Mental Health Climate Change
Exploring the relationship between physical activity, flood experience, eco-anxiety, and youth well-being in a changing climate. Scientific Reports.
• Research & Reports
WHAT IS PLANETARY HEALTH?
Climate Change
Increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, driven by human activity, negatively impacts global ecological systems and human health.
Human-driven emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and black carbon are primarily responsible for an unstable and changing climate, and most are produced by burning fossil fuels and altering natural habitats. Glacial melting, rising sea levels, increased global temperatures, more frequent extreme weather events, and changes in the abundance, distribution, and composition of species are all linked to the changing climate.
Globally, nearly twice as many natural disasters occurred between 2000 and 2019 and affected roughly 1 billion more people than the period spanning 1980 and 1999. Heat waves, droughts, fires, floods, tropical storms, and other extreme weather events pose both near- and long-term threats to human health and intergenerational equity. For example, particulate matter from fires reduces air quality and causes morbidity and mortality from cardiorespiratory disease; flooding leads to biological contamination of water supplies, displacement, injury, and trauma; and more intense coastal storms, combined with sea level rise and loss of coastal barrier systems (mangrove forests, vegetated dunes, coral reefs, and wetlands), generate a “triple threat” for inhabitants of low-lying coastal areas. Survivors of extreme weather events face long-term, serious physical and mental health impacts.
Climate change and ecosystem transformations are inextricably connected and often mutually exacerbated.
The field of Planetary Health uses a systems approach to connect the complexities of anthropogenic drivers of climate change to natural hazards. Understanding these relationships in terms of cause-and-effect is the first step in addressing climate change and its widespread effects on the planet’s ecosystems and well-being of its inhabitants.
We must take note of these causal relationships and advocate for living within planetary boundaries to preserve what climate stability we can for the safety of future generations and our biosphere.
Climate Change Resources
Mental Health Climate Change
Equipping future climate and health advocates: Piloting a locally focused health effects of climate change curriculum in providence county schools. BMC Public Health.
• Research & Reports
Noncommunicable Diseases Climate Change
El Salvador’s Surge in Chronic Kidney Disease. Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health.
• News
Mental Health Climate Change
Exploring eco-anxiety in Italian adolescents: Psychometric evaluation of the Climate Change Anxiety Scale and theoretical insights into the association with pro-environmental attitudes. Frontiers in Psychology.
Despite the disproportionate current and future health impacts of climate change for adolescents, they are given limited opportunities to mitigate its effect. This study aims to explore the psychometric properties of the Climate Change Anxiety Scale (CCAS) and investigate the psychological pathways through which climate anxieties impact pro-environmentalist attitudes among Italian adolescents. Findings show that higher CCAS is correlated to more pro-environmental attitudes, suggesting that eco-anxiety may play an adaptive role in adolescent psychology.
• Research & Reports
Climate Change Health and Care Systems
Knowledge and awareness of climate change and its health impacts among faculty members in health-related faculties in Istanbul
Health professionals play a vital role in mitigating climate-related health risks and strengthening the resilience of health systems. This abstract assesses the knowledge and awareness of climate change and its health impacts among faculty members at a public university’s health schools in Istanbul.
• Meeting Abstracts/ Reports
News Related to Climate Change
Connecting Bogotá’s Urban Households to Fresh Local Foods
