration) and leaving much photosynthate unprocessed…. Tree canopies are becoming succulent… very little new wood is formed, therefore not as much carbon is stored!
• We have hope……. Stay tuned to find out how

About Dr. John James Pipoly III,  FLS

Dr. John Pipoly, originally from Detroit, Michigan, received his B. Sc. in Botany from Michigan State University in 1978, his M. Phil. and Ph. D. from the joint program of the City University of New York and the New York Botanical Garden in 1986. After a postdoc at the Smithsonian Institution, then US EPA at HQ in the Superfund, he worked at the Missouri Botanical Garden where he supervised Florulas in Peru and Colombia while designing the sampling strategy for permanent forest inventory plots across the Amazon. Subsequently at the Botanical Research Institute of Texas from 1994 to 2,000, he represented the United States’ side of the Philippine Plant Inventory, was co-founder of the Flora of Texas Consortium, devised new forest analysis models in Papua New Guinea, and formulated the Colombian Western Andean Cordillera Forest Monitoring System. He then directed research at both the Botanical Research Institute of Texas, with programs in the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Colombia, and Fairchild Tropical Garden, where he worked across the Caribbean and Colombia. He was named a Corresponding member of the Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences. He is currently Environmental Project Coordinator for Broward County Parks and Recreation Division, where he supervises Pre-K—12 STEAM/Environmental Education, relationships with universities, local, state and federal agencies, and Grants. He also works with a local environmental education nonprofit, Youth Environmental Alliance to present the Florida Master Naturalist Program as adult continuing education. His latest program is one to assist underserved students of the Broward Municipal Services District through the Neighborhood Parks, where over 290 students have been empowered to raise their scientific grades from below “C” to “B” during sessions of once per week for 16 weeks. John uses voluntary intern instructors who are undergrads or recent grads from the Florida Atlantic University Biological Sciences Department to accomplish this program and has groups of them assisting in development of more curriculum in English and Spanish.

This is a free hybrid seminar. Please join us in person in the Commons of the BRIT Building or virtually via the following link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82755024484. 

About the Research Lecture Series

The BRIT Research Lecture Series is designed to create community wide conversation about a diverse range of important and rapidly developing topics. This series gives scientists and speakers a forum for sharing the most current information about their areas of expertise and allows the public to interact with leading members of the local, national, and international scientific community. Read more at fwbg.org/events/lecture-series.