What is the climate crisis doing to our bodies and brains?

This episode delves into the intersection of the climate crisis and public health, with a particular emphasis on how the former is impacting on our bodies and our brains. Conversations with both featured guests explore how climate change exacerbates traditional health issues and introduces new risks, such as the increasing range of vector-borne diseases and what that means for the future of healthcare in cities. Our brains are also at risk, with extreme weather and rising temperatures impacting our behaviour and the neurological development of our children - even before they are born. It is crucial for academia and science to push for interdisciplinary collaboration and actionable research to inform urban climate policy if we are to meet these new challenges and safeguard public health, particularly the most vulnerable populations.

Image Credit: Photo by Jesse Orrico on Unsplash.

Featured guests:
Clayton Page Aldern is an advisor, data scientist, author and journalist at Grist (but who has also been widely published elsewhere) whose work is focused on homelessness policy, climate change, and neuroscience. His book, The Weight of Nature: How a Changing Climate Changes our Brains, examines how the climate crisis impacts brain health, covering topics like extreme weather effects on prenatal development, PTSD in first responders, and neurological changes linked to the climate crisis.

Quinn Adams is the Scholar in Residence at the C40 Centre for City Climate Policy & Economy and a PhD candidate at Boston University School of Public Health. Her research focuses on the health risks from climate change and extreme weather events. She is particularly interested in action-oriented research and identifying strategies to reduce health impacts, with her dissertation focusing on the growing risks of the climate crisis altering the ranges of vector-borne diseases.

Links
Climate Change and the Health of Socially Vulnerable People - United States Environmental Protection Agency
Pregnancy during Hurricane Sandy linked to kids’ psychiatric disorders, study says - Washington Post
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If you want to learn more about the Journal of City Climate Policy and Economy, please visit our website: https://jccpe.utpjournals.press/

Cities 1.5 is produced by the University of Toronto Press and Cities 1.5 is supported by C40 Cities and the C40 Centre for City Climate Policy and Economy. You can sign up to the Centre newsletter here. https://thecentre.substack.com/

Our executive producers are Peggy Whitfield and Chiara Morfeo.

Produced by Jess Schmidt: https://jessdoespodcasting.com/

Edited by Morgane Chambrin: https://www.morganechambrin.com/

Music is by Lorna Gilfedder: https://origamipodcastservices.com/