The dangers of a warming climate are frequently presented through an economic or an existential lens, either as a financial gamble whose costs may ultimately outweigh the short-term benefits, or a foreboding reflection of our unwise proclivity toward planetary engineering. But to Howard Frumkin, Dean and Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington, it?s a lot more concrete than all that: Climate change, he believes, is ?the biggest health challenge in the coming century.?

In addition to anticipated death tolls from more frequent and more intense severe weather events, many chronic issues are coming to the fore. Air pollutants ? most notably lung-busting ozone and particulates ? increase with heightened temperatures. Ozone forms from nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons through atmospheric chemical reactions that speed up with heat, while particulates nucleate around liquid droplets and can penetrate deeply into the lungs. Both pollutants can cause problematic respiratory responses, and as Frumkin notes, ?in the aggregate, the air quality in some areas rivals what you?d see being downwind from a big wildfire.?

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