Climate Change Health and Care Systems
Heat and hospitalization risks among people with disabilities in South Korea. Nature Communications.
• 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
Life Stage and Reproductive Health Climate Change
Impact of extreme weather events on food security among older people: A systematic review. Aging Clinical and Experimental Research.
• Research & Reports
Climate Change Health and Care Systems
Changing climate and socioeconomic factors contribute to global antimicrobial resistance. Nature Medicine.
A new forecasting study by Chinese researchers suggests the long-term impacts of climate change could include higher global antimicrobial resistance (AMR) levels.
• Research & Reports
Infectious Diseases Climate Change
The unseen climate health risks of antimicrobial resistance in urban informal settlements. Nature Medicine.
Researchers from the Revitalising Informal Settlements and their Environments (RISE) program reveal a “perfect storm” of health risks currently at play in urban informal settlements.
• Research & Reports
Climate Change Health and Care Systems
Climate-resilient acute care clinical operations: A framework that informs how operations within acute care build climate-resilient health systems. The Canadian College of Health Leaders.
The authors created a guide for the development, implementation, and evaluation of strategies within clinical operations to build more climate-resilient acute care systems.
• Guides & Frameworks, Research & Reports
