Today, entering the second decade of the 21st century,clinical patient education and health education have been greatly enhanced in physi-cal and occupational rehabilitation. Therapists use clinical teaching and learning regu-larly in their patientsâ examination, evaluation, plan of care, and interventions. Thegoal of rehabilitation providers is to help their patients learn about the disorder (disease)affecting them and actively participate in the planning of interventions.
The World Meteorological Organization defines this time period as 30 years. Examples of climate change include increases in global surface temperature (global warming), changes in rainfall patterns, and changes in the frequency of extreme weather events.
(For more information, see Global Warming: Potential Effects of Global Warming) 1  Changes in climate not only affect average temperatures, but also extreme temperatures, increasing the likelihood of weather-related natural disasters. If global climate change causes the global average temperature to rise (top), there will be less cold weather, and a greater probability of hot and record hot weather. An increase in temperature variability will extend the extremes of temperature, both cold and hot. An increase in average temperature combined with increased variance will have little effect on cold weather, but hot weather will be more common and record hot weather will increase greatly. (Figure adapted from Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis)