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In Heat Advisory I examine climate change from a broad public health perspective, where health includes mental and social well-being in addition to climate-related changes in diseases. I begin from baselines defined by worldwide selected causes of death and risk factors for disease as seen partially through the lens of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to discuss how climate change will affect health. I draw primarily on a broad cross-section of the peer-reviewed literature and governmental reports. In addition to heat-related illnesses, I discuss infectious diseases including dengue, malaria, and Zika; effects on agriculture and the potential for famine; rising sea level, severe weather, and environmental refugees; anticipated effects of climate change on air quality with a focus on ozone and asthma; the influence of climate on violence, conflict, and societal disruption; and, finally economic considerations related to health. Following fundamental public health and medical practices, I discuss, primary prevention in terms of mitigation of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and secondary prevention, by adapting to climate change. Health professionals have a professional responsibility to affect political will and foster the extensive stakeholder involvement required to tackle climate change, the “greatest public health opportunity” of this century.

During the past four decades Los Angeles and Hong Kong have come to play a critical role in the flow of goods, people, and capital; in the changes in production and consumption; and in the urban environmental issues that have taken root as a result of the changes they have experienced. The book evaluates the issues associated with those changes, including how LA and Hong Kong have become connected to China and its key urban regions such as Shenzhen and Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta. Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and several of China’s mega-cities have become global in their activities and reach through their financial, political and economic roles as well as the cultural, environmental, and demographic shifts that have taken place. The book documents the history and protracted nature of six urban environmental issues in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and China. These include ports and freight traffic (or goods movement), air quality, water supply and water quality, the food environment, transportation, and open and public space. It identifies contrasting development patterns, important similarities, and comparative trends and strategies. The book further analyzes how urban environmental issues have risen to the top of the policy agendas in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and China, where and how changes are being explored and where change is possible, and where and how such changes have been blocked or undermined.