Climate change science points to an increase in sea surface temperature, increases in the severity of extreme weather events, declining air quality, and destabilizing natural systems due to increases in greenhouse gas emissions. The direct and indirect health results of such a global imbalance include excessive heat-related illnesses, vector- and waterborne diseases, increased exposure to environmental toxins, exacerbation of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases due to declining air quality, and mental health stress among others. Vulnerability to these health effects will increase as elderly and urban populations increase and are less able to adapt to climate change. In addition, the level of vulnerability to certain health impacts will vary by location. As a result, strategies to address climate change must include health as a strategic component on a regional level. The co-benefits of improving health while addressing climate change will improve public health infrastructure today, while mitigating the negative consequences of a changing climate for future generations.Added to the climate change-driven increases in temperature are the effects of the urban “built” environment. In fact, cities and their climates are co-evolving in a manner that will amplify the effect of heat as well as the vulnerability of urban populations to heat-related deaths. For example, more than half of the planet's human population now lives in cities, up from 30% only 50 years ago. Urban areas are gaining an estimated 67 million people per year—about 1.3 million every week . By 2030, approximately 60% of the projected global population of 8.3 billion will live in the cities. This population increase will accompany rapid urbanization, quickly transitioning communities from native vegetation to an engineered infrastructure that increases thermal-storage capacity, known as the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect.