Last updated: Tuesday, August 25th, 2026
disasters | food & water insecurity | mental health | environmental pollution
medical sociology | public health | lifecourse
Climate change is a catalyst for worsening and more disasters, including climate, pandemics, and conflict. Direct health consequences are food and water insecurity, heat-related illness and re-emergence of preventable infectious diseases. Furthermore, new regional disease patterns emerge leaving the training of health professionals short, and mounting a large gap in planetary health education, especially for mental health professionals. Industries create a large amount of pollution in air, water and land, with the healthcare sector having a larger carbon footprint with medical waste. Finally, children, women, and pregnancy are particularly adversely affected both mentally and physically from aforementioned phenomena and the intersection of them. While sustainable solutions do exist, our sample was dominated by the climate change impact on health.
Disasters (climate, pandemic, war)
General
Falk J, Colwell RR, Behera SK, El-Beltagy AS, Gleick PH, Kennel CF, Lee YT, Murray CA, Serageldin I, Takeuchi K, Yasunari T, Watanabe C, Kauffman J, Soderland K, Elouafi I, Paroda R, Chapagain AK, Rundle J, Hanasaki N, Hayashi H, Akinsete E, Hayashida S. An urgent need for COP27: confronting converging crises. Sustain Sci. 2022 Nov 10:1-5. doi: 10.1007/s11625-022-01253-5. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36405348; PMCID: PMC9647240.
Ali I, Hamid S. Implications of COVID-19 and “super floods” for routine vaccination in Pakistan: The reemergence of vaccine preventable-diseases such as polio and measles. Hum Vaccin Immunother. 2022 Dec 30;18(7):2154099. doi: 10.1080/21645515.2022.2154099. Epub 2022 Dec 26. PMID: 36573023; PMCID: PMC9891673.
Wildfire
Akdis CA, Nadeau KC. Human and planetary health on fire. Nat Rev Immunol. 2022 Nov;22(11):651-652. doi: 10.1038/s41577-022-00776-3. PMID: 36042380; PMCID: PMC9425797.
Earthquake
Yamazaki C, Nakai H. Understanding Mothers’ Worries about the Effects of Disaster Evacuation on Their Children: A Cross-Sectional Study. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 19;20(3):1850. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20031850. PMID: 36767215; PMCID: PMC9914362.
Heatwaves (ambient temperature)
Wedler M, Pinto JG, Hochman A. More frequent, persistent, and deadly heat waves in the 21st century over the Eastern Mediterranean. Sci Total Environ. 2023 Jan 31;870:161883. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.161883. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36736407.
Faurie C, Varghese BM, Liu J, Bi P. Association between high temperature and heatwaves with heat-related illnesses: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Sci Total Environ. 2022 Dec 15;852:158332. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.158332. Epub 2022 Aug 27. PMID: 36041616.
Pandemic
Beesley LJ, Patelli P, Kaufeld K, Schwenk J, Martinez KM, Pitts T, Barnard M, McMahon B, Del Valle SY. Multi-dimensional resilience: A quantitative exploration of disease outcomes and economic, political, and social resilience to the COVID-19 pandemic in six countries. PLoS One. 2023 Jan 5;18(1):e0279894. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0279894. PMID: 36603015; PMCID: PMC9815572.
Kyeremateng R, Lynch MA, Pinzón-Segura MC, Osei-Bonsu A, Fortmann J, Wood D; International Society for Social Pediatrics (ISSOP) Voices of Children Working Group. What the children tell us: the COVID-19 pandemic and how the world should respond. BMJ Paediatr Open. 2022 Oct;6(1):e001481. doi: 10.1136/bmjpo-2022-001481. PMID: 36645764; PMCID: PMC9582311.
Patlolla AK, Smith Z, Tchounwou P. Indirect Impacts of COVID-19 on the Environment: A Global Review. Int J Biomed Clin Anal. 2022 Aug;2(1):9-19. Epub 2022 Aug 10. PMID: 36267598; PMCID: PMC9580545.
Conflict
Kemei J, Salami BO, Soboka M, Gommaa HIM, Okeke-Ihejirika P, Lavin T. The forms and adverse effects of insecurities among internally displaced children in Ethiopia. BMC Public Health. 2023 Jan 30;23(1):200. doi: 10.1186/s12889-023-15109-9. PMID: 36717843; PMCID: PMC9885394.
Food & water insecurity
General
Green R, Scheelbeek P, Bentham J, Cuevas S, Smith P, Dangour AD. Growing health: global linkages between patterns of food supply, sustainability, and vulnerability to climate change. Lancet Planet Health. 2022 Nov;6(11):e901-e908. doi: 10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00223-6. PMID: 36370728.
Pandemic & food insecurity
Mugabe PA, Renkamp TM, Rybak C, Mbwana H, Gordon C, Sieber S, Löhr K. Governing COVID-19: analyzing the effects of policy responses on food systems in Tanzania. Agric Food Secur. 2022;11(1):47. doi: 10.1186/s40066-022-00383-4. Epub 2022 Sep 9. PMID: 36105751; PMCID: PMC9461453.
Heavy metals in food
Rai PK, Sonne C, Kim KH. Heavy metals and arsenic stress in food crops: Elucidating antioxidative defense mechanisms in hyperaccumulators for food security, agricultural sustainability, and human health. Sci Total Environ. 2023 Feb 20:162327. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162327. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36813200.
Alam MNE, Hosen MM, Ullah AKMA, Maksud MA, Khan SR, Lutfa LN, Choudhury TR, Quraishi SB. Pollution Characteristics, Source Identification, and Health Risk of Heavy Metals in the Soil-Vegetable System in Two Districts of Bangladesh. Biol Trace Elem Res. 2023 Jan 14:1–15. doi: 10.1007/s12011-023-03558-7. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36639511; PMCID: PMC9839442.
Mental health
Lawrance EL, Thompson R, Newberry Le Vay J, Page L, Jennings N. The Impact of Climate Change on Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing: A Narrative Review of Current Evidence, and its Implications. Int Rev Psychiatry. 2022 Aug;34(5):443-498. doi: 10.1080/09540261.2022.2128725. Erratum in: Int Rev Psychiatry. 2022 Aug;34(5):iii. PMID: 36165756.
Wigand ME, Timmermann C, Scherp A, Becker T, Steger F. Climate Change, Pollution, Deforestation, and Mental Health: Research Trends, Gaps, and Ethical Considerations. Geohealth. 2022 Nov 1;6(11):e2022GH000632. doi: 10.1029/2022GH000632. PMID: 36330078; PMCID: PMC9623432.
Bragazzi NL, Garbarino S, Puce L, Trompetto C, Marinelli L, Currà A, Jahrami H, Trabelsi K, Mellado B, Asgary A, Wu J, Kong JD. Planetary sleep medicine: Studying sleep at the individual, population, and planetary level. Front Public Health. 2022 Oct 18;10:1005100. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1005100. PMID: 36330122; PMCID: PMC9624384.
Environmental pollution (land, air, water)
Industry pollution
Wang Y, Wang H, Wang P, Zhang X, Zhang Z, Zhong Q, Ma F, Yue Q, Chen WQ, Du T, Liang S. Cascading impacts of global metal mining on climate change and human health caused by COVID-19 pandemic. Resour Conserv Recycl. 2023 Mar;190:106800. doi: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106800. Epub 2022 Nov 29. PMID: 36465718; PMCID: PMC9705201.
Carrasco-Amador JP, Canito-Lobo JL, Castaño-Liberal A, Rodríguez-Rego JM, Matamoros-Pacheco M. Actions to reduce carbon footprint in materials to healthcare buildings. Heliyon. 2022 Oct 26;8(11):e11281. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e11281. PMID: 36353156; PMCID: PMC9637702.
Cockrell HC, Hansen EE, Gow K, Fecteau A, Greenberg SLM. The intersection of pediatric surgery, climate change, and equity. J Pediatr Surg. 2023 Jan 19:S0022-3468(23)00036-2. doi: 10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2023.01.017. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36792419.
Occupational health
Landrigan P, Bose-O’Reilly S, Elbel J, Nordberg G, Lucchini R, Bartrem C, Grandjean P, Mergler D, Moyo D, Nemery B, von Braun M, Nowak D; Collegium Ramazzini. Reducing disease and death from Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) – the urgent need for responsible mining in the context of growing global demand for minerals and metals for climate change mitigation. Environ Health. 2022 Aug 26;21(1):78. doi: 10.1186/s12940-022-00877-5. PMID: 36028832; PMCID: PMC9412790.
Dally M, Suresh K, Van Dyke M, James KA, Bauer AK, Krisher L, Newman LS. Occurrence of Occupational Injuries and Within Day Changes in Wet Bulb Temperature Among Sugarcane Harvesters. J Agromedicine. 2023 Feb 3:1-9. doi: 10.1080/1059924X.2023.2169425. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36650099.
Ethics
Greenwood Dufour B, Weeks L, De Angelis G, Marchand DK, Kaunelis D, Severn M, Walter M, Mittmann N. How We Might Further Integrate Considerations of Environmental Impact When Assessing the Value of Health Technologies. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Sep 22;19(19):12017. doi: 10.3390/ijerph191912017. PMID: 36231319; PMCID: PMC9566650.
Respiratory Viral Infections
Burbank AJ. Risk Factors for Respiratory Viral Infections: A Spotlight on Climate Change and Air Pollution. J Asthma Allergy. 2023 Jan 25;16:183-194. doi: 10.2147/JAA.S364845. PMID: 36721739; PMCID: PMC9884560.
Medical sociology
Activism (Lack thereof)
Li C, Lawrance EL, Morgan G, Brown R, Greaves N, Krzanowski J, Samuel S, Guinto RR, Belkin G. The role of mental health professionals in the climate crisis: an urgent call to action. Int Rev Psychiatry. 2022 Aug;34(5):563-570. doi: 10.1080/09540261.2022.2097005. Epub 2022 Aug 9. PMID: 36165755.
Clery P, Embliss L, Cussans A, Cooke E, Shukla K, Li C. Protesting for public health: a case for medical activism during the climate crisis. Int Rev Psychiatry. 2022 Aug;34(5):553-562. doi: 10.1080/09540261.2022.2093627. PMID: 36165750.
Singh G, Xue S, Poukhovski-Sheremetyev F. Climate emergency, young people and mental health: time for justice and health professional action. BMJ Paediatr Open. 2022 Apr;6(1):e001375. doi: 10.1136/bmjpo-2021-001375. PMID: 36053656; PMCID: PMC8981321.
Education & Training
Oudbier J, Sperna Weiland NH, Boerboom T, Ravesloot JH, Peerdeman S, Suurmond J. An evidence-based roadmap to integrate planetary health education into the medical curriculum. Med Teach. 2022 Nov 17:1-5. doi: 10.1080/0142159X.2022.2137015. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36395753.
McGushin A, de Barros EF, Floss M, Mohammad Y, Ndikum AE, Ngendahayo C, Oduor PA, Sultana S, Wong R, Abelsohn A. The World Organization of Family Doctors Air Health Train the Trainer Program: lessons learned and implications for planetary health education. Lancet Planet Health. 2023 Jan;7(1):e55-e63. doi: 10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00218-2. PMID: 36608949.
Bajalan A, Bui T, Salvadori G, Marques D, Schumacher A, Rösing CK, Dahle UR, Petersen FC, Ricomini-Filho AP, Nicolau BF, Junges R. Awareness regarding antimicrobial resistance and confidence to prescribe antibiotics in dentistry: a cross-continental student survey. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control. 2022 Dec 11;11(1):158. doi: 10.1186/s13756-022-01192-x. PMID: 36503570; PMCID: PMC9741920.
Public health
General
Målqvist M. Beyond global health: Redefining the ‘public’ in public health. Scand J Public Health. 2022 Nov;50(7):1059-1061. doi: 10.1177/14034948221109712. Epub 2022 Sep 16. PMID: 36114648; PMCID: PMC9578087.
Diseases
Bouchard C, Dumas A, Baron G, Bowser N, Leighton PA, Lindsay LR, Milord F, Ogden NH, Aenishaenslin C. Integrated human behavior and tick risk maps to prioritize Lyme disease interventions using a ‘One Health’ approach. Ticks Tick Borne Dis. 2023 Mar;14(2):102083. doi: 10.1016/j.ttbdis.2022.102083. Epub 2022 Nov 19. PMID: 36435167.
Mekuriaw W, Kinde S, Kindu B, Mulualem Y, Hailu G, Gebresilassie A, Sisay C, Bekele F, Amare H, Wossen M, Woyessa A, Cross CL, Messenger LA. Epidemiological, Entomological, and Climatological Investigation of the 2019 Dengue Fever Outbreak in Gewane District, Afar Region, North-East Ethiopia. Insects. 2022 Nov 18;13(11):1066. doi: 10.3390/insects13111066. PMID: 36421969; PMCID: PMC9694398.
Ding F, Wang Q, Hao M, Maude RJ, John Day NP, Lai S, Chen S, Fang L, Ma T, Zheng C, Jiang D. Climate drives the spatiotemporal dynamics of scrub typhus in China. Glob Chang Biol. 2022 Nov;28(22):6618-6628. doi: 10.1111/gcb.16395. Epub 2022 Sep 2. PMID: 36056457; PMCID: PMC9825873.
Fungal pathogens
Parums DV. Editorial: The World Health Organization (WHO) Fungal Priority Pathogens List in Response to Emerging Fungal Pathogens During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Med Sci Monit. 2022 Dec 1;28:e939088. doi: 10.12659/MSM.939088. PMID: 36453055; PMCID: PMC9724454.
Snake bite
Bhaumik S, Beri D, Jagnoor J. The impact of climate change on the burden of snakebite: Evidence synthesis and implications for primary healthcare. J Family Med Prim Care. 2022 Oct;11(10):6147-6158. doi: 10.4103/jfmpc.jfmpc_677_22. Epub 2022 Oct 31. PMID: 36618235; PMCID: PMC9810950.
Pre-existing disability
Lindsay S, Hsu S, Ragunathan S, Lindsay J. The impact of climate change related extreme weather events on people with pre-existing disabilities and chronic conditions: a scoping review. Disabil Rehabil. 2022 Nov 25:1-21. doi: 10.1080/09638288.2022.2150328. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 36426560.
Lifecourse
Early life adversity
Thomas I, Martin A, Wicker A, Benoit L. Understanding youths’ concerns about climate change: a binational qualitative study of ecological burden and resilience. Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health. 2022 Dec 31;16(1):110. doi: 10.1186/s13034-022-00551-1. PMID: 36587220; PMCID: PMC9805369.
Carlson JM, Zanobetti A, Ettinger de Cuba S, Poblacion AP, Fabian PM, Carnes F, Rhee J, Lane KJ, Sandel MT, Janulewicz PA. Critical windows of susceptibility for the effects of prenatal exposure to heat and heat variability on gestational growth. Environ Res. 2023 Jan 1;216(Pt 2):114607. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2022.114607. Epub 2022 Oct 22. PMID: 36279910.
Agabiirwe CN, Dambach P, Methula TC, Phalkey RK. Impact of floods on undernutrition among children under five years of age in low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review. Environ Health. 2022 Oct 24;21(1):98. doi: 10.1186/s12940-022-00910-7. PMID: 36274126; PMCID: PMC9590165.
Syndemic
Tsagkaris C, Eleftheriades A, Matiashova L. COVID-19, Monkeypox, climate change and surgery: A syndemic undermines the right to be operated in a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. Perioper Care Oper Room Manag. 2023 Mar;30:100305. doi: 10.1016/j.pcorm.2022.100305. Epub 2022 Dec 26. PMID: 36589906; PMCID: PMC9792183.
Hyder S, Chhem RK, Claes F, Karlsson EA. Pestilence and famine: Continuing down the vicious cycle with COVID-19. PLoS Pathog. 2022 Oct 6;18(10):e1010810. doi: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1010810. PMID: 36201447; PMCID: PMC9536538.
Antinatalism
Karuga FF, Szmyd B, Petroniec K, Walter A, Pawełczyk A, Sochal M, Białasiewicz P, Strzelecki D, Respondek-Liberska M, Tadros-Zins M, Gabryelska A. The Causes and Role of Antinatalism in Poland in the Context of Climate Change, Obstetric Care, and Mental Health. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Oct 20;19(20):13575. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192013575. PMID: 36294154; PMCID: PMC9602747.
Inequity
Rothschild J, Haase E. Women’s mental health and climate change Part II: Socioeconomic stresses of climate change and eco-anxiety for women and their children. Int J Gynaecol Obstet. 2023 Feb;160(2):414-420. doi: 10.1002/ijgo.14514. Epub 2022 Oct 31. PMID: 36254375.
Rothschild J, Haase E. The mental health of women and climate change: Direct neuropsychiatric impacts and associated psychological concerns. Int J Gynaecol Obstet. 2023 Feb;160(2):405-413. doi: 10.1002/ijgo.14479. Epub 2022 Oct 21. PMID: 36165632.
Pregnancy
Zhang Y, Hajat S, Zhao L, Chen H, Cheng L, Ren M, Gu K, Ji JS, Liang W, Huang C. The burden of heatwave-related preterm births and associated human capital losses in China. Nat Commun. 2022 Dec 13;13(1):7565. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-35008-8. PMID: 36513644; PMCID: PMC9747907.
CShell Health 