Abstract

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It is widely acknowledged that climate conditions play a significant role in people's health, and can interfere with it in a number of ways. The consequences of climate change are diversified, inevitable and in the near future tend to intensify and worsen, especially among the poorest regions and the most vulnerable groups, where the possibility of developing adaptation systems is more limited. In addition to the expected impacts in the most diverse economic and environmental sectors, human health has emerged as another important area associated with climate change, which although not often mentioned or even of great political concern, it is estimated that will have an extremely worrying impact, both in the distribution and incidence of the disease and in the health, understood in a broad sense of well-being of the populations, which is reflected in the social structure and ways of life. The research done so far shows that climate change interferes with health levels, causes deaths and disabilities around the world. Extreme temperatures and pollution contribute to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases that primarily affect children and the elderly. The infectious diseases (eg, ebola, malaria, dengue), water scarcity and quality are problems that have been increasing steeply in the southern hemisphere and emerging in Europe. For example, heat waves have led to a systematic worsening of mortality especially among risk groups, particularly the elderly and the poor. In Europe, mortality is estimated to increase by 1-4% for each degree of temperature above a certain threshold and it is expected that these rates will increase for vulnerable groups: the elderly, the chronic, and children.  However, the positive effects on health resulting from adaptation and mitigation measures directed at climate change, which improve the living conditions of the population, contribute to raising health and well-being. Some author’s states that dealing with climate change may be the greatest opportunity for global health in the 21st century. In addition to the impacts of climate change on health, we need to consider the social factors and health determinants that emerge in this context. In fact, when we cross the socioeconomic and demographic characteristic of populations, we can see that they are differently equipped to deal with this problem, which exposes them more or less to the effects of climate change. Those are the factors (age, gender, income level, housing conditions, ethnicity, health status, accessibility, support networks, etc.) that explain different risks and vulnerabilities among populations.

We invite papers on the following and other related topics:

• Impacts of Climate Change in health

• Challenges of Climate Change to the policy of health

• Climate Change and Mental Health

• Risks, social vulnerabilities, climate change and health

• How people and societies comprehend and respond to environmental changes and their impact on health?

• How individuals and groups perceive threats to their health and respond to catastrophic stresses?

• Gender, health risks and climate change

• Vulnerable groups, climate change and health

• Social inequalities, climate change and health

• The roles of health professionals in health climate change adaptation policies

• Adaptation and mitigation public policies in health

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Session organizer(s)

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Fátima Alves (PT) – Phd in Sociology of Health, Assistant Professor at University Aberta, PI of the Socio-environmental Governance and Sustainability Research Group at Centre for Functional Ecology, University of Coimbra, Portugal.

 

Ana Mendonça (PT) – MSc in Environmental Citizenship and Participation, Phd Student at University Aberta and Centre for Functional Ecology, University of Coimbra, Portugal.

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