Public health faculty contribute to National Climate Assessment

Ali S. Khan, MD, MPH, dean of the UNMC College of Public Health, and Jesse Bell, PhD, Claire M. Hubbard Professor of Water, Climate and Health

After three years of collaboration, UNMC College of Public Health Dean Ali S. Khan, MD, MPH, and Jesse Bell, PhD, Claire M. Hubbard Professor of Water, Climate and Health, will make their final contributions to the Fifth National Climate Assessment this fall.  

Federally mandated by Congress in the Global Change Research Act of 1990, the National Climate Assessment is released every five years to serve as the foremost review of research on the current and future impacts of climate change in the United States. After a national search for contributors, Drs. Khan and Bell were nominated in 2020 to serve as authors of the assessment’s chapter on human health. 

UNMC is among a small number of academic institutions to have multiple representatives contribute to the Fifth National Climate Assessment, which involved 450 authors and 850 total collaborators. 

“The Fifth National Climate Assessment is the most complete and accurate assessment of the impact of climate change on Americans to inform actions and policy changes,” Dr. Khan said. “The review process includes multiple rounds of public comments and federal agency reviews and a final review by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. 

“The initial findings are unequivocal — humans are responsible for global warming and the health (and multitude of other) impacts are already happening,” he said. “With political action, we can mitigate additional damage to our health and environment and adapt to the impacts that are already occurring and will continue to occur.”  

Dr. Bell, who leads the College of Public Health’s Water, Climate and Health Program, said the assessment has been “one of the most thorough projects that I have ever worked on and brings together diverse expertise from multiple perspectives. 

“The impacts of climate change are now. We live in a changed climate and see the current impacts of climate change on human health and will continue to see them in the future.” 

The Fifth National Climate Assessment is undergoing final review and will be published in full later this year. For more information, visit the U.S. Global Change Research Program website or contact Dr. Jesse Bell.  

2 comments

  1. Peggy Moore says:

    Congratulations and well done!

  2. Bob Kully says:

    Congratulations on all of the meaningful work that you do!

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