Climate Threat: State climate policy, anticipatory stress, and population health

• In Event: Climate Change and Population Health

Abstract

Climate change poses an escalating threat to human life and wellbeing. In their focus on discrete climate events, prior studies may overlook the social and structural nature of climate change. Climate change is man-made and man-shaped, and the actions of nations, states, and corporations distribute the consequences of climate change unequally across populations. This study conceptualizes climate policy as an upstream driver of U.S. population health and assesses how policy environments can influence health through physical and psychosocial mechanisms. I introduce the concept of climate threat – the vulnerability that comes from living in less protective climate policy environments, regardless of actual risk of exposure – and argue that climate policy can get “under the skin” through threat or anticipation of eventual exposure. Using a novel index of state climate policy, I expect to find that more protective state policy landscapes are associated with better physical and mental health outcomes for residents, net of other liberal policies in a state. In addition, I expect that counties with higher levels of risk of exposure to negative climate events will benefit the most from protective policy contexts, while there may be little or no effect of policy for highly insulated, “safe” counties. Protective climate policy contexts may also confer a sense of “peace of mind” to residents, so I predict that the effect of climate policy on health will be mediated by climate threat psychosocial stressors such as fear of loss of property or life, negative anticipation, and lack of a sense of security or safety.

Author

• Meredith Caroline Riley, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill