Outlook: Newsletter of the Society of Behavorial Medicine

Winter 2023

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Climate Change, Human Health, and the Path Forward: Perspectives from an Advocate-Researcher

Alexandra Holland, LMSW – UT Medical Branch; & the Climate Change and Health SIG

One of the privileges of coming into research from the climate change advocacy movement is witnessing how the health community’s perception of it has changed. Interest in how to get involved has grown at an exponential rate, and not a moment too soon. In the last few years, we have seen the hottest year in Earth’s recorded history (2023), ever-creeping sea level rise and a warming ocean, horrendous wildfires, and other effects from climate change.1,2 We could spend hours talking about the health effects of these, but that’s for another article (or maybe a webinar for next meeting!). The long and short of it is, climate change is bad for human health, and as people who research or work in the field of human health, we have every cause for concern.

So, the main questions I have seen come up related to this are:

  1. How do I get started?
  2. What should be our research priorities?
  3. What can we actually do?

In the spirit of getting more people involved, here are my suggestions for the path forward:

  1. There are so many ways to get started! If you’re looking for funding, the National Institutes of Health has an initiative dedicated to climate change and health, along with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and my personal favorite, the US Climate Resiliency Toolkit. If you’re looking to learn more about climate and health, the Climate Change SIG at SBM is a great place to start, along with these various training programs.
  2. For research priorities, partnering with communities already being affected by climate change is a great place to start through the use of true Community Based Participatory Research techniques. The members of these communities are the experts of their lived experiences and can be a great resource for directing the priority research areas. In addition, I have heard from many leaders in these communities who would love to have professionals partnering with them to address their community’s health concerns. A word of caution, however – these communities need to be true partners in your research, not just a source of data for you to collect and then vanish into the night.
  3. Perhaps related to #2, advocate responsibly! While it can be difficult sometimes, depending on your position and funding, it’s important we find ways to add our voices to the dialogue. If you are working with frontline communities, they deserve to have our alliance as they fight for the right to a healthy community. Sometimes advocacy can look like calling or meeting with representatives and showing up to city hall meetings. And sometimes, it can look like effectively communicating your research! Ensure what you are doing is available to individuals fighting for environmental justice and not just other researchers. By doing this, you are leveraging your professional abilities in a way that is accessible to all, and this is one of the best ways to make sure something productive comes from your work.

I know many of us, myself included, often consider our professional careers and advocacy as two separate areas. However, I think we are doing ourselves a great disservice when we separate them. So, as you continue as a researcher AND an advocate, I am leaving you with these words from Ada Limon:

“The world says, What we are becoming, we are becoming together. The world says, One type of dream has ended and another has just begun. The world says, Once we were separate, and now we must move in unison.” -Ada Limon, Startlement (for the Fifth National Climate Assessment) 

References

  1. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Climate change impacts | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Accessed December 11, 2023. https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/climate/climate-change-impacts
  2. Dickie G, Hartman T, Trainor C. The Hottest Year. Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/graphics/CLIMATE-UN/WEATHER-EXTREMES/zdvxrmeakvx/. Published December 9, 2023. Accessed December 11, 2023.