Abstract:

Anthropogenic climate change is very likely to exacerbate the stress upon health systems in all parts of the world. It will do this through an increase in the magnitude and frequency of short-lived extreme events (such as droughts, floods, heatwaves) and long-term changes in the climate system moving historically stable climatologies to new norms (including rising temperatures and sea level). Clearly, climate change in and of itself will not bring about health system stress, but its effect will be to increase vulnerability of people and infrastructures to the physical hazards and the induced stress upon people through fundamental socio-economic change (such as water availability and dietary shifts due to changes in aquacultural and agricultural productivity). The implied economic impact upon the global health system is complex and multifaceted, not least because of the multiple factors affecting health systems in general, but also because of the interplay of these factors; thus even attribution over the modern period, where climatological trends are present (such as rising temperature), is not straightforward.

Citation:

Jackson, L.P. and Devadason, C.A. (2019). Climate change, flooding and mental health. A report prepared for the Secretariat of the Rockefeller Foundation Economic Council on Planetary Health at the Oxford Martin School.
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