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Mental health and the global climate crisis
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- Carlos Corvalan, Brandon Gray, Elena Villalobos Prats, Aderita Sena, Fahmy Hanna, Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum
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- Journal:
- Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences / Volume 31 / 2022
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 02 December 2022, e86
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- Article
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Aims
Not only is nature essential for human existence, but many of its functions and contributions are irreplaceable. Studying the impact of these changes on individuals and communities, researchers and public health officials have largely focused on physical health. Our aim is to better understand how climate change also exacerbates many social and environmental risk factors for mental health and psychosocial problems, and can lead to emotional distress, the development of new mental health conditions and a worsening situation for people already living with these conditions.
MethodsWe considered all possible direct and indirect pathways by which climate change can affect mental health. We built a framework which includes climate change-related hazards, climate change-related global environmental threats, social and environmental exposure pathways, and vulnerability factors and inequalities to derive possible mental health and psychosocial outcomes.
ResultsWe identified five approaches to address the mental health and psychosocial impacts of climate change which we suggest should be implemented with urgency: (1) integrate climate change considerations into policies and programmes for mental health, to better prepare for and respond to the climate crisis; (2) integrate mental health and psychosocial support within policies and programmes dealing with climate change and health; (3) build upon global commitments including the Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction; (4) implement multisectoral and community-based approaches to reduce vulnerabilities and address the mental health and psychosocial impacts of climate change; and (5) address the large gaps that exist in funding both for mental health and for responding to the health impacts of climate change.
ConclusionsThere is growing evidence of the various mechanisms by which climate change is affecting mental health. Given the human impacts of climate change, mental health and psychosocial well-being need to be one of the main focuses of climate action. Therefore, countries need to dramatically accelerate their responses to climate change, including efforts to address its impacts on mental health and psychosocial well-being.
Chapter 7 - Managing the Risks: International Level and Integration across Scales
- from Section III
- Edited by Christopher B. Field, Vicente Barros, Thomas F. Stocker, Qin Dahe
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- Book:
- Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation
- Published online:
- 05 August 2012
- Print publication:
- 28 May 2012, pp 393-436
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Summary
Executive Summary
Increasing global interconnectivity, population, and economic growth, and the mutual interdependence of economic and ecological systems, can serve both to reduce vulnerability and to amplify disaster risks (high confidence). Global development pathways are becoming a more important factor in the management of vulnerability and disaster risk. [7.2.1]
The international community has accumulated substantial experience in providing help for disasters and risk management in the context of localized and short-term events associated with climate variability and extremes. Experience in disaster risk management includes both bottom-up and top-down approaches, but most often has developed from disasters considered first as local issues, then at the national level, and only at the international level where needs exceed national capacity, especially in terms of humanitarian assistance and capacity building. [7.2.4]
There are two main mechanisms at the international level that are purpose-built and dedicated to disaster risk management and climate change adaptation. These are the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in particular in its adaptation components. This chapter focuses on these two bodies while recognizing that there are many others that have an international role to play. Page limitations require a selective approach and a comprehensive assessment of all relevant bodies is impractical. The UNISDR and the UNFCCC are very different institutions with different mandates and scope and objectives, and with varying strengths and capacities (high confidence).
Chapter 9 - Case Studies
- from Section III
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- By Virginia Murray, Gordon McBean, Mihir Bhatt, Sergey Borsch, Tae Sung Cheong, Wadid Fawzy Erian, Silvia Llosa, Farrokh Nadim, Mario Nunez, Ravsal Oyun, Avelino G. Suarez, John Hay, Mai Trong Nhuan, Jose Moreno, Peter Berry, Harriet Caldin, Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum, Catriona Carmichael, Anita Cooper, Cherif Diop, Justin Ginnetti, Delphine Grynzspan, Clare Heaviside, Jeremy Hess, James Kossin, Paul Kovacs, Sari Kovats, Irene Kreis, Reza Lahidji, Joanne Linnerooth-Bayer, Felipe Lucio, Simon Mason, Sabrina McCormick, Reinhard Mechler, Bettina Menne, Soojeong Myeong, Arona Ngari, Neville Nicholls, Ursula Oswald Spring, Pascal Peduzzi, Rosa Perez, Caroline Rodgers, Hannah Rowlatt, Sohel Saikat, Sonia Seneviratne, Addis Taye, Richard Thornton, Sotiris Vardoulakis, Koko Warner, Irina Zodrow
- Edited by Christopher B. Field, Vicente Barros, Thomas F. Stocker, Qin Dahe
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- Book:
- Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation
- Published online:
- 05 August 2012
- Print publication:
- 28 May 2012, pp 487-542
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Summary
Executive Summary
Case studies contribute more focused analyses which, in the context of human loss and damage, demonstrate the effectiveness of response strategies and prevention measures and identify lessons about success in disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. The case studies were chosen to complement and be consistent with the information in the preceding chapters, and to demonstrate aspects of the key messages in the Summary for Policymakers and the Hyogo Framework for Action Priorities.
The case studies were grouped to examine types of extreme events, vulnerable regions, and methodological approaches. For the extreme event examples, the first two case studies pertain to events of extreme temperature with moisture deficiencies in Europe and Australia and their impacts including on health. These are followed by case studies on drought in Syria and dzud, cold-dry conditions in Mongolia. Tropical cyclones in Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Mesoamerica, and then floods in Mozambique are discussed in the context of community actions. The last of the extreme events case studies is about disastrous epidemic disease, using the case of cholera in Zimbabwe, as the example.
The case studies chosen to reflect vulnerable regions demonstrate how a changing climate provides significant concerns for people, societies, and their infrastructure. These are: Mumbai as an example of a coastal megacity; the Republic of the Marshall Islands, as an example of small island developing states with special challenges for adaptation; and Canada's northern regions as an example of cold climate vulnerabilities focusing on infrastructures.
Summary for Policymakers
- from Section II
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- By Simon K. Allen, Vicente Barros, Ian Burton, Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum, Omar-Dario Cardona, Susan L. Cutter, O. Pauline Dube, Kristie L. Ebi, Christopher B. Field, John W. Handmer, Padma N. Lal, Allan Lavell, Katharine J. Mach, Michael D. Mastrandrea, Gordon A. McBean, Reinhard Mechler, Tom Mitchell, Neville Nicholls, Karen L. O'Brien, Taikan Oki, Michael Oppenheimer, Mark Pelling, Gian-Kasper Plattner, Roger S. Pulwarty, Sonia I. Seneviratne, Thomas F. Stocker, Maarten K. van Aalst, Carolina S. Vera, Thomas J. Wilbanks
- Edited by Christopher B. Field, Vicente Barros, Thomas F. Stocker, Qin Dahe
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- Book:
- Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation
- Published online:
- 05 August 2012
- Print publication:
- 28 May 2012, pp 3-22
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Summary
Context
This Summary for Policymakers presents key findings from the Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX). The SREX approaches the topic by assessing the scientific literature on issues that range from the relationship between climate change and extreme weather and climate events (‘climate extremes’) to the implications of these events for society and sustainable development. The assessment concerns the interaction of climatic, environmental, and human factors that can lead to impacts and disasters, options for managing the risks posed by impacts and disasters, and the important role that non-climatic factors play in determining impacts. Box SPM.1 defines concepts central to the SREX.
The character and severity of impacts from climate extremes depend not only on the extremes themselves but also on exposure and vulnerability. In this report, adverse impacts are considered disasters when they produce widespread damage and cause severe alterations in the normal functioning of communities or societies. Climate extremes, exposure, and vulnerability are influenced by a wide range of factors, including anthropogenic climate change, natural climate variability, and socioeconomic development (Figure SPM.1). Disaster risk management and adaptation to climate change focus on reducing exposure and vulnerability and increasing resilience to the potential adverse impacts of climate extremes, even though risks cannot fully be eliminated (Figure SPM.2). Although mitigation of climate change is not the focus of this report, adaptation and mitigation can complement each other and together can significantly reduce the risks of climate change. [SYR AR4, 5.3]
10 - Monitoring the health impacts of global climate change
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- By Diarmid H. Campbell-Lendrum, Infectious Diseases, Department London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK, Paul Wilkinson, Department of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK, Katrin Kuhn, Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK, R. Sari Kovats, Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK, Andy Haines, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK, Bettina Menne, WHO European Centre for Environment and Health, Rome Division, Rome, Italy, Terry W. Parr, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Merlewood, UK
- Edited by P. Martens, Universiteit Maastricht, Netherlands, A. J. McMichael, Australian National University, Canberra
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- Book:
- Environmental Change, Climate and Health
- Published online:
- 28 July 2009
- Print publication:
- 22 August 2002, pp 253-289
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Summary
Introduction
As the processes of global environmental change proceed, the importance of monitoring health outcomes of climate change increases (e.g. Haines. et al, 1993; Haines, 1999). Accurate, reliable and comparable data are necessary for detecting and quantifying the early impacts of these changes on health, and as an essential first step towards planned adaptation to minimize adverse health impacts in a future, environmentally changed, world (McMichael et al., 1996; Balbus, 1998).
These issues are well illustrated by recent developments in relation to global climate change. This chapter developed from a report of a working group convened by the World Health Organization, European Centre for Environment and Health (WHO-ECEH), which prepared a background document for the Third Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health, held in London in June 1999. The document pointed to the need for the monitoring of potential impacts of climate change on human health, and highlighted the potential role of long-term integrated monitoring sites in investigating links between anthropogenic climate change, natural ecosystems and human health.
This chapter also draws on work of the NoLIMITS (Networking of Long term Integrated Monitoring Sites), preparatory action of the European Union ENRICH (European Network for Research in Global Change) programme. NoLIMITS aims to link current environmental monitoring sites throughout Europe, to make available policy-relevant scientific information to address environmental changes and their consequences at local to global scales, to provide a focus for collaborative interdisciplinary research between sites, networks and users, and to explore the possibility of introducing new measurements at existing monitoring sites to meet specific scientific and policy needs.