Climate Health: How the Climate Crisis Impacts Health Outcomes Worldwide

Since 1975, the global temperature has been increasing at a rate of 0.36 degrees Celsius each year [1]. Rising temperatures lead to rising sea levels, increased risk of extreme natural disasters, and damaged habitats. Climate change is rapidly affecting the way we live our lives, and has already had disastrous effects on people and animals alike. The increasing impact of climate change often raises one important question: How long until our Earth becomes uninhabitable? Estimates for how long humans will live varies anywhere from 40 years to 10,000, but the climate crisis has already begun rapidly negatively affecting people globally. Climate change has begun to extend beyond just the natural world, and has steadily been impacting human health: extended periods of drought have led to food insecurity, increased ocean acidification has led to unhealthy fish being caught, encouraging the spread of infectious diseases, and worsening air quality, among a multitude of other indirect effects on human health [2]. With each effect on human health, however, comes increased strain on the physicians that treat patients with climate-induced health issues. According to researchers from the United Kingdom, there is likely to be an increase in health burdens relating to cardiovascular, respiratory, and renal issues as a direct result of increased prevalence of communicable diseases, changing air quality, and changes to food supplies [2]. Due to the increased amount of health issues that are developing alongside climate change, there has also been an observable increase in stress on healthcare service workers (HSWs), broadly defined as anyone working in healthcare or a directly related field. Often, HSWs are ill equipped in regards to knowledge of specific climate induced situations; for example, nurses have reported not having adequate training for natural disaster responses [3]. The effect of staff shortages also becomes compounded with each climate event, as HSWs themselves may become unable to work and more people need healthcare. Multiple events often also impact one area, further increasing the struggle of HSWs there by an exponential amount. Increases in resources needed to respond to health issues relating to the climate crisis affects what may be put toward other health issues. Furthermore , added stresses burden the healthcare workers that must respond to acute climate crises. Healthcare workers play an important role in advocating for better climate care and better climate health. Rapidly increasing effects of climate change globally have highlighted gaps in training systems for HSWs, with an increasing need for disaster response training and specific resources each facility has access to should any given situation arise [3]. Furthermore, the increased emotional stress of having to respond to climate crises leaves HSWs less capacity to care for their families, leading their families to also need emotional support throughout healthcare crises. Lack of work life balance have proven to be seriously detrimental to HSWs physical and mental health, and the toll ripples through the communities they try to serve. Moving forward, beyond reversing impacts of climate change so that the effects of climate crises affect HSWs less, intensive training regarding how to handle specific situations must be provided in order to mitigate negative impacts on HSWs and consequently the negative effects that healthcare systems may experience. Humanizing the healthcare workforce is the first step in changing the effects of climate change on healthcare systems, and ensuring that HSWs are equipped and supported during and beyond times of crises in their communities.

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SOURCES: Climate change: global temperature. (2025, May 29). NOAA Climate.gov. https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-temperature Maslin, M., Ramnath, R. D., Welsh, G. I., & Sisodiya, S. M. (2025). Understanding the health impacts of the climate crisis. Future Healthcare Journal, 12(1), 100240. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fhj.2025.100240 ClinicalKey. (2024). Clinicalkey.com. https://www.clinicalkey.com/#!/content/playContent/1-s2.0-S2667278224000403?