2011 Book ClimateChangeAndHumanWell-Bein

International and Cultural Psychology
Series Editor
Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D.
For further volumes:

http://www.springer.com/series/6089
Inka Weissbecker
Editor
Climate Change and Human

Well-Being
Global Challenges and Opportunities
123
Editor
Inka Weissbecker
Washington, DC
inka.weissbecker@gmail.com
ISSN 1574-0455
ISBN 978-1-4419-9741-8 e-ISBN 978-1-4419-9742-5
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-9742-5
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Preface
Climate change is one of the most significant global challenges facing us in this
century and beyond. The work of this volume has been inspired and preceded by
various efforts and events, which continue to pave the way for including men-
tal health and psychosocial well-being aspects in the global discourse on climate
change. Aspects of mental health and well-being are still largely missing from the
global public health agenda, and climate change is no exception. We hope that this
volume will contribute to encouraging others to consider multiple and complex
effects on climate change on the most vulnerable groups and populations and to
provide better-informed interventions and policies that are culturally informed and
participatory.
This volume grew from different initiatives and events taking place at the United
Nations and elsewhere around the topic of global climate change and civil society
engagement. The 60th Annual DPI/NGO Conference at the United Nations in New
York (September 5 to 7, 2007), had the theme “Climate Change: How it impacts
us all.” This conference brought together United Nations agencies with various
actors from different civil society organizations across the globe around the com-
mon goal of addressing the challenges of climate change. Conference participants
included 1726 individuals representing over 500 nongovernmental organizations
from more than 62 countries (DPI/NGO Drafting Committee, 2007). I partici-
pated in this conference as an NGO representative of the International Union
of Psychological Science (IUPsyS) to the United Nations Economic and Social
Council and Department of Public Information. I was fortunate to be able to con-
tribute, along with other psychologists and stakeholders, to the drafting of the “60th
Annual DPI/NGO Conference Declaration Climate Change Threats – An NGO
Framework for Action” (DPI/NGO Drafting Committee, 2007). The declaration
affirmed that “climate change is mainly anthropogenic and is one of the most serious
threats to humanity and our environment” and recognized “significant psycholog-
ical and emotional distress to individuals and communities” as one of the many
impacts of climate change. The declaration called for working over a period of the
next 12 months to elaborate on a “Framework for Action” that would recognize
challenges and opportunities and propose NGO solutions to the threat of climate
change. The framework discussion was going to “culminate in an internet-based
v
vi Preface
progress report to be submitted to the Secretary-General in one year,” with the goal
of a more long-term dialogue, which would bring together a network of NGOs that
might not otherwise typically collaborate by bridging the spectrum of NGO con-
cerns interconnected by climate change” (DPI/NGO Drafting Committee, 2007).
Under the leadership of Larry Roeder (NGO representative and drafting committee
member), the DPI/NGO Executive Committee established a working group and then
a nonprofit NGO (ClimateCaucus.net), which facilitated online working groups, and
a report on climate change from the NGO perspective, which was delivered to the
UN Secretary General in December of 2009. I led one of the working groups that
produced a chapter on climate change and mental health as part of this report.
The chapter was produced together with others from various civil society orga-
nizations and academic disciplines and formed one of the starting points for this
book. The literature connecting mental health and climate change was scarce at
that time, with an electronic database (PsychInfo) only returning one relevant arti-
cle on the topic (Fritze, Blashki, Burke, & Wiseman, 2008). At the same time, the
American Psychological Association (APA, 2009) assembled a task force to pro-
duce a report outlining theoretical foundations, potential contributions, and policy
recommendations for addressing climate change informed by the field of psychol-
ogy. Furthermore, the second Annual Psychology Day at the United Nations in
2008 explored climate change as one of the aspects of social justice. As outlined
in this volume, climate change is expected to have the most devastating effects on
low-resource and developing countries, who contribute relatively little to climate
change compared to more wealthy nations. Addressing the threat of climate change
is therefore not only an urgent issue but also a social responsibility among more
industrialized nations. With the 2009 Copenhagen conference, momentum and dis-
cussions around climate change continued to grow. Yet, the implications and impact
on mental health and well-being were mostly absent from discussions about cli-
mate change (Page & Howard, 2010). However, the literature on climate change and
mental health and well-being continues to grow in scope, and it is hoped that such
efforts will result in tangible benefits for the most at-risk populations and groups.
The purpose of the book is to contribute to such efforts by shedding light on current
scientific and empirical evidence on the impact of climate change on psychosocial
well-being and mental health from different perspectives. The book is organized into
three complementary sections, the first on the impact of climate change, the second
on special populations, and the third on specific recommendations. Each of the chap-
ters in this book explores one key aspect of climate change and well-being, which
is informed by multidisciplinary perspectives. The chapters comprising this book
provide various examples of how collaboration, dialogue, and the synthesis of ideas
can happen across different schools and disciplines, resulting in recommendations
for research, practice, and policy.
Chapter 1 gives a general overview of the projected impact of climate change
(climate-induced processes such as temperature rises, climate variability, and
extreme weather events) and its relevance for human well-being, including mental
health and psychosocial factors. Previous work of psychologists and mental health
professionals is discussed and put into context, highlighting social justice aspects
Preface vii
and the complex direct and indirect effects of climate change. This chapter sets
the stage for a more-detailed examination of different aspects and implications for
human well-being in this volume.
The psychological threat of climate change is examined in Chapter 2, written by
Joseph Reser, Shirley Morrissey, and Michelle Ellul at the School of Psychology
at Griffith University. Dr. Reser has been part of the task force of the American
Psychological Association, and has generated a report on the interface between psy-
chology and global climate change (APA, 2009). Dr. Morrissey is a clinical and
health psychologist with extensive experience in the disaster area and anxiety man-
agement. This chapter makes clear not only that devastating environmental effects
of a changing climate will impact health and well-being but that public perceptions
and construction of this threat can have a significant impact with the potential of
increasing distress and anxiety. The chapter draws from various interdisciplinary
perspectives and examines the social construction and public perception of the
climate change threat, concluding with a discussion of potential contributions of
psychologists.
Chapter 3 is written by Dr. Glenn Albrecht, who is Dean and Professor at the
School of Sustainability at Murdoch University in Australia. Dr. Albrecht was the
one to first coin the term “solastalgia” to describe the psychological distress caused
by climate-related environmental changes and degradation in rural Australia and
beyond. It is suggested in this chapter that climate change, which compromises the
healthy link between people and their home territory, can increase the prevalence
of “psychoterratic illnesses” such as solastalgia or “eco-anxiety”. Dr. Albrecht’s
work has contributed to raise awareness of potential psychological effects of climate
change, which has been picked up by other scholars and the popular media.
The effects of extreme weather-related events such as disaster on mental health
in the context of climate change are covered in Chapter 4. Dr. David Simpson is pro-
fessor of community development and director of the Center for Hazards Research
and Policy Development, while Dr. Sandra Sephton is a professor in the Department
of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Louisville. This chapter is
an example of a collaboration of different disciplines, examining the effects of dis-
aster from biobehavioral and disaster preparedness and response perspectives. The
chapter outlines effects of extreme weather events and offers recommendations for
policy and practice.
Chapter 5 synthesizes the emerging literature on climate change and humanitar-
ian crises with that on mental health and psychosocial support. Jennifer Czincz is
currently completing her internship in clinical psychology at Yale University. She
has written on the role of psychology in international affairs and completed global
projects in different locations such as the Philippines. This chapter discusses short-
comings and challenges in providing psychosocial and mental health interventions
during humanitarian crises and outlines current recommendations and best practices
based on empirical literature and agency guidelines.
The potential implications of climate change for security and violent conflict are
critically explored in Chapter 6. This chapter draws on the extensive experience and
knowledge of Dr. Chad Briggs who currently serves as Minerva Chair of Energy &
viii Preface
Environmental Security at the US Air Force. He is also a senior associate at Adelphi

Research in Berlin and a Fellow at the Institute for Environmental Security in The
Hague. Dr. Briggs was previously senior adviser for International Security Affairs to
the US Department of Energy’s Energy and Environmental Security Directorate and
professor of International Relations and Environmental Risk at Lehigh University
in Pennsylvania. He has also conducted research and field work in eastern and
southeastern Europe. This chapter outlines the complexities and controversies sur-
rounding potential links between climate change and conflict and offers perspectives
from the field of peace psychology.
In Chapter 7, Dr. Anita Wenden explores the role of women as one specific group
affected by climate change and as a potential change agent. She is cofounder of
Earth and Peace Education International (www.globalepe.org) and director of Peace
Education and Research for the organization. She is Professor Emerita of York
College, City University of New York, where she cofounded and served as director
of the College’s Cultural Diversity Program. She is the main NGO representative for
the International Peace Research Association at UN headquarters in New York City,
where she established and chairs the NGO Committee on the Status of Women’s
Subcommittee on Women and Climate Change. The chapter describes how socially
constructed gender roles contribute to the vulnerability of women to climate change
and offers perspectives on how adapting to climate change can challenge women to
take leadership in their communities.
Rising sea levels and coastal flooding as well as other adverse environmental
conditions such as droughts or disasters may cause further large-scale population
displacement or “environmental refugees.” Chapter 8 offers a multidimensional per-
spective on the impact on mental health and well-being among such refugees within
various theoretical frameworks. Dr. Michael Hollifield has published extensively
in the area of refugee mental health and is currently working as a scientist at the
Behavioral Health Research Center of the Southwest (a center of Pacific Institute for
Research and Evaluation) as well as an adjunct associate professor, at the University
of New Mexico and University of Louisville. Dr. Mindy T. Fulllilove is a research
psychiatrist at New York State Psychiatric Institute and professor at the Joseph L.
Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University. Dr. Fullilove’s work on
the mental health effects of environmental processes, health problems caused by
inequity, and the connection between mental health and sense of place is well known
and has specific relevance in the context of climate change. Dr. Stevan Hobfoll is
the Judd and Marjorie Weinberg Presidential Professor and Chair at the Department
of Behavioral Sciences at Rush University Medical Center. He has developed the
“conservation of resources” theory and made substantial contributions in the area
of stress and trauma. This chapter discusses aspects of the refugee experience
such as loss of resources and of a sense of place and identity and concludes with
recommendations for preventing and responding to effects on mental health and
well-being.
In the context of disaster and crises, the emphasis is shifting from identifying
vulnerabilities and what is missing in crisis to considering people’s own strate-
gies for coping and adapting. Chapter 9 explores concepts such as resilience,
Preface ix
posttraumatic growth, and spirituality, which have increasingly been recognized

as important to individual and community recovery. This chapter draws on field-
work conducted by Dr. Tamasin Ramsay after the Orissa cyclone in India and on
theoretical foundations of constructing meaning, re-authoring, and posttraumatic
growth. Dr. Ramsay, a paramedic and anthropologist, has made contributions to
understanding the relationship between faith, response to disaster, and forms of
outreach and care. Dr. Lenore Manderson is a medical anthropologist and social
historian at Monash University whose research examines social relationships and
identity within cross-cultural contexts. This chapter describes emerging concepts of
culture, resilience, and spirituality within the context of climate change and offers
practical recommendations.
Climate change and weather-related events can overwhelm local capacity, espe-
cially in settings with lower resources. Chapter 10 provides insight into the concept
of community resilience within the context of climate change. Taegen Edawards is
a Research Fellow of Climate Change and Social Justice and Dr. John Wiseman
is director of the McCaughey Centre, VicHealth Centre for the Promotion of
Mental Health and Community Wellbeing at the School of Population Health at
the University of Melbourne. The chapter synthesizes evidence about the character-
istics that strengthen community resilience to the threats and challenges of climate
change and outline locally relevant actions that can help communities reduce risk
and adapt.
Chapter 11 highlights key aspects of previous chapters and offers conclusions for
addressing the global impact of climate change on human well-being, while con-
sidering research, practice, and policy implications within a framework of cultural
competency.
Together, the chapters of this book highlight not only the urgent needs and
challenges but also the opportunities for collaboration and for pursuing common
goals to reduce the threat of climate change and mitigate effects on mental health
and psychological well-being. We hope that this book will benefit mental health
professionals such as psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers, as well as
social science researchers, public health professionals, development and humanitar-
ian workers, policy makers, and students from various disciplines. This volume also
represents a call for not only joining the global dialogue on climate change but also
contributing to specific and tangible actions at the local and global levels, with the
aim of improving mental health and well-being and reducing inequities worldwide.
References
American Psychological Association. (2009). Psychology and global climate change: Addressing
a multi-faceted phenomenon and set of challenges a Report by the American Psychological
Association’s Task Force on the Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate Change.
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association
DPI/NGO Drafting Committee. (2007). 60th Annual DPI/NGO Conference Declaration. Climate
Change Threats – An NGO Framework for Action. Final Declaration, New York City,
September 6th, 2007. Retrieved November 15, 2007, from http://www.climatecaucus.net/
images/Final_Declaration.pdf
x Preface
Fritze, J. G., Blashki, G. A., Burke, S., & Wiseman, J. (2008). Hope, despair and transformation:
Climate change and the promotion of mental health and wellbeing. International Journal of
Mental Health Systems, 2(1), 13.
Page, L. A., & Howard, L. M. (2010). The impact of climate change on mental health (but
will mental health be discussed at Copenhagen? Psychological Medicine, 40(2), 177–180.
Acknowledgments
The completion of this volume would have not been possible without the invaluable
support of various individuals. First, I would like to acknowledge the hard work and
dedication shown by each of the authors and coauthors who have contributed chap-
ters to this volume. All of them have brought a valuable and unique perspective to
this book, which together sheds light on various aspects and facets of climate change
and well-being. They have also bridged divides among several disciplines, making
a valuable contribution for promoting a better and more detailed understanding of
the complexities of climate change and possible solutions. I am deeply thankful for
their efforts. I also want to express my appreciation and gratitude to the series editor,
Dr. Anthony Marsella, who has been extremely supportive, patient, and resourceful
throughout the process. This work would also not have been possible without the
support and editorial work from Ms. Anna Tobias, Associate Editor in Psychology
at Springer, throughout the publication process. I also want to thank my friends and
family who have been a constant source of encouragement and motivation.
xi
Contents
1 Introduction: Climate Change and Human Well-Being . . . . . . . 1

Inka Weissbecker
Part I The Impact of Climate Change

2 The Threat of Climate Change: Psychological Response,
Adaptation, and Impacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Joseph P. Reser, Shirley A. Morrissey, and Michelle Ellul
3 Chronic Environmental Change: Emerging
‘Psychoterratic’ Syndromes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Glenn Albrecht
4 Extreme Weather-Related Events: Implications for Mental
Health and Well-Being . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
David M. Simpson, Inka Weissbecker, and Sandra E. Sephton
5 Humanitarian Crises: The Need for Cultural Competence
and Local Capacity Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Inka Weissbecker and Jennifer Czincz
6 Security and Conflict: The Impact of Climate Change . . . . . . . 97
Chad Michael Briggs and Inka Weissbecker
Part II Specific Populations

7 Women and Climate Change: Vulnerabilities and Challenges . . . 119
Anita L. Wenden
8 Climate Change Refugees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Michael Hollifield, Mindy Thompson Fullilove, and Stevan E. Hobfoll
Part III Guidance and Recommendations

9 Resilience, Spirituality and Posttraumatic Growth:
Reshaping the Effects of Climate Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
Tamasin Ramsay and Lenore Manderson
xiii
xiv Contents
10 Climate Change, Resilience and Transformation:

Challenges and Opportunities for Local Communities . . . . . . . 185
Taegen Edwards and John Wiseman
11 Conclusions: Implications for Practice, Policy,
and Further Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Inka Weissbecker
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Contributors
Glenn Albrecht Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy (ISTP),

Murdoch University, Perth, WA, Australia, G.Albrecht@Murdoch.edu.au
Chad Michael Briggs Air University, USAF, Maxwell Air Force Base, AL, USA,
chad@globalint.org
Jennifer Czincz Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA,
jennifer.czincz@yale.edu
Taegen Edwards Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of
Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, taegene@unimelb.edu.au
Michelle Ellul School of Psychology, Griffith University, Gold Coast,
Queensland, Australia, m.ellul@griffith.edu.au
Mindy Thompson Fullilove Community Research Group, New York State
Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA; Joseph L. Mailman School of Public
Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA, mf29@columbia.edu
Stevan E. Hobfoll Department of Behavioral Sciences, Rush University Medical
Center, Chicago, IL, USA, stevan_hobfoll@rush.edu
Michael Hollifield The Behavioral Health Research Center of the Southwest,
Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Albuquerque, NM, USA; University
of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA; University of Louisville, Louisville,
KY, USA; Program for Traumatic Stress, The VA Long Beach Healthcare System,
Long Beach, CA, USA, mhollifield@bhrcs.org
Lenore Manderson Social Sciences and Health Research Unit, Faculty
of Medicine, School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Monash University, Caulfied
East, VIC, Australia, lenore.manderson@med.monash.edu.au
Shirley A. Morrissey School of Psychology, Griffith University, Gold Coast,
Queensland, Australia, s.morrissey@griffith.edu.au
xv
xvi Contributors
Tamasin Ramsay Social Sciences and Health Research Unit, Faculty

of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, School of Psychology and Psychiatry,
Monash University, Caulfied East, VIC, Australia, tamasin@bkun.org
Joseph P. Reser School of Psychology, Griffith University, Gold Coast,
Queensland, Australia, j.reser@griffith.edu.au
Sandra E. Sephton Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, J.G. Brown
Cancer Center, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA,
sephton@louisville.edu
David M. Simpson Department of Urban and Public Affairs, Center for Hazards
Research and Policy Development, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA,
dave.simpson@louisville.edu
Inka Weissbecker Washington, DC, inka.weissbecker@gmail.com
Anita L. Wenden Earth and Peace Education International (EPE), Rego Park,
NY, USA; NGO/CSW Subcommittee on Women and Climate Change, New York,
NY, USA, wenden@rcn.com
John Wiseman Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University
of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia, jwiseman@unimelb.edu.au
Chapter 1
Introduction: Climate Change and Human
Well-Being
Inka Weissbecker
Introduction
Climate change has been called the greatest challenge currently faced by humanity
(Ki-moon, 23 June 2009). Our world is becoming increasingly interconnected and
interdependent, which brings not only complex challenges but also new oppor-
tunities for collaboration in working toward common goals. There is scientific
consensus that climate change is caused by human activity, which brings with it
the burden of responsibility and the opportunity to take measures of mitigation.
However, climate change is also a reality that will require adaptation. Researchers
around the world have been engaged in investigating how climate change has and
will continue to impact the world (IPCC, 2007b). Climate change is expected to
increase the severity of disasters and adverse weather conditions worldwide, with
particularly devastating effects on developing countries and individuals with lower
resources. The literature on climate change is rapidly expanding in scope, cover-
ing a wide range of topics and scenarios. Various researchers, groups, and agencies
have started to investigate the impact of climate change on issues such as health
(Costello et al., 2009), security and conflict (Smith & Vivekananda, 2007), and
human development (United Nations Development Programme, 2007), as well as
on groups such as women (Aguikar, 2009; Carvajal-Escobar, Quintero-Angel, &
Garcıa-Vargas, 2008) and children (Shea, 2007; UNICEF, 2007). It has been recog-
nized by several authors that climate change has the potential to profoundly impact
human well-being, and that individuals and communities play an important role in
responding and adapting to climate change (Fritze, Blashki, Burke, & Wiseman,
2008; American Psychological Association, 2009; Berry, 2009). However, potential
contributions from the field of psychology are often missing from discussions about
climate change, and possible impacts on mental health and psychosocial well-being
are rarely discussed. Contributions of psychologists and mental health professionals
I. Weissbecker (B)
Washington, DC
e-mail: inka.weissbecker@gmail.com
I. Weissbecker (ed.), Climate Change and Human Well-Being, International 1

and Cultural Psychology, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-9742-5_1,

C Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011
2 I. Weissbecker
in the context of climate change are now beginning to emerge (Morrissey & Reser,
2007; Fritze et al., 2008; Gifford, 2008; American Psychological Association, 2009;
Kazdin, 2009; Berry, 2009; Nolan, 2009; Psychologists for Social Responsibility,
2010; Berry, Bowen, & Kjellstrom, 2010; Nurse, Basher, Bone, & Bird, 2010; Page
& Howard, 2010). In 2009, the American Psychological Association (APA) task
force, which has been formed to examine the “interface between psychology and
global climate change,” released a comprehensive report, which reviewed psycho-
logical research on perceptions and conceptions of global climate change, human
activities that drive climate change, the psychosocial impacts of climate change, bar-
riers to responding to climate change, and human responses to climate change via
adaptation and mitigation (American Psychological Association, 2009). The task
force concluded that psychology had much to offer in assisting policy makers, gov-
ernments, and various organizations, but that there was also a strong need to more
fully engage the psychology community in climate change discussions (American
Psychological Association, 2009). Indeed, former APA president Alan Kazdin has
identified climate change and environmental degradation to be one of society’s great
challenges and has called upon psychologists to take on this challenge, with the aim
of having a visible and tangible impact (Kazdin, 2009). In the following sections, I
will review current predictions and the projected impact of climate change, discuss
who will be most affected by climate change, and explore ways in which psy-
chologists and mental health professionals can contribute to a more comprehensive
understanding of climate change impact and responses.
What is Climate Change?
Climate Change Predictions
Projected manifestations of climate change include wide-ranging changes in

weather patterns, higher temperatures, rising ocean levels, shifts in climatic zones
and ecosystems, increased pollution, and more weather fluctuations (IPCC, 2007a).
Climate change has been defined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) as “any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a
result of human activity” (IPCC, 2007b). The IPCC is an international panel of over
2,000 leading scientists around the world from over 130 countries that was estab-
lished by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations
Environment Program (UNEP) in 1989 (IPCC, 2007c). In 2007, the IPCC published
its Fourth Assessment Report and received the Nobel Peace Prize along with Al
Gore for “their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-
made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to
counteract such change” (IPCC, 2007c). The IPCC is currently working on its Fifth
Assessment Report, which is expected to be finalized in 2014. Findings from the
Fourth IPCC report have been widely publicized and also form part of the scientific
foundation of this book.
1 Introduction: Climate Change and Human Well-Being 3
The Greenhouse Effect

Climate change is the result of rising greenhouse gas emissions, which are a prod-
uct of increasing industrialization (IPCC, 2007b). The main greenhouse gas is CO2 ,
followed by methane, nitrous oxide, aerosols, and others such as ozone-forming
chemicals (IPCC, 2007b). Greenhouse gases can stay in the atmosphere for many
years and trap solar radiation, which causes a warming of the earth’s surface and the
troposphere, referred to as the “greenhouse effect” (IPCC, 2007b). Concentrations
of CO2 in the atmosphere have been estimated to have increased by 31% since 1750
(IPCC, 2007b). The major contributors to greenhouse gases include the burning
of fossil fuels, changes in land use such as deforestation, and agriculture (IPCC,
2007b). Climate change is the result of complex processes that impact the atmo-
sphere, land surface, oceans, and cryosphere (snow, ice, and permafrost). Climate
scientists predict a continuing rise in global temperature as well as sea level and
changes in precipitation. The IPCC has developed a range of possible scenarios
for the progression of climate change over the coming decades, which are depen-
dent on different factors such as economic growth, changes in population size, and
future greenhouse gas emissions (IPCC, 2007b). Based on these scenarios, predic-
tions include various possible changes with wide-ranging implications detailed in
the next section.
Temperature Increase
Global surface temperatures have already increased by 0.74◦ C between 1906 and
2005, which is partially attributable to human activity (IPCC, 2007b). Furthermore,
eleven of the 12 years from 1995 to 2006 ranked among the twelve warmest years
on the record since 1850 (IPCC, 2007b). The IPCC predicts that temperatures will
continue to increase about 0.2◦ C per decade, considering various emission scenar-
ios. Even if the concentrations of all greenhouse gases had been kept constant at
year 2000 levels, a further warming of about 0.1◦ C per decade would be expected.
At the end of the 21st century, the global mean temperature is projected to be
between 1.1 and 6.4◦ C higher than the temperature in 1980–1999, with a best esti-
mate between 1.8 and 4.0◦ C (IPCC, 2007b). Fewer cold days and more hot days as
well as more frequent heat waves are likely to result (IPCC, 2007b). Average tem-
perature increases are going to be greatest in the northern regions of North America,
Europe, and northern and central Asia (IPCC, 2007a).
Sea Level Rise

Sea levels have already risen about 17 cm (12–22 cm) during the 20th century
(IPCC, 2007b). Increases in average ocean temperature, losses in ice sheets, as well
as decreases in glaciers and icecaps are expected to continue, contributing to further
sea level rise (IPCC, 2007b). Taking into account the melting ice from Greenland
and Antarctica, a rise of 28–79 cm is expected by 2100 (IPCC, 2007b). However,
4 I. Weissbecker
the complete melting of the Greenland and the West Antarctic ice sheets would lead
to a contribution to sea level rise of up to 7 m and 5 m, respectively (IPCC, 2007b).
This could have catastrophic effects for many human settlements along coastlines
and in low-lying areas (IPCC, 2007b).
Precipitation
Scientists predict changes in rainfall patterns, which will differ, depending on the
region of the world (IPCC, 2007b). There has been increased rainfall in eastern
parts of North and South America, northern Europe, and northern and central Asia.
On the other hand, drying has been observed in the Sahel, the Mediterranean, south-
ern Africa, and parts of southern Asia (IPCC, 2007b). These trends are expected
to continue, which also has implications for droughts and floods. An increase in
droughts, especially in the tropics and subtropics, has already been observed since
the 1970s (IPCC, 2007b). More intense and longer droughts are expected due to
higher temperatures, decreased precipitation, changes in ocean temperatures, differ-
ent wind patterns, and diminishing snow and snow covers (IPCC, 2007b). Regions in
Africa, China, India, Australia, Southern Europe, and North America (Southwestern
and Great Plains regions, California, and the Pacific Northwest) will most likely be
affected by drought conditions (IPCC, 2007b). At the same time, warming temper-
atures and subsequent increase in atmospheric water vapor have already resulted in
more heavy rainfall, which is expected to lead to higher flood risks, especially in
low-lying and coastal areas (IPCC, 2007b).
Tropical Storms
Rising temperatures can also affect storm severity. Storms are strengthened by par-
ticularly warm waters, from where they draw both energy and moisture. It has been
suggested that the increase in intense tropical cyclone activity in the North Atlantic
over the past 40 years is correlated with increases of tropical ocean temperatures.
According to the IPCC, it is likely that tropical cyclones (typhoons and hurricanes)
will become more intense, with larger peak wind speeds and heavier precipitation
(IPCC, 2007b).
Biosphere
It is also very likely that climate change will impact a wide range of plant and ani-
mal species. Changes in the timing of spring can affect plant growth, life cycles of
various animals, and migration patterns. Animals may migrate to different regions,
which can have wide-ranging effects on other plant and animal species (Confalonieri
et al., 2007; IPCC, 2007a). Mosquitoes, for example, are expanding to higher-lying
areas, which increases the incidence of malaria (McMichael, 2003). Furthermore,
approximately 20–30% of plant and animal species are at risk of extinction if
increases in global average temperature exceed 1.5–2.5◦ C (IPCC, 2007a).
Complex Changes
It should be noted that although there is consensus about the phenomenon of climate
change, predictions about the exact extent and speed of changes vary, depending
on IPCC climate change scenarios as well as on different methods and emerging
scientific studies. According to warnings by some authors, changes can happen
abruptly and some of the current IPCC predictions are considered too conserva-
tive (Hansen, Sato, & Kharecha, 2008; Rahmstorf, 2007). The possibility of sudden
changes and the complexity of many interdependent factors currently limit the pre-
dictive power of climate change models. The concept of tipping points, which refer
to “critical thresholds that can dramatically alter the state of a system” (Lenton,
Held, & Kriegler, 2008), also applies to climate change. The complete melting
of the arctic sea ice and the Greenland ice sheet would be an example of such
a tipping point, which could rapidly accelerate global warming with irreversible
consequences (Lenton et al., 2008).
Climate change policies and reductions in greenhouse gases in the coming years
will be key determinants of our future, because worse scenarios and more severe
impacts are expected with higher greenhouse gas emissions. Indeed, the IPCC
states that “many impacts can be avoided, reduced, or delayed by mitigation.”
Despite the significance of mitigation, climate change is unlikely to be stopped in
the near future. It has been estimated that the “safe” threshold for global warm-
ing is about 2◦ C above preindustrial average temperatures. While some regions
can benefit from an increase in temperature of up 2◦ C, an increase of 2–3◦ C is
thought to result in adverse consequences for all regions of the globe (Schellnhuber,
Cramer, Nakicenovic, Wigley, & Yohe, 2006). However, temperature rises are likely
to exceed this threshold, as a rise of 0.76◦ C has already occurred. Even if all emis-
sions had stopped in the year 2000, another 0.6◦ C rise would be expected by 2050
(IPCC, 2007b; Schellnhuber et al., 2006). Consistent with this, the IPCC notes that
“anthropogenic warming and sea level rise would continue for centuries due to the
time scales associated with climate processes and feedbacks, even if greenhouse
gas concentrations were to be stabilized” (IPCC, 2007a). Considering the projected
impact on individuals and societies, strategies for adaptation and coping with cli-
mate change are needed in the near and the long term (IPCC, 2007a; Solomon,
Plattner, Knuttic, & Friedlingstein, 2009).
The Projected Impact of Climate Change
While the direct consequences of climate change are relatively open to measure-
ment, the indirect social and economic impact is more difficult to foresee or quantify
(Confalonieri et al., 2007). However, climate change is expected to have wide-
ranging and complex effects with important implications for natural resources and
social and economic development. Rising temperatures, coastal flooding, and vari-
able precipitation patterns are expected to significantly reduce agricultural land and
water resources and may result in major economic losses and threats to livelihoods,
mostly in developing countries (Parry, Canziani, Palutikof, van der Linden, &
6 I. Weissbecker
Hanson, 2007). More variable rainfall patterns leading to both flooding and droughts
can compromise the supply of drinking water (Confalonieri et al., 2007) and result in
poor sanitation and hygiene (Patz, 2001). The availability of freshwater is expected
to decrease in many areas, which, together with continued population growth, is
likely to result in shortages of drinking water and reduced agricultural productivity
in some areas (IPCC, 2007a). Not all regions will be affected equally. Initially, North
America and Northern Europe will have an increased potential for agricultural pro-
ductivity. Other areas will experience more floods or droughts. Heavy rainfall can
lead to soil erosion and damage to crops while droughts can result in increased wild-
fires, lower crop yields, and the death of livestock (IPCC, 2007a). Areas already
affected by food insecurity are expected to be affected the most (World Health
Organization, 2003). Climate change will have an effect on both urban and rural
areas, including increased heat stress, damage of infrastructure by storms and
floods, increased demand for energy, and air pollution (IPCC, 2007a). The impact
of extreme weather events as well as migration and social and economic stres-
sors can fragment community and social networks. Cascading and wide-ranging
effects on human health have already been described and include higher rates of
deaths and injuries, malnutrition, food- and waterborne diseases, and psychological
distress (IPCC, 2007a; Patz & Kovats, 2002). Effects on human health in develop-
ing countries are likely to be exacerbated by weak health care infrastructure and
poor access to health care. Rising sea levels and coastal erosion and flooding as
well as other adverse environmental conditions such as droughts or disasters may
cause further large-scale population displacement or “environmental refugees” (see
Chapter 8, this volume). It has been predicted that climate change may lead to large
scale migration, although the extent of this is difficult to foresee (Brown, 2008). The
Red Cross estimates that more people are now displaced by environmental disasters
than by war (International Federation of Red Cross Red Crescent Societies, 2002).
An increase in armed conflict and instability has also been recognized as another
potential outcome of climate change triggered by scarcity of resources, crop fail-
ures, economic losses, and population displacement (e.g. Busby, 2007). Regions that
are already struggling with preexisting unrest, poverty, unequal access to resources,
and weak governmental institutions are at the greatest risk (Stott, 2007; Chapter 6,
this volume). As United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs
John Holmes recently put it, “climate change is not a future concern but a current
danger to millions of people, including many of the most vulnerable groups in the
world” (Holmes, 5 June 2009).
Who Will Be Affected by Climate Change?
It has become clear that climate change does not affect everyone equally. The
effect of global climate change on specific countries and communities does not
only depend on geographical vulnerability but also on underlying socioeconomic
vulnerabilities and adaptive capacities (IPCC, 2007a). The capacity to adapt to and
cope with manifestations of climate change such as droughts, flooding, and natural
disasters depends on factors such as local and national resources as well as indi-
vidual and community capacities including governance, income, livelihoods, social
capital, and individual ways of coping. The vulnerability to climate change and
the capacity to adapt are much lower in developing countries, many of which are
expected to be affected the most. Furthermore, many developing countries depend
on resources sensitive to climatic changes such as local water sources and food
supplies (IPCC, 2007a). It is likely that climate change will continue exposing
and exacerbating existing political, economic, social, and heath inequities, thereby
increasing the gap between rich and poor even further (Friel, Marmot, McMichael,
Kjellstrom, & Vagero, 2008). Interactions of regional impact, high local vulnerabil-
ity, and low adaptive capacity can have cumulative and devastating consequences
for communities with low resources. It is predicted that the loss of healthy life years
as a result of climate change and other global environmental changes will be 500
times greater in some African regions than in Europe (McMichael, Friel, Nyong, &
Corvalan, 2008). This health discrepancy is the result of differences in the type
and severity of climate change, differing underlying vulnerabilities (e.g. heat stress,
food insecurity, disease vector exposure), and differences in the capacities to adapt
(e.g. governance, national resources, individual incomes; see Campbell-Lendrum,
Corvalan, & Neira, 2007). Such interactions can also result in humanitarian crises,
which can feed back into increased vulnerability and lower adaptive capacity,
thereby compromising human health and development even further (McMichael &
Butler, 2004; United Nations Development Programme, 2007).
Social Justice Considerations

Climate change forces us to face fundamental questions about social justice and
responsibility in aiding those who are already affected and will continue to be
affected for the coming decades and possibly even centuries. Psychology has a his-
tory of taking up social justice issues and has much to contribute in global efforts
to create more just and equitable societies and to promote peace and human well-
being (Kazdin, 2009; Marsella, 2006). Inequalities and questions of social justice
become even more apparent when considering the question of responsibility for
climate change. Countries that contribute the largest emissions of greenhouse gases
include the United States, countries of Western Europe, as well as rapidly industrial-
izing countries such as China and India. Very poor and many developing countries,
however, have contributed relatively little to climate change. With only about 5%
of the world’s population, the United States is currently contributing about 25% of
worldwide CO2 emissions (World Resources Institute, 2008). On the other hand,
the carbon footprint of the poorest 1 billion people is estimated around 3% of the
world’s total footprint (Commission on Social Determinants of Health, 2008; Patz,
Gibbs, Foley, Rogers, & Smith, 2007). Countries that are expected to be impacted
less by climate change may have less of an incentive to take mitigative action, while
other more vulnerable and poor countries are the most threatened and the least able
to adapt (American Psychological Association, 2009; Kasperson & Dow, 1991).
This gross inequality becomes visible when comparing countries with the highest
8 I. Weissbecker
amounts of greenhouse gas emissions and those who will suffer the highest mortality
due to climate change (Patz, Gibbs, Foley, Rogers, & Smith, 2007).
Ethical Issues
Some have argued that psychologists have an ethical obligation and responsibil-
ity to take action on the issue of climate change (Miller, 2007). The recent APA
report on psychology and climate change has suggested that APA ethical stan-
dards can serve as a framework and an imperative for action to psychologists
across different disciplines (American Psychological Association, 2009). Ethical
principles such as “beneficence and nonmaleficence,” “fidelity and responsibil-
ity,” “fairness and justice,” as well as “respect for people’s rights and dignity”
are consistent with psychologists’ active participation in tackling the issue of
climate (American Psychological Association, 2002, 2009). Ethical standards devel-
oped by other national psychological organizations and international associations
are consistent with this. The International Union of Psychological Science, the
International Association for Applied Psychology, and the International Association
for Cross-Cultural Psychology have drafted a “The Universal Declaration of Ethical
Principles for Psychologists,” with input from psychologists from diverse parts of
the world (Gauthier, 2008). This declaration recognizes that “the lives and identities
of human beings both individually and collectively are connected across genera-
tions, and that there is a reciprocal relationship between human beings and their
natural and social environments.” The declaration “reaffirms the commitment of
the psychology community to help build a better world where peace, freedom,
responsibility, justice, humanity, and morality prevail” (Gauthier, 2008). Principles
such as respect for dignity, competent caring of persons and peoples, and profes-
sional and scientific responsibilities to society are also outlined (Gauthier, 2008). It
appears that the advent of climate change presents a moral imperative as well as
an opportunity for psychologists to use their knowledge for protecting and pro-
moting the well-being of individuals, communities, and societies. Social justice
issues and ethical implications of climate change have also been noted with con-
cern by various other disciplines including medical professionals (Costello, Grant,
& Horton, 2008), which could foster interdisciplinary collaboration and collective
action.
Potential Contributions of Psychologists and Mental Health

Professionals to Addressing Climate Change Impact and
Adaptation
Psychologists and mental health professionals can make important contributions

to understanding the impact of climate change and to developing ways in which
individuals, communities, and societies can adapt and respond. Psychologists who
have written about climate change have largely discussed the issue in the context
of changing attitudes, leading to more environmentally friendly behavior. This has

led to highlighting the contributions of psychological theories about public risk
perception, changing attitudes and behaviors, social marketing, diffusion of infor-
mation, and worry about climate change in primarily Western countries (Gifford,
2008; Spence, Pidgeon, & Uzzel, 2009; Kazdin, 2009). Those constitute timely and
promising contributions. However, it should also be considered that climate change
is already taking place, and that adaptation will require collaboration among various
disciplines (IPCC, 2007a; Solomon et al., 2009). Psychologists and mental health
professionals have a window of opportunity to join the global dialogue about climate
change and to demonstrate that their professions can make tangible contributions
in addressing this complex issue (Kazdin, 2009). This book is an attempt to start
exploring the impact of climate change on mental health and psychosocial well-
being and to suggest ways in which psychologists and mental health professionals
can assist individuals and communities in adapting to climate change.
It has been widely recognized that human health will be impacted by climate
change, and there is an increasing amount of literature on this topic (Costello et al.,
2008; McMichael et al., 2008; World Health Organization, 2008). A chapter on
health was also included in the latest 2007 IPCC report (Confalonieri et al., 2007).
Climate scientists predict that the impact of climate change on human health will
be mostly negative (Confalonieri et al., 2007), posing “substantial risks to human
health, particularly among the poorest populations” (World Health Organization,
2003). However, discussions and projections of the effects of climate change on
human health have primarily focused on physical health threats such as deaths
from natural disasters and heat waves, or the shifting geographic distribution of
infectious disease vectors such as mosquitoes (Costello et al., 2009). The World
Health Organization has defined health as “a state of complete physical, mental and
social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity (World Health
Organization, 1948)”. Yet, issues of mental health are frequently left off the global
public health agenda, and current discussions about health and climate change are
no exception (Page & Howard, 2010). Several documents mention mental health
effects as possible outcomes of climate change, but there is typically no specific dis-
cussion of such effects (Confalonieri et al., 2007; World Health Organization, 2003).
The psychology and mental health communities have a unique opportunity to offer
their expertise in this area. Mental health and psychosocial well-being are likely to
be impacted both directly and indirectly via multiple pathways (Fritze et al., 2008;
Berry, Bowen, & Kjellstrom, 2010, Howard & Page, 2010), thereby increasing the
global burden of mental illness and psychosocial problems.
The threat of climate change has the potential to lead to significant anxiety
and worry among the general population, which has been increasingly discussed
among researchers (see Chapters 2 and 3, this volume; Moser, 2007) and picked
up by the public media (New York Times, 2008; Boston Globe, 2009). Such per-
ceptions are mediated by media images and social constructions of the climate
change threat (see Chapter 2, this volume). Climate change may also lead to more
gradual effects on mental health and psychosocial well-being, which have received
little attention thus far, but are likely to pose new challenges (see Chapter 3).
10 I. Weissbecker
Recently, the term “solastalgia” has been coined to describe the psychological dis-
tress caused by climate-related environmental changes and degradation in rural
Australia (Albrecht et al., 2007). Furthermore, it has been predicted that individuals,
and especially children, may experience some anxiety over the ongoing threat of cli-
mate change (American Psychological Association, 2009; Fritze et al., 2008). The
word “eco-anxiety” has been used to refer to worry and anxiety over environmen-
tal problems including climate change (Evitts-Dickinson, 2008, Albrecht Chapter 2,
this volume).
Environmental events such as natural disasters have well-documented effects on
the mental health and well-being (Norris et al., 2002). Much remains to be learned
about such effects and about evidence-based interventions and best practices, espe-
cially in low-resource countries and diverse cultural settings (Inter-Agency Standing
Committee, 2007; van Ommeren, Morris, & Saxena, 2008). The advent of cli-
mate change brings new urgency to addressing the impacts of natural disasters and
humanitarian crises on mental health and well-being (see Chapters 4 and 5, this
volume). Furthermore, both laboratory and field research have found associations
between higher temperatures and increased violence and aggression, which may
have implications for areas with less resources to adapt to hotter climates (Anderson,
2001; DeWall & Bushman, 2009; Rotton & Cohn, 2004). Studies also suggest that
individuals living in poor countries report less happiness in very cold or very hot
climates (Van de Vliert, Huang, & Parker, 2004). Exploring underlying mecha-
nisms of those relationships, projecting possible impacts on society, and advocating
for climate adaptation are ways in which psychologists can contribute. Research
fields such as peace psychology similarly have the potential to apply their expertise,
given projected risks of increased violent conflict due to factors such as dimin-
ishing resources and large-scale migration which can also provide opportunities
for common goals and collaboration (American Psychological Association, 2009;
Chapter 6, this volume). Conflict and environmental factors have already led to
the displacement of millions of people, which continues to be a global con-
cern. Displacement carries various risks to both physical and psychological health.
Indeed, several studies have reported a high prevalence of domestic violence, sui-
cide, substance abuse, and depression among people living in refugee camps (Porter
& Haslam, 2005; World Health Organization, 2008; Chapter 8). Several publi-
cations of scientists and different agencies outline potential impacts of climate
change on specific populations such as women, children, indigenous people, and
those living in poverty or having poor access to resources (Aguikar, 2009; Balbus
& Malina, 2009; Shea, 2007). It is important to investigate the specific vulnera-
bilities, adaptive capacities, and coping resources of these and other groups with
regard to mental health and psychosocial well-being (see Chapter 8 on women and
climate change). It should also be considered that different populations and individ-
uals impacted by climate change are not passive victims but actively make sense
of and cope with changes to the environment and extreme environmental events.
The ways in which individuals and groups from different backgrounds and cul-
tures engage in the construction of meaning of climate change and its consequences
is another promising area of inquiry (American Psychological Association, 2009;
Chapter 9, this volume). Furthermore, concepts such as individual and community

resilience, which have already been used in the disaster preparedness and response
literature hold promise for helping affected communities adapt and cope with cli-
mate change (Bonanno, 2004; Norris, 2008; Chapter 10, this volume). Joining the
dialogue about the impact of climate change and possible responses also requires
thinking creatively about ways to measure its impact. Contributions from the fields
of environmental psychology, cognitive psychology, and other disciplines such as
disaster mental health may prove fruitful in this endeavor.
The importance of cross-cultural competence runs like a thread through every
aspect of climate change adaptation, response, and impacts. Climate change is a
global problem that will affect a diverse range of people from numerous countries
and cultures. Yet, the majority of research relevant to the intercept between psy-
chology and climate change has taken place in North America, Western Europe,
and Australia (American Psychological Association, 2009). Finding ways to under-
stand and respond to the impact of climate change will likely require psychologists
to actively seek out knowledge and establish collaborations with people of nationali-
ties and cultures that are different from their own. Climate change also presents new
opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration. The field of psychology is unique
in that it has been identified as a “hub discipline” that has multiple connections and
overlaps with various other fields within the sciences (Boyack, Klavans, & Borner,
2005; Kazdin, 2009). It is now up to psychologists and mental health profession-
als to take action and join the global community in addressing the urgent issue of
climate change. Our professions have the skills and responsibility of turning this
challenge into an opportunity.
This book is an attempt to shed light on the complex and interrelated impacts of
climate change on mental health and well-being and to provide recommendations
for research, policy, and practice. It is also intended to result in dialogue about the
contribution of psychology with representatives from several disciplines, includ-
ing eco-psychology, anthropology, medicine, hazards research, political science,
and sociology. Understanding and responding to climate change requires the active
collaboration of multiple stakeholders working in academic, policy, nonprofit, and
multilateral organizations, as well as civil society. This book hopes to spark new
discussions and collaborations among people from various backgrounds, who share
the goal of protecting and promoting the well-being of individuals and communi-
ties affected by climate change, within a framework of social justice and cultural
competence.
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Part I
The Impact of Climate Change
Chapter 2
The Threat of Climate Change: Psychological
Response, Adaptation, and Impacts
Joseph P. Reser, Shirley A. Morrissey, and Michelle Ellul
This chapter examines the existing social and health science literature addressing the
psychological impacts of the threat of climate change. The exercise reflects a con-
vergent environmental, social, and health psychology perspective, informed by those
interdisciplinary bodies of work relating to the social construction and representa-
tion of environmental threat; psychosocial environmental impact assessment and
monitoring; public and mental health; risk communication and perception; and dis-
aster preparedness and response. Attention is also paid to public understandings of
the phenomenon and threat of global climate change and popular culture discourse
and reflections about the psychological and mental health responses to and impacts
of ‘climate change’. The chapter indirectly addresses the unfolding physical envi-
ronmental impacts of climate change and corresponding psychological, social, and
societal consequences, but the principal focus is on public exposure and response to
the phenomenon of climate change through multimedia representations of this phe-
nomenon and limited direct experience. The larger context of this chapter and the
present coverage is the post–Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC]
focus on climate change adaptation and mitigation and the continuing neglect of
the psychological, social, and cultural in research and policy considerations and
initiatives addressing human and environmental quality, sustainability, and health.
The chapter concludes with a brief consideration of what psychology has and can
contribute in addressing psychological adaptation to the threat of climate change.
What Is Encompassed by ‘Climate Change’?
In the wording of the original United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

Change (UNFCCC), endorsed at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the
specified meaning of climate change was: “‘Climate change’ means a change of
J.P. Reser (B)

School of Psychology, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
e-mail: j.reser@griffith.edu.au


20 J.P. Reser et al.
climate which is attributable directly or indirectly to human activity” (in Kolbert,

2006, 153). In most discussions of climate change, it is anthropogenic climate
change that is intended and meant, as it is this human contribution and ‘forcing’
that may provide some scope for correction and mitigation, and that addresses
implicit questions of causal explanation and responsibility. But the continual shift-
ing between lay use and reference and more specialised use in both scientific
discussions of climate change and media coverage of climate change science means
that meaning is often less than clear, such that reference to ‘climate change’ is typi-
cally to considerations very different from “the totality of the atmosphere, biosphere,
and geosphere and their interactions” (UNFCCC, 1992) (in Kolbert, 2006, 153).
In most instances ‘climate change’ also implicitly includes reference to the con-
sequences of global weather pattern changes on local and global environments and
ecosystems, that is, to climate changes and their physical environmental impacts,
which are actually the more noticeable changes taking place in our environments.
But there is, of course, another ‘environment’, the human psychological, social,
societal, and cultural environment, where important and dramatic changes and
impacts relating to climate changes and consequent biophysical environmental
changes are taking place. These human environment changes and impacts are less
likely to be explicitly mentioned or even implicitly referred to in discussions of
‘climate change’ or appropriate policy responses, but they are profoundly impor-
tant, not only in terms of human health and well-being (e.g., Clarke & Bourke,
2005; Martens & McMichael, 2002; Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005;
Patz, Engleberg & Last, 2000) but in terms of fully appreciating the scope and
challenges of the global climate change phenomenon facing human society (Gifford,
2008; Moser & Dilling, 2007; Uzzell, 2008; Vlek & Steg, 2007). This fuller reali-
sation that “climate change” is far more than climate change immediately follows
any consideration of just what these cascading impacts of direct climate change
influences the human environment encompass.
In what follows reference to climate change almost always refers to the perceived
threat and unfolding environmental impacts of climate change, as it is these facets
of the larger phenomenon that are of particular relevance to public understandings
and responses, psychological and social impacts, and planned change. These per-
ceived threats and impacts can be based on either direct experience and encounters
or indirect, virtual, experience through social representations and media coverage.
This matters greatly, as it is virtual and vicarious exposure to climate change that
currently characterises climate change encounters for most people in the urbanised
world.
Is ‘Climate Change’ Different from Other Perceived Threats?

In surveying the research and discursive literature on public risk perceptions and
psychological responses to the threat of climate change, there would appear to be
a growing consensus and mounting evidence that the threat and risk domain of
2 The Threat of Climate Change: Psychological Response, Adaptation, and Impacts 21
global climate change is in fact rather different from other perceived threats and
sources of anxiety and concern. Climate change is increasingly a substantially con-
structed and socially represented phenomenon, environmental problem, threat, and
narrative of environmental and societal risk and change. As well, in psychologi-
cal terms, climate change is more of a chronic environmental stressor (e.g., Evans,
2001; Evans & Stecker, 2004), which is constant but uncertain, of possibly per-
ilous consequence, and with a high dread risk, not dissimilar to that found for some
‘technological risk’ domains (e.g., Lewis & Tyshenko, 2009). It seems increasingly
clear that those research and professional practice literatures that are most relevant
to addressing the impacts of the climate change threat are the areas of work relating
to the nuclear threat, terrorism, and natural disasters. In each of these contexts, there
are strong common denominators relating to a condition of continuous environ-
mental threat, high uncertainty, and the possibility of profound and highly adverse
consequences for future as well as present human communities and the earth’s as
well as humanity’s life support systems. The differing nature of these risk domains
as contrasted with more conventional psychological sources of concern and anxiety
should not preclude conventional interventions and strategies in terms of assisting
individuals in managing their responses, but psychologists are at least raising this
matter of continuing threat, particularly in the wake of 9/11, in the context of dis-
asters such as Hurricane Katrina and flooding, heat wave, and cataclysmic wildfire
events worldwide, with respect to continuous conflict and political instability and,
more encompassingly, in the context of global climate change (e.g., Linden, 2006;
Marshall et al., 2007; Oppenheimer & Todorov, 2006).
Threat Representations as Distinct from Physical Environmental

Impacts
It is noteworthy that, for most people, their perceptions and experience of climate
change are primarily indirect and virtual, mediated by media images, technologies,
and reporting, by social constructions and representations of events and impacts
in very distant parts of the planet (e.g., Boykoff, 2008; Trumbo, 1996; Wilson,
1995). This largely indirect experience is nonetheless very powerful; these media
images, television documentaries, and climate change-themed films would appear to
generate considerable concern and often distress and very directly influence under-
standings, preparedness, and adaptive responding (e.g., Corner, 2000; Gamson,
Croteau, Hoynes, & Sasson, 1992; Leiserowitz, 2006; Smith, 2005; Smith & Joffe,
2009). A critical and strategic focal point for preparedness and planned change ini-
tiatives and interventions is at this interface where risk appraisals, sense making, and
psychological responding takes place and where behavioural responses are primed
and strongly influenced by media coverage and risk communications.
A three-decade research investment by social science risk researchers has exam-
ined what has come to be known as the ‘social amplification of risk’ (e.g., Flynn,
Slovic & Kunreuther, 2001; Pidgeon, Kasperson & Slovic, 2003). This research
on how individual and social factors act to both amplify and dampen perceptions of
risk is particularly important as it focuses not only on how individuals think and feel
about risk messages and particular risk domains but also on those social processes
relating to sense making and media communications that influence how commu-
nities and societies perceive and understand and respond to global risks such as
terrorism, the nuclear threat, GM food, and climate change. (e.g., Bauer & Gaskell,
2002; Bohm, Nerb, McDaniels, & Spada, 2001; Etkin & Ho, 2007; Joffe, 2003;
Kasperson & Kasperson, 2001; Lorenzoni, Pidgeon, & O’Connor, 2005; Slovic,
Finucane, Peters, & MacGregor, 2004). These convergent psychological and social
science research and practice domains encompass individual and societal aware-
ness, risk appraisal and assessment, public understanding of science, environmental
concerns, sense making, and individual and collective response to this environ-
mental phenomenon, threat, and problem. These perspectives also make specific
reference to how ‘climate change’ has been presented, imaged, and explained by
journalists, scientists, government bodies, and others with vested interests. Further
important considerations have included the extent to which human response to these
media-based risk representations and communications are implicated in adequately
understanding individual and community responses to directly experienced impacts
and primary evidence of climate change.
Risk and Concerns: Risk-as-Analysis and Risk-as-Feelings
There are multiple psychological literatures relevant to the psychological response

to the threat of climate change. These include environmental perception and evalu-
ation; decision making under stress; risk communication, perception, and appraisal;
threat appraisal and response in the context of stress and coping; environmental
stress; and environmental concern. The theoretical and research literatures address-
ing risk perception, which substantially draw from the interdisciplinary risk and
cognitive science literature, place somewhat more emphasis on those cognitive pro-
cesses involved in appraising the risk phenomenon, whereas environmental concern
perspectives, coming predominantly from environmental and social psychology,
tend to emphasize one’s psychological response to an appraisal of potential risk
or harm to the environment (Reser, 2010). These perspectives tend to differ from
personality- and motivation-based models of ‘stress and coping’, which privilege
appraisals of environmental and/or social threats to oneself (and others), with the
weighting on the psychological response to the judgement rather than on the threat
and the judgement process.
But the new face of psychology-based risk research, particularly in the context
of environmental risks and climate change, has been to acknowledge the reality that
two pathways are involved in risk perception and response, or sense-making, in the
face of threat: a more cognitive-based risk-as-analysis pathway and a simultaneous
and more instantaneous emotion-based pathway (e.g., Bohm, 2003; Lowenstein,
Weber, Hsee, Welch, 2001; Slovic et al., 2004; Slovic, 2010). Given the origins of
risk and decision making research in cognitive science (e.g., Kahneman, Slovic &
Tversky, 1982; Slovic, 1987), the risk-as-feeling approach is arguably somewhat
newer, but, in reality, these intersecting perspectives have been a hallmark of adap-
tation, motivational, and stress and coping models for well over half a century. The
relevance of these two pathways to understanding psychological response to a risk
domain such as climate change is that this response is much more than a ratio-
nal, cognitive appraisal of a potential threat. Such risk evaluation and sense making
also rely strongly on an immediate and visceral appraisal that has more to do with
evolutionary hardwiring and symbolic and associative meaning responses to a mul-
tifaceted risk domain. It must also be appreciated that individual responses to a risk
such as climate change are typically based on one’s encounter with a ‘risk commu-
nication’ in the form of a ‘social representation’ (image, text, warning message) of
the phenomenon and associated risk, itself reflecting a social and cultural ‘construc-
tion’ of this environmental threat or problem (e.g., Adam, 1998; Grauman & Kruse,
1990).
Hence individual responses to often highly charged risk communications are
informed by social processes appraisals and an unparalleled new world of informa-
tion and communication technologies and media coverage and reporting (Bartsch,
Vorderer, Mangold, & Viehoff, 2008; Gifford, Steg & Reser, 2011). But such media
images, the gravity of the problem and threat, and the tragic circumstances of those
communities in the world already experiencing what are seen and presented as the
environmental impacts of climate change are powerful, emotion eliciting, anxiety
inducing, and impactful (e.g., Joffe, 2008; Nabi & Wirth, 2008). The nonstop media
coverage of the climate change threat, its often apocalyptic portrayal, its media reach
across news programming, commercial films, documentaries, and the blogosphere
(Facebook and Twitter), and ubiquitous images in posters and magazine covers and
advertisements have all given the phenomenon and threat of climate change a very
substantial virtual and psychological reality, quite apart from its objective reality
and status, which itself is arguably alarming and distressing. Hence climate change
and its impacts are very real in human terms and with respect to these very strong
and incessant risk communications and prognoses regarding an uncertain and very
frightening future world.
Social Constructions, Social Representations, and the Nature

and Role of Media
It is important to seriously consider the nature and content of the media coverage
the public has been exposed to over the past several years with respect to global
climate change. The probable events and environmental changes that are presented
through images and interviews, sound bites, and popular films are about very large-
scale and catastrophic changes, from the melting of polar icecaps and glaciers (the
life source for the Asian subcontinent) to desertification of much of Africa and the
United States, to acute water and food scarcity in many parts of the world, to mass
migrations, resultant international conflict, devastating biodiversity loss, and so on.

These scenarios, often epilogue to scientific documentaries about global environ-
mental change, are given further and graphic virtual reality through the coverage
of unprecedented natural disasters that have occurred globally over the past decade
(e.g., Hurricane Katrina, Asian Tsunami, Australian Black Saturday bushfires) and
in the context of commercial films such as An Inconvenient Truth, The Day After
Tomorrow (2004), State of the Planet BBC series (2006); Six Degrees (2008), The
11th Hour (2007), and The Road (2009) (e.g., Lowe et al., 2006). These documen-
taries and films of course resonate with classic, and now remarkably current nuclear
threat images and films, such as The Day After (1983) and Nuclear Tipping Point
(2010), which themselves tapped into widespread societal anxieties and fears, dread
relating to nuclear winter, a dying planet, and apocalypse (e.g., Eckersley, 2008).
Psychological Responses, Adaptations, and Impacts
The language, constructs, and underlying processes involved in addressing the

human response and impacts side of perceived threat and risk differ depending on
framing, discipline, and indeed subdiscipline (e.g., social, environmental, cognitive,
health psychology) and the extent to which an initiative is applied and/or is multi-
disciplinary, at individual, community, or system level. These matters are brought
to the fore in the context of the threat of climate change. As the phenomenon is
dauntingly complex and global, it is engaging the efforts of many sciences and
disciplines, and these initiatives straddle biophysical and human environments and
landscapes, and their respective health and well-being status. As noted, the emergent
language of climate change adaptation and mitigation within the climate change
science discourse, and those more physical and natural environmental sciences
involved with risk assessment and disaster management, has largely bypassed the
extensive and nuanced work in the health and social sciences relating to psycholog-
ical adaptation and related constructs (coping, vulnerability, resilience). But within
the context of psychological understandings and approaches to the threat of cli-
mate change, and at the level of individual functioning, it is important to note
that all psychological responses to perceived threat or changing environmental cir-
cumstances constitute adjustments and adaptations, and that these primarily reflect
intra-individual appraisal, sense making, and coping processes, collectively referred
to as ‘psychological adaptation’ (e.g., Reser & Swim, 2011). In the health psychol-
ogy literature (e.g., Aspinwall, 2005; Taylor, 1983; Taylor, 2009), these processes
are often termed ‘cognitive adaptation’, as it is often the case that interventions
are premised on assisting individuals to reframe or change their thinking about the
nature, causes, or consequences of their distress. In the related stress and coping
literatures, the emphasis is on both the more analytic appraisal of not only the threat
but also one’s own resources, and the simultaneous management of one’s emotional
responses to the threat or situation or to fear or anxiety itself.
It is not surprising that psychological adaptation in the context of climate

change has strong affinities with stress and coping perspectives (e.g. Lazarus, 1991;
Zeidner & Endler, 1996), with a number of authors framing climate change adap-
tation as ‘coping with global environmental problems and global environmental
change’ (e.g., Homburg, Stolberg & Wagner, 2007). The question of coping with
a global phenomenon such as climate change has of course multiple problems of
scale and specification if taken literally or when speaking of individual or collec-
tive response, but limiting the expression to individual and community coping with
the threatened and environmental impacts of climate change allows for more realis-
tic consideration and conceptualisation. Global and regional environmental changes
and the continuing threat of climate change can and arguably are creating situations
of high and often chronic environmental stress, which in turn are eliciting adapta-
tion and coping responses (e.g., Bell, Greene, Fisher, & Baum, 2001; Homberg &
Stolberg, 2006; Lepore & Evans, 1996). There are also the intertwined matters of
the psychological and social costs of particular coping strategies and their cumula-
tive psychological and mental health impacts. Attempts to adequately conceptualise,
measure, and address psychological coping and adaptation strategies and responses
to climate change at an individual and psychological level have to date been largely
unsatisfactory (Reser & Swim, 2011). It is worth noting that the recent American
Psychological Taskforce on Psychology and Climate Change (APA, 2009) spent
considerable time and thought in attempting to achieve a more helpful and strategic
integration of convergent perspectives within psychology relating to the psycholog-
ical impacts of the threat of climate change (e.g., risk perception, environmental
stress, stress and coping, psychological adaptation, anticipatory coping), with the
hope that this crucial body of psychological work might be more widely appreciated
and utilised.
Health and Mental Health Perspectives

In-depth ‘health and social science’ perspectives on how individuals and communi-
ties are being affected by the threat of climate change are not very easy to find. Those
sources addressing climate changes and impacts on human environments across the
world tend to be more descriptive, speculative, and interpretive, with little reference
to objective data bases or systematic monitoring outcomes or state of the human
environment reporting. While convergent research evidence is only now coming in,
there is a strong professional consensus that ubiquitous media coverage and rep-
resentations of climate change threat are causing appreciable concern, alarm, and
distress for many. These are, after all, global disaster warnings and highly charged
risk communications about what is happening to the planet, to our life support
systems, to the world as we know it.
Climate change already appears to be having devastating environmental effects in the U.S.
. . . The psychological responses to those effects can also be devastating. Many Americans
are already anxious about what climate change portends. The greater risk is that millions of
people will develop severe and persistent anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, aggres-
sion, and other troubled behaviour if the U.S. does not quickly lead the way to dramatically
reduce carbon emissions. Without such action, the impact of heatwaves, extreme storms
and floods, droughts, and water shortages, food production problems, lessened air quality,
sea level rise, and displacement from homes and communities is likely to pose signifi-
cant mental-health challenges to millions of Americans and billions of others worldwide.
(Psychologists for Social Responsibility, 2010, pp. 2–3).
That literature which one might think would address the health, mental health,
and psychological well-being implications of the threat of climate change would
logically fall under the heading and search terms of ‘climate change’ and ‘health’.
But this is not the case, with the health literature retrieved being almost exclu-
sively a public health literature. There is very little reference to psychological,
social or mental health impacts, or quality of life or environment considerations,
other than direct physical health problems such as disease vectors, food and water
shortages, essential services, and the envisioned humanitarian plight of increasing
numbers of climate change refugees (e.g., IPCC, 2007; Jackson & Shields, 2008;
Myers & Patz, 2008; St Louis & Hess, 2008). In marked contrast, there exists a
growing psychology science-based literature that squarely addresses the psycholog-
ical and societal impacts of climate change and unmet needs for the more general
audience (e.g., APA, 2009; APS, 2010; Kazdin, 2009; Lertzman, 2008; Linden,
2006; Stokols, Misra, Runnerstrom, & Hipp, 2009; Swim et al., in press). While
many of these sources are written by psychologists and other mental health profes-
sionals, a number of these authors are, ironically, natural and physical scientists
and philosophers associated with climate change research (e.g., Flannery, 2006;
Hamilton, 2010; Hulme, 2009). Although the literature addressing the psychological
and mental health impacts of the threat of climate change is modest, it is particularly
relevant, given the substantially psychological nature of public risk perceptions and
threat appraisals (e.g., Doherty & Clayton, 2011; Gifford, 2007). This literature is
itself diverse, including perspectives from health and clinical psychology, psychi-
atry, disaster mental health, a multidisciplinary risk communication and response
literature, and environmental phenomenology (e.g., APA, 2009; Marshall, 2009;
Pidgeon, 2010; Roszak, Gomes & Kanner, 1995; Stefanovich, 2000; Vlek & Steg,
2007).
A number of recent articles and research reviews on climate change and mental
health have addressed various direct and indirect pathways through which the threat
and physical environmental impacts of climate change may lead to adverse psycho-
logical and social impacts of concern, mental health, and well-being (e.g., Berry,
Bowen & Kjellstrom, 2010; Doherty & Clayton, 2011).
Climate change has the potential to lead to adverse mental health outcomes through a num-
ber of pathways. First, there is an established body of literature outlining the adverse mental
health impacts of natural disasters (such as floods, cyclone events, droughts, and fires) and
the factors that can modify the risk of poor mental health outcomes in the event of such
disasters. . . . The threat of climate change and its consequences may have wider psycholog-
ical and social effects on communities through the impact on perceptions of safety, security
and fears regarding the future. The methods and tenor of communication regarding the
actual or potential health and social risks associated with climate change will be important
determinants of community emotional and behavioural responses. (NCCARF, 2009).
While the impacts of a changing climate taking place in biophysical envi-

ronments and human settlements, and in the context of more structural social
and governance systems, are being closely monitored and, to the extent possible,
addressed, there are few corresponding evaluation or monitoring exercises taking
place with respect to the human landscape of individual and community experience,
risk perception, sense making, and psychological and behavioural responses. This
is, unfortunately, a much neglected focus in climate change science and in general
considerations of climate change adaptation and mitigation. The impacts of natural
environmental changes and associated environmental consequences on individuals
and communities are an integral part of environmental impact assessment and envi-
ronmental protection legislation (e.g., Barrow, 1997; Reser & Bentrupperbäumer,
2001). Very little research and monitoring has been undertaken with respect to
what is taking place at the level of individual experience, sense making, and psy-
chological and behavioural response. Similarly, very little hard data exist with
respect to the likely impacts of the threat of climate change on individual and
community well-being, quality of life, perceived environmental quality, and mental
health.
Psychological responses to the phenomenon of climate change are posing par-
ticular challenges for psychological understandings of fear, anxiety, and worry.
Typically fear is related to something tangible, for example, one can be afraid of
the dark, or of spiders, or of being alone, or of being in crowds. Fear is usually
understandable, and many individuals would report having been frightened or of
being fearful of something at some time in their life. Responses to fearful situa-
tions or stimuli are usually individualistic, and it is rare that a mass fear response
is documented. Only in the case of extreme fear, such as a phobia, does a person
usually seek help. Anxiety on the other hand, is considered to be more ‘clinical’,
one may suffer with an anxiety disorders (e.g., social anxiety, health anxiety, panic
disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, or generalised anxiety disorder). These ‘dis-
orders’ are often considered something to be managed, something to be overcome;
they are considered treatable, with cognitive and behaviour therapies providing a
suite of evidence-based individual and group protocols for helping anxious indi-
viduals learn to cope with and manage (and reduce) their anxiety. While worry is
typically seen as more pervasive and similar to an enduring personality trait there are
now evidence-based psychological therapies designed to assist worriers to manage
to control and reduce their worrying (e.g., Davey & Wells, 2006, Leahy, 2005).
Anxiety disorders all share features of threat-relevant responding (e.g., Barlow,
1988; Beck & Emery, 1985; Craske & Waters, 2005), with components of anxious
apprehension, fear, and avoidance present to a larger or lesser extent. While there
has been considerable advances in the clinical psychology field with respect to the
development, assessment, and treatment of threat in the context of anxiety disorders,
less is known about how individuals manage anxiety in the face of threats that are far
removed from everyday life, or in the context of continuing threat such as the threat
of climate change (e.g., Diamond, Lipsitz, Fajerman, & Rozenblat, 2010; Marshall
et al., 2007; Oppenheimer & Todorov, 2006).
There are also those who deny the reality of climate change, and some who are
still turning a blind eye to it. This is, of course, understandable. People are motivated
to avoid ambiguity and uncertainty, and they can be seen to be more pessimistic
when faced with ambiguous risk information. Similarly, psychologists acknowledge
that in the face of overwhelming fear and anxiety about the future, denial is a com-
mon psychological defence mechanism. What better way to prevent being afraid,
than to avoid? Avoidance is well documented as one of the most important factors
that prevent individuals from dealing with and overcoming their fears. Defending
against anxiety in the first place provides a perfect avoidance strategy for ‘not deal-
ing’ with it. In addition, years of research into depression has indicated that when
individuals feel a sense of helplessness to make any real changes in their lives, they
refrain from doing anything. However, while avoidance-oriented coping has been
associated with positive psychological outcomes in the short term, avoidant coping
has also been related to increased distress in the longer term (Taylor & Stanton,
2007).
Anxiety is both protective and adaptive, and it can motivate people. An optimal
level of anxiety is required in order for the fight and flight response to be activated
(Selye, 1973) and appropriate responses to threats be made. As Epstein says, “living
with risk can lead to anticipatory feelings such as anxiety that the eventual outcome
will be bad, or hopefulness that it will be good” (2008, p. 1121). While the con-
cept of threat is central to theories of stress as well as to theories of anxiety, the
management of stress has been on events in the past or occurring currently. While
anxiety management programs acknowledge anxiety for future events – these events
are usually in the near future, rather than being in the distant future. With climate
change, global warming and environmental threat, future-oriented proactive cop-
ing strategies such as building a reserve of resources in order to “mute the impact
of events that are potential stressors” are required (Aspinwall, 2005; Folkman &
Moskovich, 2004, p. 757).
As with the nuclear threat, we are dealing with a planetary and human conse-
quence and meaning scenario that is genuinely anxiety inducing if not terrifying for
many. There is a tendency in the climate change science discourse to not only over-
look an individual level of analysis and human experience but also ignore the import,
meaning, and significance of climate change representations and risk communica-
tions. Indeed the rather terrifying state of felt helplessness in the face of dire threat
is often interpreted as apathy, and the raising of the mental health consequences of
climate change can often be met with incredulity and scorn by some science-based
colleagues.
But what if the ways we are thinking about apathy and denial are themselves misguided, and
potentially damaging? What if the issue is not about caring too little, but perhaps too much?
Is it possible that our anxieties about ecological problems, and the existential dilemmas they
raise regarding how we are to live, can be so great as to be unmanageable or unthinkable?
Might we unconsciously deny what is staring us in the face because what is at stake is too
painful to consider? (Lertzman, 2008, p. 16)
According to Lertzman, lessons can be learned from the psychoanalytic per-

spective by “finding ways to inform and inspire, and stimulate action rather than
paralysis” (p. 17). Somewhat similarly, a psychological perspective on managing
anxiety taken from an acceptance and commitment approach (Hayes, Strosahl, &
Wilson, 1999) suggests that negative reactions to one’s thoughts, feelings, or bodily
sensations, as well as fusion with internal experience, lead to difficulties in moni-
toring, accepting, and interpreting emotion. As a result, the individual engages in
experiential avoidance in an attempt to avoid these experiences, both behaviourally
and cognitively. This avoidance reduces distress in the short term; however, in
the long term it reinforces behavioural restriction as the individual becomes less
engaged in valued activities (Roemer & Orsillo, 2002). In working with worried
individuals, therapists can assist clients to accept the uncertainty, the fear, and the
anxiety, while committing to activities that will be consistent with valued living
(e.g., caring for the environment).
In the last year or so, there is the appearance of a growing number of concerned
and anxious individuals presenting to therapists. In a recent report on the Columbia
News Service, a therapist (eco-therapist) in Santa Fe, USA, reported seeing between
40 and 80 eco-anxious clients per month (Nobel, 2007). Albrecht at the University
of Newcastle in Australia has introduced the term “solastalgia” (Albrecht, 2006,
Albrecht et al., 2007) to describe the distress that is produced by environmen-
tal change (see Chapter 2, this volume). He argues that solastagia exists “when
there is recognition that the beloved place in which one resides is under assault”
(2006: p. 32).
Climate Change and Place Meaning, Connection, and Identity
Many have argued the case that adverse environmental changes and progressive
environmental degradation can lead to substantial environmental concern, dis-
tress, and both psychological and physical health consequences. A disparate set
of literatures have addressed these matters, with particularly powerful accounts
and discussions found in the natural and technological disaster literatures (e.g.,
Cvetkovich & Earl, 1992; Reyes & Jacobs, 2006), the contaminated environments
literature (e.g., Adeola, 2009; Edelstein & Makofske, 1998), the psychosocial
environmental impact assessment literature (Reser & Bentrupperbämer, 2001), the
environmental concern literature (Schmuck & Schultz, 2002; Gifford, 2007), the
place attachment literature (Altman & Low, 1992; Groat, 1995), the ecopsychology
literature (Randall, 2009; Roszak et al., 1995), and other discussions of encounters
with dramatically altered and/or adversely impacted natural environments.
The issue and threat of climate change and its psychological significance and
impacts relate to place in multiple ways. People’s connections to ‘where they live’,
their ‘home’, backyard, street, neighbourhood, and region are typically very impor-
tant, emotionally charged, and indeed an integral part of who they are. These
connections and attachments are different from national or ethnic identity in that
these feelings and sentiments are much more intimate, experiential, familiar, and
personal. The place where we live, or have lived, is backdrop to our lives in many
ways, as silent witness, memory frame, ubiquitous companion, and view from the
kitchen window. It is an encompassing ‘material self’. The sights, sounds, and
smells of ‘our places’ are evocative, restorative, and comforting. Equally, distur-
bance and change can be very disquieting, threatening, and disorienting. Clearly
the unfolding impacts of climate change will mean that many of the natural and
built environments in which people live will undergo dramatic and, in most cases,
adverse change. These changes will in many cases be accompanied by increasingly
severe and consequential extreme weather events and natural disasters such as severe
storms, cyclones, flooding, bushfires, and prolonged drought. These environmental
impacts will mean and have already been the cause of community relocations and
forced migration and the associated human impacts of such relocations. The major-
ity of people will see and experience environmental changes in familiar landscapes
and natural areas along with seasonal weather pattern changes, often with associated
biodiversity and agricultural productivity losses, and a very visible and symbolic
‘environmental’ deterioration. Such changes and impacts can be very personally
salient and impactful, particularly in the case of one’s garden, neighbourhood park,
or a familiar and restorative place frequently visited.
An Australian Perspective
Modest research data exist on the psychological and societal responses of
Australians to global or local climate change and climate change impacts. In contrast
there exist a substantial and growing body of survey research data and more in-depth
research findings on the perceptions, understandings, risk appraisals, thoughts and
feelings, anxieties and concerns, and motivational and behavioural responses to cli-
mate change in North America and Europe. There are many reasons for thinking that
public response to climate change in Australia might differ in important respects,
given the unique nature of the Australian continent, its global location, geography
and climatic systems, its history and experience with climate change-related natural
disasters, its current exposure to climate change impacts, its differing media cover-
age, and its cultural contexts and perspectives with respect to environmental issues
and challenges (e.g., Garnaut, 2008). Hence studying the psychological and social
impacts of unfolding biophysical environmental impacts and weather-related nat-
ural disaster incidence and intensity is crucial to effectively addressing the human
side of climate change impacts and adaptation strategies.
What particularly characterises the Australian geographic, climatic, and cultural
contexts, however, is the dramatic presence of the full spectrum of natural disas-
ters (e.g., Pittock, 2009). As well, Australia is deemed to be the inhabited continent
most exposed to the potential ravages of global climate change, with a current pub-
lic discourse and understanding that would appear to see and understand current
natural disaster events and impacts as clear manifestations of unfolding climate
change (e.g., Steffen, 2009; Garnaut, 2008). Given the predictions being made
with respect to global warming and climate change, and the consequences of these
environmental changes on weather patterns in Australia, substantial concerns with

respect to extreme weather events and an increased frequency and intensity of nat-
ural disasters exist. As discussed previously, the issue of the mental health impacts
of climate change has had particular resonance in Australia.
Rural Australians live with various systematic disadvantages and many feel marginalised;
climate change, especially drought, has worsened this. With drier conditions and more
severe droughts expected in much of southern and eastern Australia over coming decades,
and the demands for change and adaptation that this will present, we urgently need to
understand the likely consequences for the mental health and well being of people in rural
Australia. . . Australian communities and environments are diverse and climate change will
have a variety of emotional and social impacts... It can be expected that the same loss
of people, property, and possessions, dislocation from community and disruption of key
social connections that precede or amplify the development of psychiatric disorders fol-
lowing acute disasters would apply equally in response to chronic disasters of equivalent
magnitude. (Berry et al., 2008, pp. 3–6).
The circumstances of drought provide a useful window on the psychosocial

and possible mental health impacts of global climate change in Australia (e.g.,
Morrissey & Reser, 2007; Satore et al., 2008). Australia has, of course, a recurrent
history of prolonged drought-affecting extensive areas of the continent. Drought
is a natural disaster with particular affinities with the projected manifestations and
impacts of climate change. It takes the form of a ‘slow emergency’ and a pervasive
condition of unrelieved environmental stress, with imperceptible beginnings and
often no clear end point. From a rural and remote community perspective, sustained
drought dramatically alters the appearance of landscape and country, as does dryland
salinity. Gardens die, stock and crops die, water is rationed, and livelihoods are lost.
In Australia the symbolic and socioeconomic impacts of the most recent decade-
long drought for many have been interlinked with a very visible and dramatic rural
decline across much of Australia, at the same time that global climate change has
emerged as a salient and contested environmental, social, and political issue. The
discourse of distress and mental health problems in rural and remote communities
has been a collective conversation and shared experience in which depression, sui-
cide, broken hopes, torn families, and dying towns have coincided with seemingly
profound ‘environmental’ changes and the ever-present environmental problem and
threat of climate change (e.g., Centre for Rural & Remote Mental Health [CRRMH],
2010). Australia has until recently been in the grip of a decade-long nationwide
drought, has in the past several years experienced bushfires of unprecedented extent
and intensity, and as this chapter is being written, is facing the worst nationwide
floods in recorded history.
Can these quality of life and environment impacts of drought and parallel but
possibly coincidental societal changes in the Australian economy and agricultural
sector, and accompanying demographic redistributions, be considered psychosocial
and mental health impacts of climate change? This is not a question that can be
readily or clearly answered at this point in time. However it is clear that public
understandings and ‘idioms of distress’ on the part of those living in areas dramati-
cally altered by severe drought, bushfires, and floods, have embraced and implicated
‘climate change’ in a very noteworthy and consequential way. Rural and remote
health workers themselves appear to have accepted this emergent and collective
sense making narrative as a helpful framing of what is happening which is under-
standable, meaning-conferring, local and personal in terms of one’s own experience
and place, and possibly both adaptive and therapeutic (e.g., Morrissey & Reser,
2007).
Current Available Resources and Advice
Psychology has much to offer in developing evidence-informed resources and

materials that can be disseminated to the general public and for use by health
professionals and others in the context of disaster threats.
The American Psychological Association (APA) has been very active, espe-
cially since 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina in developing resources relating to coping
with disasters. In Australia, The Australian Psychological Society (APS) has also
developed a suite of materials to assist individuals and communities to understand
psychological response to and impacts of both the threats of natural disasters and
more recently the threat of climate change. The APS ‘Tip Sheets’ generally incorpo-
rate some information about the phenomena (e.g., climate change or psychological
preparedness for cyclones or bushfires), as well as some tips for identifying the
common reactions (emotional, cognitive, and behavioural) and some strategies for
managing the feelings and behaviours that might result from the worry and con-
cern that the particular impending threat is evoking. These Tip Sheets may be
downloaded free of charge from the APS website:
https://www.psychology.org.au/publications/tip_sheets/climate/ and
https://www.psychology.org.au/publications/tip_sheets/disasters/
Other government and nongovernment agencies such as state governments, emer-
gency management agencies, and the Red Cross in Australia also provide helpful
information and advice, which includes psychological advice on their websites.
In addition, a number of authors have also provided some general information
(e.g., APS, Doherty & Clayton, 2011; Fritze, Blashki, Burke & Wiseman, 2008;
Mainteny, 2002; Victorian Local Governance Association, 2009).
In general, one might expect such psychological advice to include the following:
• Provide tips to assist more accurate assessment of the climate change risks.
• Provide Information relating to probable (likely) reactions (emotions, cognitions,
and behaviours).
• Suggest effective management of emotions and problem solving, including a
focus on pro-social outcomes, and engagement in actions that have a reasonable
chance of mitigation.
• Suggest and encourage action, providing an opportunity to ‘respond personally’,
increase self-efficacy, participation, and competence, and help move individuals
from despair and hopelessness.
• Direct people to appropriate resources to become more informed about prob-

lems and solutions (e.g., The Weather Makers, An Inconvenient Truth), as well as
environmental websites, books, or magazines.
• Suggest that support groups are another way for people to improve their pre-
paredness for climate-related impacts providing not only support but hope and
positivity.
• Emphasise the notion of shared responsibility and the importance of collective
action.
• Remind the individuals to be mindful of the amount of exposure to the radio, TV,
Internet, and so on. Sometimes taking a break can be helpful and can provide a
welcome relief.
The information provided should be appropriately optimistic about the future

and reinforce that the future is not all bleak. It is helpful to acknowledge that there
are many people who share similar concerns, who are working on protecting the
environment and encouraging others to change their behaviour.
Concluding Observations
The psychological and well-being impacts of the threat and physical environmental
impacts of climate change have been largely ignored in the climate change science
discourse, in adaptation and mitigation policy discussions, in risk communication
and management deliberations, and, ironically, in the dramatically expanding cli-
mate change and public health literature (Morrissey & Reser, 2007). There are many
reasons why this is the case: the system, structures, and population levels of impact
and mitigation considerations; the natural and physical science (and very selective
social science) underpinnings of climate change science post IPCC; the challenges
in distinguishing the psychological, mental health, and quality of life impacts of the
threat of climate change from a dynamic and interacting set of other specific back-
ground threats, stressors, social and personal circumstance issues; and the dearth of
appropriate and sensitive measures and monitoring systems in place to document
important changes and impacts in the human environment and landscape as distinct
from physical environments and ecosystems.
But perhaps the most important reason why psychological responses and mental
health impacts generally have not been on the radar of climate change science is
the fact that the psychological, social, and cultural realities and consequent impacts
of the threat and risk domain of climate change have simply not been seriously
factored into impact analyses and discussions, other than in terms of strategic
behaviour and lifestyle changes and adjustments, and public health, safety, and
security considerations and risk management procedures. While the media cover-
age and representation of the phenomenon, the science, the politics, and reported
public response to global climate change has been everyone’s distorting window
on ‘climate change’, the psychological impact, adaptation, and well-being impli-
cations of such an indirect, virtual, socially constructed, and mediated encounter
with climate change for much of the developed, urbanised world have not been
seriously considered or addressed. As well, of course, many countries and commu-
nities have been directly experiencing the physical environmental consequences of
climate change for several decades, with the threat of climate change being much
more of a here and now objective reality in terms of natural disaster intensities
and extent, changing regional climate regimes inimicable to already-marginal agri-
cultural and pastoral economies, severe water shortages, consequent social unrest
and upheavals, and the growing numbers of climate change refugees. But what
remains a basic and underlying reality in the context of climate change is that pub-
lic risk perceptions, understandings, and responses to the threat of climate change
are not only crucially important psychological and social realities, they themselves
constitute critically significant and determining impacts of the threat of climate
change.
There is increasingly little ambiguity in the survey research evidence respecting
public concern levels about climate change. They are very high and have indeed
been very high for the past decade, though competing concerns, major events of the
day, and some degrees of apocalypse fatigue (Nordhaus & Shellenberger, 2009) and
finite worry capacity (Weber, 2006) have eventuated in temporary falls in reported
relative concern levels (Villar & Krosnick, 2010). But many have seen strategic
opportunity in a populace very concerned about an environmental issue such as
climate change, with these analysts ranging from journalists to commercial mar-
keters, to political analysts and strategists, to social change agents, to public health,
to environmental organizations, and to prospective researchers looking for funding.
This interest in (and possible exploitation of) salient public concerns is an important
and complex issue, with perceived media exaggeration, for example, being seen by
many as substantially eroding public concern and adaptive action (e.g., Spence &
Pidgeon, 2009).
It may well be that public concerns and very genuine and associated psycho-
logical and mental health impacts of the threat of climate change are at the same
time being ‘oversold’ and ‘undersold’ despite climate change’s unequivocal sta-
tus and importance as a profoundly important and urgent environmental and social
issue, risk domain, and psychological as well as physical health and sustainability
challenge. As well, perhaps, the complexity of this objective phenomenon and its
equally challenging socially constructed and represented ‘environmental problem’
character have confused and splintered societal and policy focus and resolve, as well
as reflecting the reality of powerful and undercutting political and economic inter-
ests and tensions. The absence of clear and convincing data with respect to adverse
psychological as well as social impacts of this still-virtual-for-many global threat
has not assisted in bringing mental health implications and optimal psychological
functioning ‘in from the cold’ with respect to public health and planning and pol-
icy deliberations. Notwithstanding the largely self-evident character of this clear
and present global and societal danger and case, there has not been the transdis-
ciplinary conceptual and paradigmatic scaffolding necessary to put psychological
adaptation and the mental health impacts of climate change on the radar of gov-
ernments, funding bodies, and climate change science. Hence we urgently need to
better communicate and collaboratively share this convergent body of work relating
to the impacts of the global climate change on the human environment, and how
these impacts both mediate and determine whether climate change adaptation and
mitigation initiatives and policies in more conventional terms have any prospect of
success.
While this chapter has focused on a more individual level, experience-based con-
sideration of psychological responses and impacts to the threat of climate change, in
keeping with our objective of addressing this area of crucial neglect, it is incumbent
that we remind ourselves and our readers that in this context of environmental risk
and change, apocalyptic scenarios, and human sense making and response, we can-
not neglect that underlying change agent, adaptation process, and collective sense
making apparatus that informs all individual experience, culture itself. Indeed cul-
tural foundations and differences with respect to natural environmental connections,
worldviews, and response to change have informed the social sciences from their
inception. That literature specifically addressing culture and risk is of central impor-
tance to public understandings of and responses to ‘climate change’. But ironically
there is little clarity, particularly in our contemporary ‘globalised’ world of infor-
mation technology–mediated social and environmental ‘realities’, with respect to
where and how differing assumptive worlds are entering the equation regarding this
global challenge requiring global human responses. It is clear that ‘public’ risk per-
ceptions and understandings of climate change do not equate with climate change
science accounts, even in those countries and cultures where such science enjoys
reasonable public respect and trust.
Yet effective interventions in the case of adverse psychological and social
impacts are premised on an informed understanding of prevailing environmental-
lived experience, narratives, and values. It is noteworthy that those social psycholog-
ical and risk perspectives within psychology that have played a leading role in better
understanding the underlying cognitive science, and the social cognition, construc-
tion, representation, and social amplification and attenuation of risk (e.g., Pidgeon
et al., 2003), have been more recently re-evaluating the very central nature and
roles of cultural beliefs and values and associated affect in climate change adap-
tation and response (e.g., Kahan, 2010; Slovic, 2010). Australia is recognised as
having an indigenous people who have been addressing and adapting to dramatic
climate sequences for possibly 60,000 years. Traditionally oriented communities
retain a literal identification and relationship with their natural environment, with
the quality of this relationship being the touchstone and foundation for interde-
pendent health and well-being (e.g., Rose, 1996). But indigenous communities in
Australia, as throughout the world (e.g., Leduc, 2011), are well aware that desta-
bilising environmental changes of profound consequence have been underway for
at least several decades, with these changes and encompassing risk having gen-
uinely cataclysmic implications in the context of cultural meaning systems and
beliefs. In such communities, and indeed in more rural and remote subsistence
communities throughout the world, the threat and environmental stress of climate
change would appear to be exacting very real though largely undocumented human
costs.
Postscript: Australian Survey Results

At this point in completing our chapter we have been analysing the results of a
substantial national survey in Australia, undertaken in conjunction with Cardiff
University’s Understanding Risk Centre and a corresponding British national sur-
vey. The focus of the Australian survey was public risk perceptions, understandings,
and responses to climate change and natural disasters in Australia (Reser et al.,
2011). This survey specifically addressed levels of concern and reported psycho-
logical distress in the context of climate change, with multi-item scales utilised
for these and a number of other parameters (e.g., psychological adaptation, direct
experience, objective knowledge, self-efficacy, residential exposure). While a final
analysis of this survey data has not been completed, initial findings are very relevant
to matters canvassed in this chapter. The study included a geographically stratified
sample of 3096 Australian respondents and 1822 from Britain residing specifically
in England, Scotland, and Wales. This study provided a unique opportunity to doc-
ument and monitor important psychological and social changes and impacts in the
human landscape in relation to global climate change, with this important study to
be replicated in Australia in June 2011.
The research found high levels of climate change concern with a composite mea-
sure including seriousness of the problem, sense of urgency to reduce the problem,
personal and societal concerns, and perceived importance of the issue. Several sin-
gle comparison items were used to assess general levels of concern relating to
climate change for both Australia and Britain with very similar results found for
both countries. Respondents overall were ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ concerned about climate
change, 66 and 71%, respectively. (Response format was a four-point scale, with
two additional options of ‘don’t know’ and ‘no opinion.)
The Australian survey additionally sought to address psychological distress with
a seven-item measure designed by the research team. Across all respondents the
averaged results indicated moderate levels of distress when thinking about and
responding to the threat of climate change. More specifically, when reviewing each
of the items individually, it became clear that a large proportion of respondents indi-
cated very strong levels of distress relating to specific aspects of the climate change
threat. A large number of respondents, for example, were very or fairly worried
about what the world will really be like for future generations because of climate
change (38%), with a further 24% experiencing some distress each time they saw or
read media coverage as to the likely impacts and consequences of climate change.
Other respondents were upset that there seemed to be so little that they could do to
address environmental problems such as climate change (23%). Respondents were
less likely to endorse items such as ‘climate change is affecting my quality of life
and my assessment of environmental quality more generally’ (9%) and ‘I feel some
sense of loss because of the climate change impacts that are becoming apparent in
my area’ (12%). These results suggest appreciable psychological distress as well
as concern at the nature and implications of the threat of climate change. Initial
correlation analyses indicate that this psychological distress in the context of cli-
mate change measure correlated strongly with measures of climate change concern
(r = 0.84), risk perception (r = 0.73), and psychological adaptation (r = 0.78),

further suggesting important mediating roles and outcomes with respect to climate
change distress. It will be important to compare and contrast the results of pro-
grammatic national survey and monitoring exercises such as this with more focused
psychosocial impact assessment and community health and mental health studies in
specific regions with differing notional exposures to the impacts of climate change,
extreme weather events, and/or other salient environmental changes.
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Chapter 3
Chronic Environmental Change: Emerging
‘Psychoterratic’ Syndromes
Glenn Albrecht
Introduction
Humans are now by far the most powerful change agent on the planet, and their
impacts are fundamentally transforming the face of the physical landscape of the
earth, altering natural patterns and rhythms, and, now, warming its climate. Under
the influence of increasing anthropogenic environmental pressures I describe earth-
related physical and mental health impacts due to environmental and climate change.
In what follows, I shall focus on the mental health impacts that arise from neg-
atively perceived environmental change. A typology of emergent earth-related or
psychoterratic syndromes and conditions is presented to assist in the understanding
of and response to chronic environmental change.
The Loss of Regularity
Humans are extremely versatile and adaptive animals. They have colonised virtu-
ally all parts of the planet and have successfully inhabited all types of climes and
topographies including the Arctic, deserts and tropical rainforests. While humans
may have originated from the African savannah, we are so adaptable as a species that
we now even live on a semi-permanent basis in inhospitable places like Antarctica.
Despite our ability to tolerate a wide variety of biophysical conditions for social life,
like other species, we rely on pattern and regularity in nature to offer us a reasonable
degree of predictability in a sea of change and possibilities. Such pattern and regu-
larity are substantially due to the fact that the earth spins on its axis whilst revolving
around the sun. Day and night and the seasons are the result of our constant rela-
tionship to the sun. The sun itself provides a relatively constant supply of warmth
and energy so that life exists within thermodynamic limits. In addition, the rotation
G. Albrecht (B)
Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy (ISTP), Murdoch University, Perth, WA 6150,
Australia
e-mail: G.Albrecht@Murdoch.edu.au


44 G. Albrecht
of the moon around the earth gives us two tides a day on every ocean shore in the
world. The regularity of solar energy, the seasons, prevailing winds and the tides are
expressions of a pre-existing pattern and order that predates human emergence by
millions of years.
Phenology, the long-term study of seasonal rhythms and patterns in nature, is
a scientific discipline that systematically studies this foundation of life. Once the
short- and long-term patterns in nature are understood, the biological and ecologi-
cal responses to such foundational order begin to make sense. The daily circadian
rhythms, our sleep and wake patterns, the very idea of a breeding ‘season’ in some
species, the timing of insect and animal migration, the human menstrual cycle, bio-
chemical patterns (e.g., melatonin levels) and the spawning of corals are all tied to
the foundational pattern and order as described by phenology, biochronology and
other fields of knowledge. While the drivers of natural patterns and rhythms such
as the earth, sun and moon remain relatively constant at a cosmic level, increasing
temperature due to anthropogenically induced climate change in the form of global
warming is altering the very character of long-term climate, the annual seasons and
weather worldwide (IPCC, 2007).
Climate Stress on Non-human Beings
As a result of these long-term climatic and immediate weather changes, ecosys-

tems and their endemic biodiversity are also experiencing change. Some species are
favoured by warmer temperatures while others are disadvantaged. However, in gen-
eral, under the chronic change agent of global warming, climes and ecosystems are
no longer synchronised with the seasons and their inhabitants are under pressure to
move to more favourable habitats.
For example, in Australia we have the critically endangered mountain pygmy
possum (Burramys parvus) that has evolved to live in alpine regions in the moun-
tains of eastern Australia (Department of the Environment and Heritage, 2005).
It has survived for millennia by hibernating under a regular thick cover of snow
during the winter, but now the snow is melting earlier and the critically endan-
gered survivors (less than a few thousand in total) emerge too early to exploit food
reserves that would normally sustain them. They die of starvation because the nor-
mal rhythms and patterns of place have been disturbed by changes to their climate
and there is nowhere for them to go to remain in their preferred habitat. They cannot
go up into higher and more suitable ecosystems because they are already perched
on the top of mountains. The mountain pygmy possum could be the first of many
more species to become extinct due to global warming and its impact on habitat. In
Australia, there is also the possibility of the loss of the Great Barrier Reef, a World
Heritage area, due to climate change. Already damaged by coral bleaching, warmer
and more acid waters will not support coral and the foundations of the ecosystem
will collapse.
There are many other examples worldwide of ecosystem and species distress
at the warming and subsequent changing of the climate. From what at first sight
3 Chronic Environmental Change: Emerging ‘Psychoterratic’ Syndromes 45
appears to be only a slight increase in temperatures, less than one degree Celsius
over the last century, there are already discernable effects that are profoundly deso-
lating landscapes. The suggestion that the world and its inhabitants could tolerate a
2 degree or higher temperature increase under global warming ignores the distress
and damage already caused with one degree.
I suggest that the urge to remain in environments that are within the evolutionary-
defined limits of organisms is powerful and the pressure to move because of climate
change is likely to be extremely disturbing. Due to trophic mismatches (Post &
Forchhammer, 2008), predator–prey relationships will no longer remain in balance
and herbivores will be unable to time their migration with the availability of grasses
that flourish either too soon or too late within migration routes to support their
needs and those of their offspring. Disease patterns will also change with emergent
diseases driving new epidemics of disease and death in non-human beings. Such
change pressures demand of all species extreme resilience with the very possibility
of life played out at the margins of evolutionary limits. Pushed beyond such toler-
ances, specialised and non-adaptable species face extinction or continued existence
only in zoos.
While we are just beginning to think about how climate change will affect the
mental health and well-being of humans, virtually no research has concentrated on
the likely impact of climate change on the health and well-being of wild animals.
I have argued that non-human beings will be most likely extremely stressed by the
imposed changes of global warming (Albrecht, 2009b). Territorial issues for ani-
mals are crucial to their survival. As their home habitats move, they too face the
imperative to move. However, the freedom to move is blocked by competition from
fellow non-human beings, human development pressures in the form of habitat frag-
mentation and massive infrastructure such as cities and their urban complexes, auto
freeways and railway lines. I argue that animals will experience chronic place-based
stress as the ability to respond to instinctual (genetic) instructions about ‘home’ is
thwarted by climate-induced pressure to move.
Climate Stress and Human Beings

Chronic stress on ecosystems and home environments is likely to produce a similar
chronic stress in humans as in other sentient animals. For human beings, one of the
most understated, but potentially powerful of all, relationships is the one we have
to our home environment. Our physical and mental health, our total sense of well-
being, is tied to this vital territorial relationship, and when it is threatened, we can
become distressed and diseased (Albrecht, 2005; Albrecht et al., 2007).
As with other species, as phenological and other rhythms and patterns in the
home environment change, so too does the way Homo sapiens relates to its home
environment. I maintain that the phenology of place has its correlates in the
phenology of culture and the mind. Pattern and regularity in nature are reflected
in pattern and regularity in all human activity. Our endemic sense of place, belong-
ing and our existential well-being are vitally connected to the rhythms and patterns
46 G. Albrecht
of our home environment. The seasonal weather, the play of light, the ability to
plant and harvest food, the breeding of domestic animals, the cultivation of food
and gardening for pleasure, our sleep and rest patterns, outdoor sports and myr-
iad other typically human activities are vitally linked to a reliable and predictable
environment, including its climate. Without being deterministic, a reliable and pre-
dictable environment and climate is powerfully connected to the very possibility of
a distinctive culture (and agriculture).
Long-established cultures located in geologically stable parts of the planet are
now experiencing significant change to their once characteristic climes. For exam-
ple, in the UK, under a 100-year warming period, the growing season for plants
in central England has lengthened by about one month, heatwaves have become
more frequent in summer and there are now fewer frosts and winter cold spells (UK
Climate Impacts, 2010). At the rate the UK is warming, in about 70 years the people
of Wales will be living in a clime similar to that of present-day west coast Portugal
(3 degrees warmer).
The Western European heatwave of 2003 and ongoing bushfire crises in Greece,
Spain and Italy are poignant reminders that the climate of Europe is changing.
Physical health impacts are manifest as excess morbidity and mortality related to
extreme high temperatures. It is a similar story in the southern hemisphere with
heatwaves, catastrophic fires and drought. In the Australian Spring of 2009, record
high temperatures were broken by large margins. Drought has become a semi-
permanent feature of the food bowl of the Murray-Darling River basin in Eastern
Australia. Both physical and psychological limits are tested in such circumstances,
and water shortages in Eastern Australia have affected the long-term viability of
rural economies and security of water supply in large towns and whole cities such
as Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide.
As an indication of just how disruptive climate change will become to connec-
tions to home, in my former home state of New South Wales in Australia, right
now, I would have to live 150 km farther south from my present location in order
to replicate the temperatures and climes of only 50 years ago. In 2070, I will
(theoretically, since I would be 117 years old) have to be living over 1000 km
farther south in Southern Tasmania in order to keep within my present climate
zone.
In one hundred years’ time, our children and grandchildren will have to move
even farther north or south of the equator to maintain their historical eco-climatic
sense of place. Unfortunately for Australians, once you get south of Tasmania, it is
difficult to find good land until you get to the Antarctic landmass. Under worst-case
scenarios, there is a very real prospect of Australia becoming uninhabitable in the
foreseeable future, with mass migration to cooler and wetter parts of the world the
only option available. In addition to extreme heat, the collapse of agriculture and
impacts of drought and wildfire will be enough to force people to migrate to more
hospitable climes and ecosystems.
While migration itself is a very serious existential stress burden on people,
remaining in places that are being devastated by the effects of climate change such
as persistent drought might be an even greater source of stress. In Africa, research

is now under way on how those who remain in the zones of high-impact climate
change such as drought-affected areas will cope with a desolated home environment
and a cultural context that is fragmenting (Tschakert & Tutu, 2010). The research
suggests that the protection of vulnerable people who remain emplaced in a home
environment that is changing both physically and culturally is an important task for
policy makers.
With the example of the Inuit, we have some early warning signs about the
impact on climate change on the mental health of people. People who still live
close to the earth and its elements and begin to experience long-term or chronic
change to their home environment and its climate respond in ways that reflect
their intimacy with the earth. Indigenous cultures at the front line of climate
change have already responded with new concepts in their language to describe
the unwelcome disruptions to the patterns of life. The Inuit of the Arctic Circle,
where temperatures are rising at twice the global average, have applied a word,
‘uggianaqtuq’ (pronounced OOG-gi-a-nak-took), which once was used to describe
a friend who was acting strangely or in an unpredictable manner, to the way cli-
mate change is now impacting on their environment and culture. A whole traditional
way of life tied to the patterns of a long-term relationship to a particular type of
clime and landscape is threatened, with activities such as transport on melting ice
impossible, traditional food sources disappearing, house foundations destabilised
and whole landscapes transformed. For the Inuit and many other peoples of the
Arctic, a fossil fuel–generated wave of change called global warming is invad-
ing the cryosphere and turning what was once reliable into uggianaqtug (Albrecht,
2008).
The distress at the transformation of their home environment comes on top of
enormous pressures delivered by continued development. As is the case in remote
parts of Australia, much of the Arctic region is now seen as a hotspot for minerals,
gas and oil. As the ice and snow disappear, many anticipate even more opportuni-
ties for mineral and oil exploration in the new polar frontier. Of course, if new oil
reserves are found and exploited, they will only add further to the warming and the
climate chaos.
All over the world, in the face of changing weather patterns, record high tem-
peratures, more frequent and severe drought and fires and shifting rainfall patterns,
people are responding with forms of place-based distress. Under the driver of cli-
mate change, our endemic sense of place is being challenged, and all the signs,
signals and markers that define our biophysical home are changing and moving. Old
earth wisdom, tried and true for millennia, now becomes redundant knowledge in
the new climate, and the wisdom of the elders and their power to hold communities
together begin to evaporate. Instead of regularity and the ability to plan ahead, peo-
ple are now anxious about an unreliable future and what it might hold for them, even
in the relatively short term. They are asking legitimate questions about the current
and future impacts of climate change. Will the sea level rise and by how much? How
hot will it get? Is storm frequency and severity going up? Is water supply secure?
48 G. Albrecht
Am I at risk of wildfire? Will eco-refugees overwhelm my country? Will famine

increase as the climate changes, and will new diseases threaten me?
Psychoterratic and Somaterratic Syndromes
As we carefully examine the responses to changing home environments, a range

of ‘psychoterratic’ (Albrecht et al., 2007; Albrecht, 2009a) or earth-related mental
health syndromes are thus revealed. These syndromes are suffered in addition to the
‘somaterratic’ or body burden of illness created by, for example, exposure of the
body to extreme heat or toxic chemicals released into the biophysical environment.
People aware of the potentially serious implications of climate change are also
likely to be anxious about possible harm that might fall on their children into the
future and, further, the fate of all future generations. People such as climate scien-
tists and those who choose to be fully informed about climate science and its dire
predictions about the future might be even more anxious than other people in soci-
ety. Their knowledge is a burden they carry with them on a daily basis and, as more
and more news enters the public arena, there is no escape.
As uncertainty rises, I suggest that anxiety might turn into a form of helpless-
ness or paralysis with the inability to make definitive decisions about what to do
next entrenched in a non-predictable world. I argue that it is not that people are
unconcerned about changing environments; it is just that they are unable to trans-
late their concerns into any meaningful action. Changing light bulbs is, for them,
not an adequate response to escalating greenhouse gas concentration in the atmo-
sphere and subsequent global warming. While paralysis might be the result for
some, others might embrace activism and get more motivated to bring about the fun-
damental changes needed to avoid a runaway greenhouse and catastrophic climate
change. Table 3.1 provides my overview of established and emergent conditions
that are physical and psychological responses to negative changes to the state of
the earth (terra). More research is needed on the interaction of the somaterratic
and the psychoterratic since we know that synergistic interactions occur between
persistent extremely high ambient temperatures, organic pollutants, volatile organic
compounds, endocrine disrupters and stress in humans as measured by the levels of
stress hormones such as cortisol. Hence, internal physical environments (the body),
internal mental environments (the mind) and external environments (changing and
polluted ecosystems) might be caught in an escalating cycle of stress.
Table 3.1 Environmental change: Somaterratic and Psychoterratic syndromes
Somaterratic (Body-Earth) Psychoterratic (Psyche-Earth)
Heat stress Ecoanxiety

Environmental cancers Ecoparalysis
Endocrine disruptors (feminization) Solastalgia
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) Econostalgia/nostalgia
The domain of somaterratic illness has received relatively little attention as an

‘upstream’ source of human disease. Global warming, heat stress in heatwaves and
connections to mental health conditions have occasionally been written about by
journalists in countries such as India (Jayan, 2008). Even less attention has been
paid to the impact of psychoterratic syndromes as components of the total burden
of mental health issues. Such neglect is hard to explain, given that the WHO has
pointed out that depression is currently the “leading cause of disability as measured
by Years Lived with Disability (YLDs) and that by the year 2020, it is projected
to reach 2nd place of the ranking of Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) cal-
culated for all ages and both sexes” (WHO, 2009). In Australia, suicide is the
number one cause of death for men and women aged 15–34 (Lifeline, 2009). In
other words, while the contribution of environmental distress to the total burden
might in itself be currently small, the overall problem we are dealing with is very
large.
Psychoterratic conditions are likely to become more significant components of
the causes of mental health problems as climate change impacts more severely on
the home environments of vulnerable people. The impact of negatively changing
climates and environments on the poor is likely to be more devastating than on
those who are wealthy and have access to support and alternative accommodation
and safer environments. However, those in rich countries, unaccustomed to major
disruption to their normal lives from weather and climate-related events, will also
suffer from psychoterratic shocks. Given that global warming is set to continue
and have serious consequences for climate and the environment, it is worthwhile
to more carefully examine the range of psychoterratic syndrome conditions likely
to be experienced by humans.
Ecoanxiety
As indicated above, anxiety related to a changing and uncertain environment is now

being widely discussed. The amount of information (and misinformation) available
about dangerous climate change and distressed ecosystems has increased expo-
nentially over recent decades. The Internet in particular has seen an explosion of
eco-information available to billions worldwide. The bad news often associated with
eco-information is itself a source of anxiety. People become overwhelmed by the
sheer scale, complexity and ‘wickedness’ of the problems we are facing. A form
of ecologically induced dread most likely affects many people and leads to their
becoming distressed. Many people become anxious about what to do in the face of
accumulating evidence of non-sustainable pathways. Their concern about the fate
of their own children intensifies as the pace of change telescopes into decades rather
than centuries and many see major difficulties for future generations as the ability
to predict what the world will be like evaporates.
In recent years there have been a number of feature articles in major national
newspapers devoted to the topic of ecoanxiety (Dickinson, 2008), and it is
now a legitimate area of research on a legitimate human experience in the
50 G. Albrecht
face of negatively felt environmental and climatic change (Physicians for Social
Responsibility, 2009; Psychologists for Social Responsibility, 2009).
Ecoparalysis
As indicated above, the inability to meaningfully respond to the climatic and eco-
logical challenges that face us is not always an expression of apathy. The intractable
nature of the problems, the fact that they are tied to the very foundations of our
present economy, generates dilemmas not seen before in human history. People
appear apathetic and disengaged with reality as it unfolds, but their detachment
might be ecoparalysis rather than apathy or avoidance. As we learn more about
our carbon footprint, it seems that every option to retain life as usual ends in con-
tradiction. Even the idea that we save energy and hence carbon emissions by doing
business and personal communication electronically runs into the uncomfortable
truth that the annual amount of energy required to run the World Wide Web is
roughly equivalent to the annual energy use and carbon emissions of global air traf-
fic. Not many people in rich, technologically sophisticated parts of the world are
prepared to embrace the full implications of a severely greenhouse gas-constrained
world. While many now clearly see the extent and nature of the problem, future
negative events, even those that will impact on their own children, are insufficient to
change behaviour as usual. I suggest that such gaps between knowledge, values and
behaviour are now sources of ecoanxiety and causes of ecoparalysis worldwide.
Solastalgia
Beyond the relatively benign psychoterratic conditions of ecoanxiety and ecoparal-

ysis, I have created a new psychoterratic concept that describes a form of distress
that can have quite serious existential and psychological consequences. I have devel-
oped the term ‘solastalgia’ to describe the lived experience of negatively perceived
change to a home environment (Albrecht, 2005; Albrecht, 2006; Albrecht et al.,
2007).
More precisely, ‘solastalgia’ describes the distress or desolation caused by the
gradual removal of solace from the present state of one’s home environment.
Solastalgia exists when there is recognition that the place where one resides and
that one loves is being subject to chronic physical desolation. Solastalgia can be
contrasted to the spatial and temporal dislocation and dispossession experienced
as the traditionally defined concept of nostalgia. Solastalgia is the existential and
emplaced experience of the loss of the value of the present as manifest in a feeling
of being dislocated within a home location that is undergoing chronic change.
One reason for creating the concept of solastalgia was that, unlike in tradi-
tional cultures and their languages, there are few words in English that make the
connection between psychological and environmental states. The term ‘nostalgia’
has traditionally been used to refer to distress or melancholia connected to being
absent from the homeland and a desire to return. However, a concept that relates to
the present, to the lived experience of emplaced change within the home environ-
ment, had no obvious expression in English. In particular, the existential feeling that
a home environment provided much diminished comfort or solace seemed central to
many of the core themes I wished to express in a language of place. To be homesick
within a home environment is now a common experience as familiar home envi-
ronments, under powerful change agents such a global warming, inexorably move
away from their owners.
Solastalgia has its origins in the concepts of nostalgia, solace and desolation.
Like the older meaning of nostalgia as melancholia or homesickness, solastalgia
has connections to both psychological and physical contexts. Solace is derived from
the Latin verb solari (noun solacium or solatium), with meanings connected to the
alleviation or relief of distress or provision of comfort or consolation in the face
of distressing events. It has one emphasis that refers to the comfort one is given
in difficult times (consolation), while another refers to that which gives comfort or
strength. A person or a landscape might give solace, strength or support to other
people. Special environments might provide solace in ways that other places can-
not. If a person lacks solace, then they are distressed and in need of consolation.
If a person seeks solace or solitude in a much loved place that is being chronically
desolated, then they will suffer distress.
The other root word, ‘desolation’, has its origins in the Latin solus (noun deso-
lare), with meanings connected to devastation, deprivation of comfort, abandonment
and loneliness. It too relates to both psychological and physical contexts – a per-
sonal feeling of abandonment (isolation) and to an environment or landscape that
has been devastated. In addition, I constructed the concept of solastalgia so that it
has a ghost reference or structural similarity to nostalgia, thereby ensuring that a
place reference is imbedded. Hence, solastalgia has its origins in the New Latin
word ‘nostalgia’ (and its Greek roots nostos and algos); however, it is based on two
Latin roots, ‘solace’ and ‘desolation’, with a New Latin suffix, ‘algia’ or pain, to
complete its meaning.
In my own part of the world, Australia, there is a case study of chronic
environmental stress that provides a graphic analogue of future climate-induced
phenological and place-based change. As a result of my personal engagement
with citizens and their regional landscape desolated by open-cut coal mining in
the Hunter Valley of NSW, I could see that psychoterratic conditions were seri-
ous components of overall psychic identity and well-being. Such observations were
reinforced when, with colleagues Nick Higginbotham and Linda Connor, we began
a funded investigation of the impact of coal mining and power station pollution on
people in the Hunter Valley. By using qualitative research methods (Connor et al.,
2004; Albrecht, 2005) complemented by the Environmental Distress Scale or EDS,
an empirical measure of solastalgia, (Higginbotham et al., 2006), the relationship
between ecosystem distress and human distress was given a foundation based on a
study of the lived experience of people in the Hunter Valley.
As an indication of the depth of feeling about these issues, an Indigenous man
we interviewed, when asked for his reaction to the mined landscape, expressed
52 G. Albrecht
his disgust about the massive changes to his traditional lands. He explained that
he drives hundreds of unnecessary miles to avoid directly witnessing the mined
areas because it upsets him so much to see the desecration and the desolation. He
exclaimed that seeing the mined area “makes him wild” (Albrecht et al., 2007).
Many of the early settler families of the Hunter Valley escaped the brutality and
pollution of the Industrial Revolution of Britain, only to find it reappearing gener-
ations later in the dust, noise and pollution of contemporary coal mines and power
stations. An exasperated farmer told the research team about his battle with a coal
mine close to his property, “The industrial revolution has caught us again; we’ve
got the same trouble. Where do we go, Patagonia or somewhere?” A female gra-
zier fought the mine next door to her property for some time, but the relentless
assault on her quality of life finally became too much for her. She described her
state of being as “a real mess” and that her physical and mental health was seriously
affected by the mining. Another woman stated that “she is almost reduced to tears
thinking about it” and exclaimed that when the mining is finished in the region, the
land will be useless for rural production and that people will be left with nothing
but the emotionally distressing legacy of a desolated landscape and large hole in the
ground or “the final void” (Connor et al., 2004). The empirical research supported
such graphic personal testimony in that it showed “. . . as measured through the EDS,
the concept of solastalgia appears to give clear expression, both philosophically and
empirically, to the environmental dimension of human distress. This has not been
achieved previously” (Higginbotham et al., 2007).
Despite solastalgia having its origins in the context of mining-induced chronic
environmental change, I argue that any context where place identity is challenged
by pervasive change to the existing biophysical order has the potential to deliver
solastalgia. In addition to large-scale development pressures, natural disasters, cli-
mate change and emergent disease (for human and non-human life) have been
shown to generate unwelcome change to built and natural environments. While
some might respond to such change with nostalgia and want to return to a desired
past place or time, others will experience solastalgia and express a strong desire to
sustain those things, both now and into the future, that provide comfort, consolation
and solace.
Natural change agents such as drought, fire and flood can be the immediate cause
of place-based distress; however, it is the slow-onset or chronic stress of the ongo-
ing loss of the markers of a familiar home environment delivered by those change
agents that is most characteristic of solastalgia. Psychiatrists and psychologists deal
with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as an acute condition following disaster
and desolation, but they have not as yet come to grips with the post-PTSD period
where there is ongoing chronic stress from an utterly transformed home environ-
ment. In the aftermath of dramatic and acute place-based distress caused by natural
forces such as hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes, there is often an
extended period of time in which victims directly experience a negatively trans-
formed home environment. It often takes time before the physical and psychological
reconstruction needed to repair desolated landscapes and people can take place. In
these circumstances, solastalgia is a likely response that could be recognized and
addressed by professionally trained support personnel. Such a solastalgic response

may also be present in those who were voluntarily displaced before the disaster, but
then return ‘home’ to a desolated environment. In late 2009, four years post-Katrina,
whole neighbourhoods of New Orleans still remained desolated but with many peo-
ple trying to live within them. I suggest that their chronic place-based distress most
likely was connected to feelings of solastalgia. One report on the situation in New
Orleans in 2009 suggested that a place-based stress was pervading the city:
In a city that has famously grappled with mental illness for decades, caregivers on the front
lines say the problem has grown exponentially since Katrina — and that the number of
sufferers still in need of help easily runs into the thousands. Despite the rising scourge, the
number of available hospital beds to treat the mentally ill in New Orleans has decreased by
more than half. Locals have coined their own name for the mostly silent crisis: post-Katrina
stress disorder. (Hudson et al., 2009)
At a less directly traumatic level, witnessing environmental desolation such as

the removal of much-loved trees for new development in an urban environment can
be the cause of a profound psychoterratic distress that can manifest as intense vis-
ceral pain and mental anguish. The gradual loss of iconic trees in any landscape
turns this momentary acute distress into longer-term chronic solastalgia about the
transformation of a loved element of the total environment. In Australia, under the
combined impacts of a drying and warming climate, insect attack, fungal attack and
human intrusion, native hardwood forests are suffering from a condition known as
‘die-back’. In particular, the iconic trees, those that are the tallest and largest, are
the ones that die first. People living in these forested landscapes are now likely to be
experiencing solastalgia at the lived experience of the loss of ‘their’ trees. Similar
situations are unfolding worldwide for similar reasons.
In addition to anthropogenically induced global warming, other forms of chronic
change to home environments are clearly connected to human actions and agency.
These include, for example, the elements of chronic stress regionally connected
to war, terrorism, land clearing, mining, rapid development and the gentrification
of older parts of cities. In all cases, solastalgia is characterised by identifiable
negatively perceived changes to the ‘biophysical’ environment where people live.
Changes to the cultural environment of people due to inward or outward migration
might also be causes of stress, but that type of stress or potential distress is not
conceptually or etymologically related to the concept of solastalgia unless it relates
specifically to the structure and form of the biophysical environment.
The concept of solastalgia has relevance in any context in which there is the
direct experience of negative transformation or chronic desolation of the biophys-
ical environment (home) by forces that undermine a personal and community
sense of identity, belonging and control. While closely connected to research on
the psychological impacts of displacement (Casey, 1993; Lowenthal, 1985; Relph,
1976; Fullilove, 2004; Fullilove, 1996; Read, 1996), the focus of my research on
solastalgia is the distress of people who are not technically being displaced but are
experiencing an emplaced, chronic and negatively perceived change to their home
environment. They feel as if they are displaced within their home environment.
54 G. Albrecht
Econostalgia
The most popular meaning of the word ‘nostalgia’ in the contemporary world is
a yearning to return to a past time and its corresponding place where things are
perceived to be better than they are in the present. A feeling of nostalgia might,
for example, be expressed as an urge on the part of some people to relocate to the
1950s when Elvis was ‘King’ and people and their values were seen to be more
admirable than those of the present. For people experiencing this kind of nostalgia,
there is a temporal and physical separation from a culturally defined period deemed
to be more valuable than the present. There is no necessary connection to a lived
experience of the loss of the value of the present environment (solastalgia); it is
simply that the past contained elements that are felt to be better.
An earlier definition of nostalgia involved a physical separation from a real
and present home and feelings of sadness or melancholia about the separation.
Especially evident in soldiers fighting on foreign shores, many medical experts
assessed nostalgia to be a potentially life-threatening condition. Soldiers could die
of the distress and melancholia, and repatriation or return to the fatherland was the
only sure cure. What is clear again is the physical separation of a person from his
or her home and a cure for the melancholia or homesickness dependent on being
able to return to a familiar home environment. In the context of environmental and
climate change, nostalgia once again could manifest itself as a serious psychoter-
ratic condition. As indicated above, under the driving force of climate change,
whole landscapes are altered beyond historical recognition and the inhabitants of
ecosystems feel the imperative to move. In such circumstances, people who have
been absent for some time from their historical home habitat might wish to return.
However, if during their absence, distinctive features of home environments such as
glaciers and iconic species completely disappear, people coming home will experi-
ence a new dimension of nostalgia, one not connected to their absence but tied to
vital features of the home environment disappearing during their absence.
In the past people who moved away from their home environment could suffer
the separation distress of nostalgia. However, econostalgia will be connected to sit-
uations where people return to a biophysical location that is ‘home’ in name only,
but one that has been totally transformed in their absence by development or climate
change. They have no ‘lived experience’ of the change process so do not suffer from
solastalgia; however, their nostalgia for a past reality that they were once intimately
connected to will produce serious melancholia.
Conclusion
It is unfortunate but psychoterratic syndromes are likely to become more common

in the future. The factors that cause them, such as large-scale development pressure
and climate change, are becoming more pervasive and powerful. To recognize these
syndromes now and prepare in advance for their expression is prudent. As we saw
with Hurricane Katrina and the people of New Orleans, being unprepared for the
aftermath of acute disaster is itself disastrous. To be unprepared for the impact of

chronic environmental change, especially when it is a known risk and global in its
scale, is inviting further human desolation.
By making a preliminary assessment of the different types of psychoterratic dis-
tress, we are forearmed; however, much more research is required to adequately
define the field. Being largely existential and not biomedical in their origins,
psychoterratic syndromes will require intensely compassionate and humanistic
responses on the part of mental health and other caring professions (Smith, 2010).
Moreover, the synergy between psychoterratic and somaterratic factors may well
exacerbate an already-complex scenario. Here, the biomedical approach will need
to collaborate in transdisciplinary (Albrecht et al., 2008) ways with humanistic tra-
ditions to overcome this emergent threat to the well-being and health of people in
their shared home, the Earth.
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Chapter 4
Extreme Weather-Related Events: Implications
for Mental Health and Well-Being
David M. Simpson, Inka Weissbecker, and Sandra E. Sephton
Introduction
This chapter examines research on the potential mental health effects of climate
change–induced natural disasters. Specifically, we will discuss how extreme
weather-related events can affect psychosocial well-being and mental health. Even
when victims of a natural disaster suffer no physical harm, the experience can
provoke a great deal of psychological distress that may manifest as anxiety, sleep-
lessness, recurring intrusive thoughts, and mood changes. Over weeks to months,
these responses often settle into symptom patterns indicative of clinical syn-
dromes such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and substance
use. Unexplained somatic complaints increase after disasters, suggesting a psycho-
logical origin. Vulnerable populations such as children and those with low resource
levels suffer disproportionately high levels of psychpathology after such events.
For example, research has shown that anxiety, aggression, and behavior prob-
lems are more likely to be observed in children than in adults after exposure to a
disaster.
Disaster events are expected to increase in both scope and number as cli-
matic changes increase. In turn, geographic areas at risk for damage from natural
disasters are increasingly being developed by emerging nations and underserved
communities. There is an urgent need for development of strategies to alleviate the
mental health effects of disaster. Disaster response is extremely challenging from
both research and practice perspectives; however, this work may bring large-scale
benefits to affected individuals and communities.
D.M. Simpson (B)

Department of Urban and Public Affairs, Center for Hazards Research and Policy Development,
University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40208, USA
e-mail: dave.simpson@louisville.edu


58 D.M. Simpson et al.
Framing Extreme Weather Events
Description of Extreme Weather Events

Extreme weather events are meteorological, hydrological, climatological, or related
incidents that cause widespread damage, either in terms of human lives, prop-
erty damage, or both. These events range in effect and scope. Some examples
of extreme weather events can be listed as winter weather, heat waves, floods,
drought, dust storms, wildfires, tropical cyclones, hurricanes, and tornadoes. These
events are relatively commonly occurring events. What makes them extreme is the
severity of their impact. Uncommonly large incidents in terms of spatial effects,
the increased frequency of what might normally be an infrequent event, and the
increased intensity of a particular event can make a more common weather event
into an “extreme” weather event. For the purposes of this chapter, an extreme
weather event is described as one that is considered a “disaster.”
Defining Disaster
Defining an extreme weather event as a “disaster” helps to provide an idea of impact,

but still leaves some ambiguity, as there is not a clear-cut definition of disaster.
Quarentelli (1982, p. 457) addresses this issue by stating there are “at least seven
different major ways in which disasters have either implicitly or explicitly been
conceptualized.” Those methods deal with important constructs, such as how we
describe disaster agents, impacts, social disruption, political framing of the event,
among others. One method of defining a disaster is based on the notion that a
disaster is only a “disaster” if the demands created by the event exceed the com-
munity’s capacity for dealing with it. Quarentelli calls this an “imbalance in the
demand-capability ratio in a crisis situation” (1982, p. 464). For most situations,
the definition of disaster implies a requirement for external assistance, and the more
widespread the need for assistance, the larger the scope of the disaster. The Center
for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) in Brussels, Belgium, uses
the following definition: a disaster is a “situation or event which overwhelms local
capacity, necessitating a request to a national or international level for external assis-
tance; an unforeseen and often sudden event that causes great damage, destruction,
and human suffering” (Below, Wirtz, & Guha-Sapir, 2009, p. 16).
Natural Versus Technological Disasters
An important distinction exists in the disaster literature between natural and techno-
logical disasters (Baum, Fleming, & Davidson, 1983 ; Baum & Fleming, 1993; Bell,
Greene, Fisher, & Baum, 2001; Quarantelli, 1998). Natural disasters are more sud-
den, cataclysmic, uncontrollable, acute (as distinct from chronic), and characterized
by enormous destructive power and magnitude. Technological disasters, on the
4 Extreme Weather-Related Events: Implications for Mental Health and Well-Being 59
other hand, can be attributed to human activity rather than the product of natu-
ral forces, and are less predictable. The events are typically accompanied by little
or no warning, are often chronic, less familiar, and are more likely to threaten
feelings of control and to have complex impacts. They are less likely to elicit sup-
portive and cohesive community response, more likely to foster anger, frustration,
resentment, and helplessness, among other effects (Bell et al., 2001). Man-made
disasters, including events resulting from deliberate attacks, raise uncertainty about
the future and lead to a greater incidence of psychological symptoms than do natural
disasters (Norris et al., 2002). More severe outcomes are noted across symptom cat-
egories including mild (e.g., sleep disturbance, fear, anger, sadness), moderate (e.g.,
insomnia, anxiety, reduction of functional capabilities), and severe symptoms (e.g.,
PTSD, major depression; Benedek et al., 2007). A current example of this range of
responses has taken place with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill (also called the BP
Oil Spill, which started on April 20, 2010) that leaked oil for months into the Gulf
of Mexico.
Global Climate Change
The understanding of natural versus technological disasters leaves global climate

change somewhere in between these two classifications. The effects of forcing of
naturally occurring climate change is largely the product of technological processes
and products, though the consequent meteorological and climate change phenomena
can manifest as natural disasters. Notably, climate change effects can elicit some of
the same responses found in the case of technological disasters, including distrust
of government, corporations, regulatory authorities, and science itself (Earle, 2004;
Earle & Cvetkovich, 1995; Lang & Hallman, 2005). Global climate change is some-
what unique in that it creates multifaceted global impacts that will likely be chronic
and not easily solved through conventional national or jurisdictional agencies, or
‘disaster’ policies and procedures (Marshall et al., 2007).
Framing Global Climate Change in Disaster terms
A number of authors have suggested that framing global climate change in global
disaster terms provides a clearer and more realistic picture of the interacting pro-
cesses and impacts, their true magnitude and extent, the nature and scale of human
impacts, and the imperative to take immediate disaster mitigation and prepared-
ness measures (Spratt & Sutton, 2008; American Psychological Association, 2009).
Some authors are proposing that there is a link between global climate change and
the impact of extreme weather events and, therefore, an increase in disasters. For
example, Hoyos, Agudelo, Webster, and Curry (2006) suggest an increase in cate-
gory 4 and 5 hurricanes as a result of increases in global sea surface temperatures,
while Knutson and Tuleya (2004) stated that warming induced by greenhouse gas
may lead to increasing occurrence of highly destructive category 5 storms.
Whether there is definitive causality or not for the connection between human
activity and climate change, trend data support that the number of extreme weather
events is increasing in absolute terms (Peduzzi, 2005). Peduzzi notes that while the
number of earthquakes has remained relatively steady state, the number of hydrolog-
ical and meteorological events have increased substantially. The increase is partially
due to the increased development of coastal areas, but Peduzzi poses the questions
as to how much of the increase is due to development and how much is attributed to
global climate change. The increase in extreme weather events is also noted by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in which it is pointed out that
the number of hydrometeorological extreme events has doubled in the last 5 years,
while geologic hazards have remained the same (IPCC, 2002).
Extreme Weather Events and Differential Effects
No one disaster is the same as the next, with each disaster having unique impacts
based on the characteristics of the event. While there is not a unified consensus of
how events are defined, there are several ways to define the disaster in terms of gen-
eral characteristics. The disaster agents differ in terms of frequency, speed of onset,
spatial impact (scope), impact duration, and the destructive potential. Similarly there
are aspects of warning, and in some instances whether impacts can be prevented or
mitigated.
Disaster Agents and Aspects

The type of extreme weather event will have its own set of defining characteristics.
While not exhaustive, a sample list of the more common extreme weather events is
indicated in Table 4.1, with aspects of the particular disaster agent, all of which are
influenced to some degree by climate change.
The impact of a given event, in terms of lives lost and damages inflicted, will
depend more upon the location of those impacted. This will be contextual in that
it will depend on whether the event takes place in a developing area, whether any
protective actions have been taken, and the intensity of the event. With this in mind
Table 4.1 Characteristics of extreme weather events
Event type Onset Scale Duration Warning period
Flood Slower Regional Days to weeks Yes

Flash flood Rapid Local Hours No
Hurricane/cyclone Slower Regional Days Yes
Drought Slower Regional Months to years Yes
Wildfire Rapid Local/regional Days to weeks No
Heat/cold wave Rapid Regional Days to weeks Yes
it is difficult to generalize the impact of any given event. Some aspects will drive
behavior and response more than others. For example, the higher the frequency of a
type of event, the more likely there will be adaptive and mitigative behaviors on the
part of individuals and the community.
One characteristic that has held true across disasters and across cultures is the
fact that the disasters disproportionately affect the most vulnerable populations of
the community. The most vulnerable tend to have fewer resources, may have sub-
standard shelter, include the very young and the very old, and have less access to
resources needed to survive and recover following a disaster.
The same factors that create vulnerability in community populations also influ-
ence the choice of spatial location for development, often in riskier areas. Some must
live near their place of work, as in the case of fishermen living on the beach, expos-
ing themselves to tsunamis and flooding. Others might live where there is access to
resources, such as near a river, and exposed to flooding and, in some cases, land-
slides. Still others might live where the land is more affordable, perhaps at the base
of a volcano.
In each of these cases the same factors that drive vulnerability – development in
risk-prone areas, poverty, limited community resources, and other similar factors –
are also true in the understanding of climate change induced risk and extreme
weather events. Extreme weather event disasters, now on the increase, will continue
to disproportionately affect those least able to withstand their impact.
Impacts on Physical and Community Systems
Extreme weather events affect all levels of a community, from the individual and
family to and including community systems of physical and social infrastructure.
Depending on the scale of the event, it may also affect the region, state, and nation.
The effects of a disaster can vary considerably at the community level. Poorer
communities will tend to have far fewer resources to begin with, making survival
and recovery that much more difficult. These aspects are described in the follow-
ing sections that address community physical infrastructure, social systems, and
community resilience.
Effects on Community Physical Infrastructure
Core services of a community can be severely impacted by a disaster. In some cases,

cascading infrastructure failure is possible, where once powers is lost, then too is
the ability to continue water treatment, use communications technology, or operate
transportation facilities. Basic lifeline provision (power and water) may be disrupted
for weeks or destroyed completely. Extreme weather events such as hurricanes can
have an associated storm surge (water wave) of 30 feet or more, which effectively
“scours” all residential construction from the surge line (as happened in Hurricane
Katrina, or as in the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004).
Power distribution networks can be severely damaged, and restoration can take
extended periods (months to years). For poorer communities, risk to infrastructure
tends to be even higher, as infrastructure elements may meet less than desired con-
struction standards, roads and bridges may be constructed out of whatever materials
are locally available, and secondary hazards such as structural collapse and fire may
exacerbate problems in the response and recovery. Communities may not have ade-
quate resources to have warning systems in place, because of lack of community
infrastructure, communication systems, or technology.
Lack of functioning water systems may also lead to secondary hazards such as
the spread of disease and other issues in which insufficient sanitation may be evi-
dent. Clinics and other care-providing structures may have been lost in the event,
making treatment difficult without outside assistance. The scale of the event may
also have affected the community’s ability to respond with its emergency response
capabilities. Lack of communication technology can delay the ability to contact the
rest of the region or nation to request assistance and report the extent of the damage.
The loss of basic infrastructure services as the result of an extreme weather event
creates impacts beyond just the operation of community systems and directly affects
each individual and family that has survived. Individual and family impacts are dis-
cussed below. In the next section, it is noted that other basic social infrastructures
are affected by a disaster event.
Impacts on Community Social Systems
Extreme weather events not only damage physical infrastructure but also damage
and sometimes destroy basic social infrastructure systems. If school buildings are
damaged, this not only disrupts the school system but may also impact the location
and provision of shelter site services, as many schools are the designated shelter sites
in the event of a disaster. Churches, mosques, temples, and other religious buildings
may have also experienced damage, and this will impact routine community gather-
ings. The disruption is true of any community network or system of interaction, as
day-to-day routines are disrupted, and the attention is focused first on rescue, then
survival, and then the process of recovery.
In addition to community and social networks being disrupted, basic financial
transaction networks will also be impacted. In more developed areas this will mean
that banks and electronic transactions are not possible, while in other areas it will
mean the disruption of daily trade markets. If transportation hubs and access points
are inaccessible, then it becomes difficult to bring in goods and services that are
needed by the community. In some cases it is necessary to bring in supplies by
helicopter, by boat, or by foot.
For larger-scale events, communities will be without outside aid for an unknown
amount of time. If communication networks are not functioning, that gap will be
longer. If surrounding areas are equally and negatively affected, then there will
be competing needs for any outside aid, and reaching all areas in need will take
more time. The ability of a community to better withstand and be prepared for
these extreme events has been called resilience, and will be discussed in the next
section.
The idea of Community Resilience
Manyena (2006) examines the concept and evolution of the term resilience as it
applies to communities in the context of disasters and extreme events. He notes that
the term has a Latin root resilio, meaning to ‘jump back.’ More recent discussions
of the concept have used the word resilience in a similar way, identifying the capa-
bilities of a community to “bounce back” from an adverse event or disaster. The less
time it takes to restore some level of normalcy in the community, the more resilient
the community is thought to be.
There are not absolute means of measuring and identifying the qualities of
resilience. Community resilience is described in more detail in Chapter 9 of this
book. Within the framework of natural disasters, efforts are under way in many
areas of disaster research (Chang & Shinozuka, 2004, Simpson & Katirai, 2006,
Cutter et al., 2008, Simpson, 2008, Shaw, no date) to quantify such characteristics
and thereby enable approaches that can be applied in more universal settings. Often
these efforts seek to measure qualities of the community that seem to enable the
“bounce back” to occur faster or places where outside assistance can be inserted to
accomplish the same results. The wide variance in cultures, disaster impacts, and
other contextual factors makes this process difficult at best.
Approaches to understanding and promoting resilience evaluate key dimensions
of a community and its functionality: physical, social, economic, governmen-
tal/institutional, and natural environmental factors. More successful efforts build on
existing community networks and strengthen those aspects of the social capital that
would help in the aftermath of an extreme event (UNDP, 2007).
The guiding framework principles for these efforts are found in the Hyogo
Framework for Action (HFA), and the “Global Platform for Disaster Risk
Reduction” with priorities that focus on risk reduction through local community
efforts. The overall goal is to achieve “disaster resilience for vulnerable commu-
nities” (ISDR, 2007a, b). Resilience is promoted, among other efforts, through the
priority of building local understanding and awareness based on existing knowledge
and expertise that are in the community.
The concept of community resilience is crucial when considering the impacts
of extreme weather events, because it encompasses not only the built environment
and social infrastructures but is also found from within individuals and families,
and their ability to respond and recover from the stressors of a disaster event. The
Hyogo Framework addresses, in particular, the mental health outcomes of disaster:
its fourth priority includes a mandate to enhance “psychosocial training programs
to mitigate the psychological damage of vulnerable populations, particularly chil-
dren, in the aftermath of disasters.” Further, the Pan-American Health Organization
purports that “natural disasters and emergencies not only cause death physical
illness and economic loss but also seriously affect people s mental health” (Hyogo
Framework for Action, 2005–2015).
Extreme Weather Events and Impacts on Families
Natural disasters may severely disrupt relationships between family members,

including both parent–child and partner relationships. Relationship disruption can
result from physical separation or psychological stress. For example, poorly coor-
dinated evacuation can lead to separation of family members over long distances
lasting days or weeks, such as that occurred in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Even when family members continue to live together after a disaster, relationships
can become disrupted as members cope emotionally with the aftereffects of trau-
matic disaster exposure or stress related to the sequelae of a disaster. “Stress”
may be defined as a perception that events or circumstances tax or exceed one’s
resources to cope (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Victims of extreme weather-related
events frequently suffer psychological stress related to losses of loved ones, loss
of health, damage to or loss of their home, or the loss of financial and mate-
rial resources. While coping with the aftereffects of a natural disaster, parents
may have less emotional energy for their children and may experience signif-
icant psychological distress and partners may have less ability to support one
another.
Disaster-Related Stress
Weather-related disasters initiate a series of subsequent stressors that can last from
months to years (Oliver-Smith, 1998). Factors that most significantly impact symp-
tom prevalence are the proximity, duration, and intensity of disaster exposure and
the severity of losses experienced (Benedek, Fullerton, & Ursano, 2007). Families
may suffer the loss of parents or children, injury, loss of home and material pos-
sessions, change of vocation or school, loss of friends and pets, financial loss, or
relocation (Silverman & La Greca, 2002). For example, after Hurricane Katrina,
stressors suffered by families included damage to their place of residence (experi-
enced by over 90%), multiple relocations (moving occurred an average of 3.5 times
in the first year after the disaster), loss of personal belongings (63%), separation
of children from their primary caregiver (34%), seeing family members or friends
injured (21%), separation from pets (20%), and, most severe, seeing a family mem-
ber or friend killed (14%) (Osofsky & Osofsky, 2006). While traumatic exposure has
severe psychological sequelae, seemingly more innocuous stressors such as multiple
relocations frustrate the process of regaining education and employment and under-
mine the capacity of families to restore normal routines (Larrance, Anastario, &
Lawry, 2007).
Family Relationships in the Context of Disaster

Children are among the most vulnerable to disasters, as processes of mental, social,
and physical development are highly sensitive to stress. Shortly after experienc-
ing a disaster, children frequently evidence regression, behavioral difficulties, and
social withdrawal (Madrid & Grant, 2008). Many exhibit moderate PTSD symp-
toms 3–4 months after an event (Vernberg, Silverman, La Greca, & Prinstein,
1996). For some children, effects that persist for years can include depression, anx-
iety, and impaired functioning in family, school, and social environments (Lubit,
Rovine, DeFrancisci, & Eth, 2003). Orphaned children and youth are especially
at risk. Research on resilience in the face of chronic adversity suggests that chil-
dren who have a positive relationship with a competent adult fare better in the
long run (Masten, Best, & Garmezy, 1990). After the Indian Ocean tsunami of
December 2004, thousands of children were orphaned (United Nations Office for
the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2006). Family tracing and reunions can
take months after a disaster occurs. Highlighting the importance of quickly reuniting
separated families, the mere presence of a parent can shield a child from developing
mental health problems, while secure attachment with a parent may protect children
from the long-term effects of disaster-related stress.
Research shows that even very young children in secure-attachment relation-
ships readily signal their caregiver when needing attention (e.g., by crying) and
at the same time display low physiologic stress responses. In contrast, children
in insecure relationships are less likely to seek care and more likely to exhibit
physiological stress responses (Nachmias, Gunnar, Mangelsdorf, Parritz, & Buss,
1996). However, parents and partners who are suffering from their own response to
traumatic events, evacuation, relocation, loss of property, and other stressors may
perform more poorly as caregivers. Parents may have reduced abilities to attend
to and respond to children’s needs. Furthermore, parental reactions to a disaster are
models for their children’s reactions. A child’s response to disaster may be inversely
related to the availability and quality of their relationships with their parent or
caregiver.
Impacts on Individuals
Just as families and family relationships are impacted, individuals are also affected
by extreme weather events. Individuals who are particularly at risk for severe
outcomes of disasters include children, the elderly, people with ongoing medical
or psychological illness, and those with poor social support networks (Fullerton,
Fullerton, Ursano, Norwood, Holloway, 2003).
It is anticipated that climate change will lead to flooding in some areas. In 2000,
the town of Lewes in Southern England experienced severe river flooding. A cohort
study was conducted by telephone interview for new episodes of illness in all age
groups and for psychological distress in adults (Reacher et al., 2004). Two hundred
and twenty-seven residents of 103 flooded households and 240 residents of 104
nonflooded households in the same postal district were recruited by random selec-
tion. Having been flooded was associated with earache, and a significant increase
in risk of gastroenteritis with depth of flooding. Adults had a four-time higher
risk of psychological distress. Associations between flooding and new episodes
of physical illness in adults diminished after adjustment for psychological distress.
Flooding remained highly significantly associated with psychological distress after
adjustment to physical illnesses. Psychological distress may explain some of the
excess physical illness reported by flooded adults and possibly by children as well.
Policies to promote population resilience to flooding where flood prevention has
failed must include practical support for flood victims and provision of appropriate
psychological support. These results for flooding and its associations with physi-
cal illnesses affirm the need for advice and assistance with individual, household,
and environmental hygiene and access to medical services, including training of
health care professionals in concepts of mental health and psychosocial support and
in recognizing anxiety, depression, and unexplained somatic complaints that are
more common after disaster, which has also been recommended by WHO (WHO,
2008).
Immediate Physical Health Effects
Weather-related disasters can do both immediate and long-term physical harm.

Nearly one-fourth of post-disaster health complaints are acute injuries (e.g., cuts,
abrasion, sprains and strains; Freedy & Simpson, 2007). In a review of the Kobe
and Northridge earthquakes, Lowder (1995) found that two of the most common
conditions requiring treatment in the first day following the earthquake were lac-
erations (45%) and fractures/dislocations (11%). These immediate impacts can
create additional stress and hinder response and recovery efforts, as those affected
seek treatment or find themselves incapacitated. There are conflicted data as to
whether immediate medical attention significantly affects survival rates (the so-
called “golden hour”) following injury (Lerner & Moscati, 2008). Regardless of
the fatality rates, however, injuries require attention and can reduce mobility and
functionality of those injured and render them less able to tend to those not able to
care for themselves, such as the very young and elderly.
Mental Health Effects of Disaster
Psychological symptoms that emerge during the days or weeks following disas-
ter can take months or years to dissipate. Some disaster victims develop chronic
mental health problems such as posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, or anxiety
(Vernberg et al., 1996). It is noteworthy that chronic PTSD has also been associated
with increased risk for suicide, substance abuse, aggressive and violent behaviors,
interpersonal problems, vocational difficulties, and health concerns (Brown, 2005).
PTSD rates after the 2005 tsunami in Thailand were elevated among victims who
experienced a delayed evacuation, felt that that their own or a family member’s life
was in danger, or who felt extreme fear or panic (Warunee et al., 2006).
It has been noted that psychological functioning following disaster should be
globally assessed rather than limited simply to PTSD assessment. Other psycholog-
ical stress reactions, however, are not always considered (Silverman & La Greca,
2002). Persistent anxiety and fear may be linked with the nature of disaster, espe-
cially among children (Vogel & Vernberg, 1993; Silverman & La Greca, 2002).
Among children and adolescents assessed 2 months following the 2005 tsunami in
Thailand, levels of depression were positively correlated with displacement after
the tsunami. Depressive symptoms were also associated with feelings that one’s
own or family members’ lives were in danger during the disaster (Warunee et al.,
2006).
In children, short-term responses to disaster may include developmental regres-
sion, clinging behavior, aggressiveness, inattentiveness, bed-wetting (in young
children), somatic complaints, irritability, social withdrawal, and frequent crying
(Madrid, Grant, Reilly, & Redlener, 2006). A survey conducted within a year after
Hurricane Katrina determined that more than half of the children in affected areas in
New Orleans needed mental health referrals for evaluation and almost 40% reported
feeling depressed, angry, or sad (Osofsky & Osofsky, 2006).
Long-Term Effects of Psychological Distress on Physical Health
Disaster-related psychological distress (e.g., PTSD, anxiety, depression) predis-

poses victims for subsequent physical health problems and somatic symptoms
(Friedman & McEwen, 2004). PTSD is predictive of higher rates of subsequent
medical illness including reproductive, metabolic, and immunological problems
(Friedman & McEwen, 2004). Furthermore, up to one-half of all visits to primary
care physicians are attributable to conditions that are caused or exacerbated by
mental or emotional problems.
Disaster exposure can impact long-term physical health in a way that is not
explained by the event itself. Mental states such as anxiety and depression can man-
ifest biologically as alterations of activity in brain circuits related to threatening
situations. Repeated stress response activation may damage these neural structures
(Sapolsky, 1996) and the physiological stress responses they activate (McEwen,
2008). In particular, the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system or
sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA)
axis comprise the two major stress response pathways. These systems respond to
a novel acute stressor, such as a disaster often presents, to coordinate the “fight or
flight” response that mobilizes energy and acuity to meet the demands of a physi-
cal stressor. The body does not discriminate physical from psychological stressors,
however. Initial physiological responses tend to help a person respond to the phys-
ical demands of an earthquake, flood, or severe weather. In contrast, frequent and
repeated traumatic memories of an event activate the same stress responses even
when no physical demand is present.
Both the HPA and sympathetic nervous systems regulate immune function.
Glucocorticoids such as cortisol have multiple modulatory effects on immune func-
tion (Webster, Elenkov, & Chrousos, 1997). Chronic stress-related HPA activation
may favor inflammatory processes (Elenkov & Chrousos, 1999). Thus, endocrine
stress hormones can increase systemic low-grade, or “background,” inflammation,
which has recently been shown to predispose for a number of diseases including car-
diovascular illnesses in adults (Elhajj, Haydar, Hujairi, & Goldsmith, 2004; Feigin,
Anderson, & Mhurchu, 2002). Suppression of certain other aspects of immune func-
tioning is common after a disaster. For example, a review of 177 articles on disaster
research that included over 60,000 respondents reported that over 25% of disaster
victims experience a decline in immune system functioning, in particular cellular
immunity, after a disaster (Norris et al., 2002). This decline in immune functioning
may result in a higher number of self-reported somatic complaints and an increase
in the number of days taken in sick leave.
Differential Physical and Psychosocial effects on Vulnerable

Populations
It is clear that when determining who are most vulnerable to psychosocial impacts
of climate change, research on disaster intervention has identified groups to be at
greater risk including children, the elderly, rural and urban poor, racial and ethnic
minorities, those with a previous history of emotional disability, and, in general,
those with a marginalized pre-disaster existence (Gheytanchi et al., 2007; Bourque
et al., 2006)
Health Effects (Mental/Physical) Among Low-Income Disaster

Victims
One of the critical issues in the understanding of the effects of extreme events is the
manner in which low-income or poverty-level populations are affected. Disasters
disproportionately affect those who are most vulnerable due to poor health, low
socioeconomic status, and advanced age. Such disaster victims are often the most
vulnerable to injury because they are typically dependent on others to care for them
in day-to-day environments, and then especially so during a disaster (Freedy and
Simpson, 2007).
In their analysis of Hurricane Katrina, Gheytanchi et al. (2007, p. 124) found
disproportionate impacts on the poor, largely black communities of New Orleans’s
Ninth Ward. As a group, these residents lacked access to quality education, hous-
ing, and employment opportunities available in surrounding communities. There
were also issues of basic resource availability in terms of housing, transportation,
and evacuation information prior to, and during, the storm. The lack of essential
resources, shelter, transportation, and information led to higher rates of fatality,

injury, and damage to property among poor black communities. In short, evacuation
plans relied on resources not available to these residents. Race and socioeconomic
factors must be considered in disaster response plans and, importantly, must also be
considered in psychological response and prevention efforts.
Health Effects on Disaster Victims by Ethnicity

A review of the literature on cultural aspects of mental health during national
and international disaster responses (for an overview of issues, see Marsella and
Christopher, 2004) reveals not only some commonality in mental health problems
including the expected problems of anxiety, depression, acute stress reactions, and
PTSD but also some variations in the definitions and meanings of disasters and vari-
ations in symptomatology and culture-specific expressions of distress. Although the
need for cultural sensitivities among those providing mental health services fol-
lowing disasters has been recognized and encouraged, it remains largely an ideal
rather than a reality. Disaster events point toward the need for additional research
as well as practice guides and clinical recommendations to increase future cul-
tural competency in disasters. This is especially the case in international setting
and humanitarian crises (described in more detail in Chapter 6).
Health Effects on Children and Elderly Disaster Victims
The most vulnerable among the population are those that already receive some level
of routine care but, in an extreme event, require complete care such as the elderly
and children. Bourque et al. (2006) examined the physical and mental health effects
of Hurricane Katrina and found that elderly people were substantially overrepre-
sented among the dead. They also reported that the preexisting circumstances of the
evacuees made them particularly vulnerable to a high level of psychological distress
that was exacerbated by severe disaster exposure and lack of economic and social
resources.
The elderly as a vulnerable population will continue to increase in the future.
Hobbs and Stoops (2002) note that the proportion of older residents (above 65) and
very old residents (above 85) is expected to rise in the coming decades. The propor-
tion of the senior population in the very old category is growing quickly. Between
1960 and 2000, the number of those above 85 grew 274%, compared to the entire
U.S. population, which grew only 45% (Hobbs & Stoops, 2002). Advancing age
can be expected to be accompanied by multiple chronic illnesses that may result in
increased vulnerability to infectious disease or external/environmental stresses, such
as extreme heat. These issues, combined with poverty, may add to this vulnerability
(Miller, 2007).
At the other end of the age spectrum we find that the young are also at risk.
Disasters can have profound and long-lasting negative psychological sequels for
children. Mental health problems can emerge during the days or weeks following
disaster and can take months or years to dissipate. Some studies have reported that
60% of children and 39% of adults were still suffering from some form of PTSD
symptoms 2.5 years after a natural disaster (Norris et al., 2002). It is noteworthy
that chronic PTSD has been associated with increased risk for suicide, substance
abuse, aggressive and violent behaviors, interpersonal problems, vocational diffi-
culties, long-term changes in brain structure and function, and health problems later
in life (Brown, 2005). A growing body of research suggests that children are also at
greater risk than adults to develop serious health impairments after experiencing a
major disaster (Norris et al., 2002), possibly due to lasting effects of disaster-related
stressors on stress responses systems.
Health Effects in Developing Nations
It is usually the case that extreme events and disasters in developing countries will
result in higher death rates and more destruction than similar events in developed
nations. Among the approximate 600,000 worldwide deaths from weather-related
natural disasters in the 1990s, 95% occurred in developing countries (World Health
Organization, 2003). Factors contributing to increased risk in such countries include
structural vulnerabilities, inadequate resources for disaster response, unfavorable
socioeconomic and political conditions, inadequate perception of disaster risk
and preparedness, and population density in urban areas (Inter-Agency Standing
Committee, 2007; Hoyois, Scheuren, Below, & Sapir, 2007; Palakudiyil & Todd,
2003).
Individuals who experience a disaster in a developing country are at high risk
for developing psychological pathology such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD.
For example, a study following the 1998 Armenian earthquake reported that 72%
of children who experienced the earthquake were suffering from PTSD symptoms
several months after the event (Grigorian, 1992). A lower prevalence was reported
studies conducted in rural India, where 23% of children who experienced the disas-
ter met criteria for PTSD months after the event (Sharan, Chaudhary, Kavathekar, &
Saxena, 1996), and in Poland where 18% of adolescents met PTSD criteria 2.5
years after a flood (Bokszczanin, 2007). However, it should be noted that those
figures should be interpreted with caution. Research conducted by scientists from
developed nations, who apply their methods of measurement with unknown psy-
chometric properties in different cultural settings, is frequently invalid and can
lead to misleading conclusions. These studies point to the need for additional
research and appropriately tailored intervention to reduce the incidence of post-
disaster pathologies and better understand culture-specific expression of distress
after disaster.
Recommendations for Research
Models, Procedures, and Measurement

Disaster victims display both psychological and physiological stress responses
after disaster, which can impact development and health. Therefore, the use
of multimodal (qualitative, interview, self-report, and physiological) assessments
should be encouraged in research and practice. Studies of the biological pathways
by which disaster may affect health are especially lacking. Longitudinal studies that
track disaster victims would provide additional insight into the benefit of inter-
vention and treatment strategies. Studies need to address the complexity of these
effects, with multidisciplinary teams that can examine and explore the impact of
an event, as well as evaluate what interventions are appropriate and more or less
effective.
Culture-specific expressions of distress and common presenting symptoms such
as unexplained somatic complaints are often not captured with traditional psycho-
metric instruments. Strategies, tools, and techniques need to be evaluated for their
cultural context, and a critical examination of proposed solutions should be under-
taken to ensure an overall framework and specific set of interventions are culturally
sensitive and ethical.
Research on Policy and Practice
As described in the prior sections, extreme events and disasters cause damage and
disruption from the individual to the collective community level. As climate change
continues to influence the rate of extreme events, it will be critical to understand the
policy and practice needs as we seek to plan for, respond to, and hopefully mitigate
against the effects of disasters. To better prepare for events globally will require
additional research on how we understand the differential effects on populations
that are more vulnerable, less resourced, and disadvantaged before the event occurs.
More robust measurement methodologies and metrics are needed to understand
where in the physical and social infrastructure systems changes in practice are nec-
essary and appropriate. To know where resources can have the most beneficial effect
for preventing harm, either at the individual, family or community level, requires a
better understanding of how the event disruptions affect social networks and indi-
vidual and family dynamics. This kind of research is more interdisciplinary and
holistic than what has traditionally taken place and will require new collaborations
and nontraditional funding sources.
At the core of this research is the desire to create communities, families, and
individuals that are more “resilient.” While resilient is a term that is now more and
more common, there is still little consensus regarding how one defines this concept,
or, more importantly, how one moves a community system from a lower level of
resiliency to a measurably higher level. The United Nations’ working definition of
resilience incorporates a capability for learning from experience: “The capacity of a

system, community or society potentially exposed to hazards to adapt, by resisting
or changing in order to reach and maintain an acceptable level of functioning and
structure. This is determined by the degree to which the social system is capable
of organizing itself to increase this capacity for learning from past disasters for
better future protection and to improve risk reduction measures” (UN/International
Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR), Geneva, 2004).
Research on social systems needs to address the most vulnerable segments of
communities worldwide: the very old, the very young, the poor and the disenfran-
chised. More focused research is needed to understand the investment potential
for improving social capital resources in a community versus the paradigm of
structural solutions, or trying to “build” one’s way out of a disaster. The goal is
to create more adaptive communities, creating inherent resilience among commu-
nity residents rather than an expectation that recovery will come from outside the
community.
Recommendations for Practice
Definitive attribution of natural disasters to human effects on climate change versus

natural causes is difficult. Despite the actual cause of a disaster, the most consequen-
tial issue with regard to mental health effects among victims is the public perception
of human cause. Because man-made disasters do not elicit the same level of com-
munity response, insufficient tangible support for victims of man-made disaster may
predispose for worse mental and physical health outcomes. On a personal level, the
grieving of disaster-related loss is likely to be complicated by feelings of anger, frus-
tration, or resentment directed at the human causes of the event. While Hurricane
Katrina was difficult to clearly attribute to human causes/climate change, the fail-
ure of levys to hold back the subsequent floodwaters elicited anger and complicated
grief for victims. Because perception of human contribution to the cause of climate
change–induced disasters is likely to affect mental health outcomes, victim’s per-
ceptions regarding cause should be considered as a possible indicator of long-term
well-being in both research and practice settings.
Community-Based Models of Preparedness
The key to resilient communities will come from the strengths and capabilities of
the local residents themselves. In the Japan and the U.S., a model has evolved that
is based on the expectation that the local residents will be prepared to deal with
the impact of an extreme event, without external aid coming for days or weeks. The
framework is called Community Emergency Response Teams or CERT. These orga-
nizations have been proven to be effective in preparing communities and individuals
and assisting with response and recovery efforts once a disaster has taken place
(Simpson, 2000, 2001; Flint & Brennan, 2006). The basic principles recognize that
there are latent capabilities of the local population, and that if given the opportunity
to receive basic training and information, it would make them more effective first
responders.
Needs in Developing Countries
As noted by the ISDR (2009), not only will there be an increase in climate hazards
but also “it will likely lead to other changes such as ecosystem degradation, reduced
availability of water and food, and changes to livelihoods, that will increase the vul-
nerability of communities to natural hazards. Developing countries will be hardest
hit by the increasing disaster risk. . .” (ISDR, 2009, p. 1). It will be vitally impor-
tant to produce some “exemplary practice” guides, and the production of assistance
that will not only mitigate future hazards as part of development but also reduce
the exposure of vulnerable populations. An example of this kind of effort is seen
in the ISDR publication “Applying Disaster Risk Reduction for Climate Change
Adaptation: Country Practices and Lessons” where brief descriptions of projects,
partnerships and processes are provide in the countries of India, Peru, Samoa,
Vietnam, South Africa, and the U.K. (ISDR, 2009). The six examples underscore
the need to build collaborative efforts and target the risks and specific needs of the
local communities.
Individual and Family Support Needs
The existing empirical literature strongly suggests that stressful events such as dis-
asters may have both short- and long-term biological consequences, with possible
wide-ranging effects. After weather-related disasters, victims are often confronted
with additional and cumulative stressors that lead to feelings of loss of control
and thereby continue to activate psychological and physiological stress responses.
Recent data collected after Hurricane Katrina show that parents suffer greater
distress if the family needs for help continue to be unmet years after the event
(Kilmer & Gil-Rivas, 2010). Thus, simply improving tangible support could
facilitate better adjustment among families by reducing parent’s distress.
Disasters have different phases, including pre-impact, impact, recoil, postimpact,
and recovery and reconstruction (La Greca, Vernberg, & Roberts, 2002). Evidence
suggests that events during the impact phase account for much of post-disaster
symptomatology, and interventions to limit psychological harm in this period are
critical (Silverman & La Greca, 2002). It is important to note, however, that it is
difficult to distinguish who will develop more chronic psychological problems dur-
ing the impact phase, as most individuals will experience significant distress. This
is considered a normal reaction to an abnormal event and should not be patholo-
gized. It has been recommended that first responders and health care staff should
be trained in basic principles of psychological first aid (PFA), which is a basic way
of providing compassionate support with the goal of meeting the most immediate
needs (IASC, 2007). Yet, the initial focus is often on search and rescue, medical
treatment, and food and shelter. It would be important to consider issues of mental
health and psychosocial support as part of disaster preparedness (e.g., by training
response workers in PFA). Given the effects described in this review, it is apparent
that more resources and attention need to be focused on alleviating psychological
and biological stress reactions.
Organizing support groups for caregivers can help parents engage in problem
solving, share their concerns, and receive social support from others. The data on
effects of chaotic homes and nonresponsive parenting are relevant and suggest that
tangible support for parents during disaster response, in particular, support that sta-
bilizes routines in the home and frees parental time and attention to be focused on
children’s needs, may help protect children from impacts on social development.
Conclusion
This chapter has identified a sample of the effects that increased extreme weather
effects can have on all sectors of our communities, with effects ranging from direct
infrastructure losses, to physical harm, to mental health effects, both short and long
term. We have also identified places where additional research is clearly needed,
as are revisions in our approach to practice and intervention at individual and all
community levels. Beyond these identified issues, it is important to point out three
additional points in closing.
First, extreme weather events exist in a gray area when it comes to the attribu-
tion of blame for the event. On the one hand, it is a natural event. On the other
hand, if attributed to global warming, the increase and severity of the events are
attributable to human-induced climate change. For victims of natural disaster, sub-
jective appraisal of human cause of the event may have much to do with the degree
of resulting mental distress.
Second, while these extreme weather events have differential onset and impacts
as described in prior sections, their mental health effects may all be chronic and last
far beyond the even the recovery phase of the event. Whether a drought or hurricane,
the mental health effects can last months to years as the events themselves tend to
initiate a series of emotional stressors, relocation, loss of loved ones, or educational
and vocational opportunities.
Third, there is increasing understanding that efforts across the spectrum of
community, family, and individuals and across physical and social networks and
infrastructure systems must be approached in a more interdisciplinary and holis-
tic manner. More importantly, we must look for ways in which we can draw on
existing and latent social capital and resources of the local community and find
ways to leverage those strengths with interventions that can have exponentially pos-
itive effects on the individual and the community. For example, there is promising
research on the positive mental and physical health benefits of supportive social
networks (Kawachi & Berkman, 2001; Uchino, Cacioppo, Kiecolt-Glaser, 1996;
Cohen, 2004). These findings suggest high promise for disaster interventions aimed
at the family and community level, especially with regard to beneficial effects on
broader and long-term mental and physical health outcomes.
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Chapter 5
Humanitarian Crises: The Need for Cultural
Competence and Local Capacity Building
Inka Weissbecker and Jennifer Czincz
Climate Change and Humanitarian Crises
Humanitarian Crises
Humanitarian crises are already causing significant suffering in many regions
throughout the world, and climate change is likely to worsen the problem. With
rising temperatures, climate scientists predict an increase in droughts and floods,
as well as more severe tropical storms and other adverse weather events such as
heat waves (IPCC, 2007). Such extreme weather events can manifest as natural dis-
asters, which are defined as causing a “serious disruption of the functioning of a
community or a society causing widespread human, material, economic or envi-
ronmental losses which exceed the ability of the affected community or society to
cope using its own resources” (International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction,
2004). Humanitarian emergencies, on the other hand, are characterized by additional
factors such as the need for external assistance, risks of ongoing excess deaths,
diseases, and malnutrition (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
(OCHA), 1999). Complex humanitarian emergencies can result from additional fac-
tors such as ongoing armed conflict, leading to extensive violence and loss of life,
massive displacement of people, widespread damage to societies and economies,
the need for large-scale, multifaceted humanitarian assistance, as well as hindrance
to such assistance by political and military constraints and security risks to relief
workers (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 1999). The
extent of humanitarian emergencies can be measured using rates of mortality, mal-
nutrition, and diseases (e.g. measles, cholera, diarrhea), as well as by the breakdown
of governmental structures and human rights abuses (Toole & Waldman, 1990). An
increase in humanitarian crises has been recognized as yet another likely result of
climate change, with the international and humanitarian communities working on
J. Czincz (B)
Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
e-mail: jennifer.czincz@yale.edu


80 I. Weissbecker and J. Czincz
identifying areas of high risk, adaptation mechanisms, and responses. Issues of men-
tal health and psychosocial well-being have received increasing consideration in the
area of humanitarian crises, which also has implications in the context of climate
change. The goal of this chapter is threefold: to provide a framework for conceptu-
alizing vulnerability at the individual, community, and country levels; to shed light
on important challenges and cross-cultural considerations in the humanitarian field;
and to explore ways in which psychologists and mental health professionals can
contribute to responding to humanitarian crises, promoting adaptation, and building
the evidence base for effective intervention.
The Interaction Between Hazards and Vulnerabilities

Climate change has been conceptualized to result in humanitarian crises through the
interaction of two factors: the direct effects of weather-related phenomenon called
“hazards” and the underlying vulnerability of the affected population (Schneider
et al., 2007; Thow & de Blois, 2008). Direct effects of climate change relevant
to humanitarian crises include the climate hazards of floods, droughts, and tropi-
cal cyclones (Thow & de Blois, 2008). Underlying vulnerabilities can be divided
into five groups, which include natural (e.g. availability of water, agriculture),
human (e.g. poverty and health), social (e.g. governance, conflict risk, displace-
ment), financial (GDP), and physical (e.g. road and communication infrastructure)
vulnerabilities (Thow & de Blois, 2008). The combination of hazards and vulner-
abilities increases the risk of harmful consequences such as deaths, injuries, losses
of property and livelihoods, disrupted economic activities, and damaged environ-
ments (Thow & de Blois, 2008). Vulnerabilities can be present at the individual,
community, and country levels.
At the country level, underlying vulnerabilities encompass the lack of finan-
cial resources, weak or undemocratic governance, and widespread poverty and
health problems, which already co-occur in many regions of the world, includ-
ing several areas in Africa and Central and South Asia. It is notable that many of
the countries that are less developed and more vulnerable both economically and
politically are the very same areas that are being more profoundly affected by cli-
mate change. Indeed, a report commissioned by the Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs and other organizations has identified several countries and
regions as “risk hot spots,” which have the combination of high climate hazard
risk and high underlying vulnerability (as defined by the five factors named pre-
viously). These areas include Africa (e.g. sub-Saharan Africa, Central Africa and
Southeast Africa, the Great Lakes region, and Madagascar); Central, South, and
Southeast Asia (e.g. Afghanistan, Pakistan, parts of India, Bangladesh, Myanmar,
Vietnam, and Indonesia); Central America; and the western part of South America
(see Fig. 5.1). Many of these regions are at risk for more than one climate hazard and
rank low on human development indices. The risk for humanitarian emergencies is
also compounded by increasing population density in South and Southeast Asia, as
well as by risks for armed conflict in South Asia and parts of Central and East Africa
5 Humanitarian Crises: The Need for Cultural Competence and Local Capacity. . . 81
Map 13:
Fig. 5.1 Humanitarian risk hotspots. Source: Thow and de Blois (2008)
(Thow & de Blois, 2008). As discussed in more detail in Chapter 8, climate change
may increase the risk of conflict and further destabilize vulnerable regions, driven
by factors such as resource scarcity, mass migration, and increased dissatisfaction
with weak or nondemocratic governance (Smith & Vivekananda, 2007). The risk
of armed conflict can be exacerbated by environmental events such as droughts, for
example, which could result in complex and protracted emergencies (Thow & de
Blois, 2008). It has been noted by several authors that those living in developing
countries will likely bear the brunt of disasters and humanitarian crises related to
climate change. Indeed, between 1990 and 1998, 97% of all deaths resulting from
natural disasters occurred in developing countries (Strachan, 2006).
Vulnerabilities also apply at the community and individual levels. Communities
with fewer resources situated in disaster-prone areas (e.g. low-lying areas, slums)
are at increased risk for being affected by climate hazards and adverse consequences
such as displacement, further poverty, and disease (Thow & de Blois, 2008). Specific
subgroups such as women, children, the elderly, those with preexisting disabilities,
marginalized groups, and those living in poverty are similarly at a higher risk during
disasters and often constitute disproportionate numbers of victims (Douglas et al.,
2008; Thow & de Blois, 2008). Differences in vulnerabilities therefore occur both
between and within countries, which has consequences for disadvantaged groups
even in wealthier nations. Hurricane Katrina in the United States, for example,
had a disproportionate effect on the poor and on African Americans (Atkins &
Moy, 2005). When considering the risk for developing mental health problems fol-
lowing disasters and crises, vulnerable groups similarly include children, women,
the elderly, the poor, racial and ethnic minorities, marginalized groups, and those
with a previous history of severe stressors or mental disorders (Norris et al., 2002).
It seems likely that the complex interaction between extreme weather events and
underlying vulnerabilities can further exacerbate preexisting inequalities between
countries, communities, and individuals. Mental health problems are relevant in
this context since they can contribute to underlying vulnerabilities or result from
humanitarian crises.
The Role of Mental Health and Psychosocial Well-Being
Mental Health Problems as an Underlying Vulnerability
Health has been recognized by humanitarian organizations as one of the five key
underlying vulnerabilities contributing to the risk for adverse consequences due
to humanitarian crises related to climate change. However, health in this context
refers to physical (e.g. prevalence of HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, and undernutri-
tion) but not mental health conditions (Thow & de Blois, 2008). The World Health
Organization has only recently released a report recognizing people with mental
health problems as a vulnerable population (World Health Organization, 2010).
Those suffering from preexisting mental health problems are especially vulnerable
to the harmful consequences of humanitarian crises (Jones et al., 2009). Individuals
with severe mental disorders may be abandoned or mistreated by their families
when leaving their residences as a result of climate hazards or conflict (i.e., tied
to trees, chained, kept in cages; Jones et al., 2009). Even the mentally ill who are
taken to refugee camps typically do not have access to the facilities and staff needed
to provide adequate care and medication (Jones et al., 2009). This vulnerability is
compounded by the fact that mental health and psychosocial programs that are set
up during humanitarian crises are often narrowly focused on “trauma” and PTSD,
leaving other mental health problems untreated (Jones et al., 2009).
Furthermore, mental health problems are correlated with many of the same
underlying vulnerabilities that increase the adverse impact of climate change and
humanitarian crises. Specifically, factors such as poverty, low education, politi-
cal insecurity, and social exclusion have also been associated with higher rates of
mental health problems (Patel, Araya, de Lima, Ludermir, & Todd, 1999; World
Health Organization, 2008). On the one hand, mental illness can contribute to fur-
ther vulnerability such as poor physical health and lower economic productivity.
Depression, for example, has been associated with decreased adherence to HIV
and tuberculosis regimens, while maternal depression has been linked with child
undernutrition and poor child growth (Patel, DeSouza, & Rodrigues, 2003; Rahman,
Patel, Maselko, & Kirkwood, 2008). On the other hand, diseases such as HIV have
been linked with subsequent psychosocial difficulties (Collins, Holman, Freeman,
& Patel, 2006). Mental health problems can therefore result from underlying
vulnerabilities as well as contribute to and create new vulnerabilities to the effects

of climate change in humanitarian settings. Yet, much of the projected humanitarian
impact of climate change will occur in developing countries that already have a weak
health infrastructure and even fewer mental health services. Low-income countries
have 0.05 psychiatrists and 0.16 psychiatric nurses per 100,000 people, compared
to 200 times more in high-income countries (World Health Organization, 2005a)
(see Fig. 5.2). The World Health Organization estimates that 76–85% of serious
mental health cases in less-developed countries have received no treatment in the
previous 12 months (World Health Organization, 2008). Mental health remains one
of the most underfunded areas of health care, especially in low-resource settings,
and there is a large gap between what is needed and what is available (Inter-Agency
Standing Committee, 2007; World Health Organization, 2008). The World Health
Organization has identified countries that currently have a high burden of mental,
neurological, and substance use disorders, few mental health professionals, and a
low GDP (World Health Organization, 2008). Several of those countries have also
been designated humanitarian climate change “hotspots,” including countries in
Africa (e.g. Burundi, DRC, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Djibouti), Asia (e.g. Afghanistan,
Bangladesh, India, Indonesia), the Americas (e.g. Haiti), and Eastern Europe (e.g.
Azerbaijan).
Mental Health Problems as Consequence of Humanitarian Crises
Individuals affected by humanitarian crises frequently suffer various severe and

interrelated stressors such as losing their home, livelihoods, material belongings,
and community or social support systems. They may also witness horrific events
and atrocities and lose loved ones, become separated from family members, and
suffer physical assault, gender-based violence, or severe malnutrition (Inter-Agency
Standing Committee, 2007). Children and youth may become orphaned or sepa-
rated, which puts them at increased risk for living on the streets, human trafficking,
Fig. 5.2 Number of psychiatrists per 100,000 population. Source: World Health Organization,
2005a
exploitation, dangerous or forced labor, undernutrition, or being abducted into

armed groups (Inter-Agency Standing Committee, 2007). Such severe events and
chronic stressors can cause significant suffering among the affected population. The
majority of individuals experience acute symptoms of distress that resolve without
intervention, while others may develop more long-standing mental health difficul-
ties (Inter-Agency Standing Committee, 2007). As will be discussed later in this
chapter, it is difficult to estimate the impact of humanitarian crises on mental health,
as many existing studies in this area suffer from methodological limitations that
do not give due consideration to culturally shaped local expressions of distress. The
World Health Organization estimates that in humanitarian emergencies, the percent-
age of people with a severe mental disorder increases by 1% over the baseline of
2–3%, while mild or moderate mental disorders such as PTSD or depression may
increase by 5–10% above estimated baseline of 10% (World Health Organization,
2005b). The link between mental health problems and acute weather disasters (i.e.,
floods, cyclones) has been established to a much greater extent than more chronic
climate-related problems such as droughts, which can also turn into humanitar-
ian crises (Berry et al., 2008). Some research suggests that acute disasters tend
to be related to more rapid-onset difficulties such as traumatic stress and anxiety
reactions, while slow-onset hazards such as droughts tend to result in more help-
lessness, depression, ongoing emotional distress, and generalized anxiety (Coelho,
Adair, & Morcellin, 2004). The experience of humanitarian crises and large-scale
disasters such as flooding and tropical storms has been associated with an increased
incidence of depression, PTSD and other anxiety disorders, substance abuse, sui-
cide, and somatic complaints (Ahern, Kovats, Wilkinson, Few, & Matthies, 2005;
Inter-Agency Standing Committee, 2007; Norris et al., 2002). Children may display
behavioral problems, aggression, bed-wetting, or increased anxiety (Durkin, Khan,
Davidson, Zaman, & Stein, 1993; Inter-Agency Standing Committee, 2007; Norris
et al., 2002). Severe droughts have the potential of leading to famine and malnu-
trition, which can have especially severe impacts on children. Prenatal, postnatal,
and childhood malnutrition have been associated with lower cognitive function-
ing and behavioral problems such as ADHD among children (Galler & Barrett,
2001). Prenatal exposure to famine and malnutrition may also increase the risk for
the development of conduct disorder, antisocial personality disorder (Neugebauer,
Hoek, & Susser, 1999), and schizophrenia (Song, Wang, & Hu, 2009; St Clair
et al., 2005). Such mental and behavioral problems can persist into adulthood and
can have implications for long-term development and educational and occupational
achievement. It has been estimated that a large drought in Zimbabwe, for example,
contributed to a loss of 7–12% of lifetime earnings for the children who suffered
from malnutrition (Alderman, Hoddinott, & Kinsey, 2003).
Mental health and behavioral problems not only cause significant human suffer-
ing but further increase indicators of human vulnerability such as lower economic
productivity, poverty, and poor health. It has been recognized that mental health
problems can negatively impact recovery efforts as well as social and economic
development of communities after humanitarian crises (Baingana, Bannonb, &
Thomas, 2005). Health problems associated with psychological stress and mental
illness include cardiovascular, metabolic, central nervous system, gastrointestinal,
reproductive, and immunological problems that may lead to increased disease sus-
ceptibility (McEwen, 1997; Reacher et al., 2004). Depression and substance use
disorders also adversely affect adherence to treatment for other diseases such as
HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (World Health Organization, 2008). Those suffering
from mental health and behavioral problems are also at a higher risk for violence
and injuries (World Health Organization, 2008).
In sum, mental health, psychosocial and behavioral problems are relevant in
understanding and projecting the impact of climate change on humanitarian crises.
First, individuals with preexisting mental health problems are more vulnerable to
the adverse effects of humanitarian crises such as death, injury, and human rights
abuses. Second, mental health and behavioral problems are both causes and effects
of other underlying human vulnerabilities such as poverty and poor health. Third,
humanitarian crises can have profound impacts on mental health and psychosocial
well-being, which can further increase vulnerability and reduce prospects for social
and economic recovery and development. Lastly, it should be noted that many of the
countries identified as “hotspots” that are at risk for humanitarian crises due to cli-
mate change are the same countries that already suffer from higher rates of mental
health problems and weak mental health infrastructure. Together, these points con-
fer a strong imperative for action among the mental health community to join the
dialogue on climate change and to advocate for the inclusion of mental health and
psychosocial factors in relevant projections, research, and allocation of resources.
However, in order to do this effectively, several important challenges in this field
should be considered.
Challenges and Cross-Cultural Considerations
Providing Humanitarian Assistance

The term “humanitarian assistance” defines interventions aimed at meeting imme-
diate and basic needs of populations affected by crises and conflict. Such needs
fall into categories such as water and sanitation, food and nutrition, shelter, settle-
ment, and nonfood items as well as health services. It has been projected that climate
change could increase humanitarian costs anywhere between 32% (57 million USD)
and 1600% (2.7. billion USD, when criteria such as climate hazard intensity are
taken into account) by 2030 (Webster, Ginnetti, Walker, Coppard, & Kent, 2008).
However, humanitarian spending typically falls short of covering the true cost of
humanitarian emergencies, which include all direct losses (i.e. economic, physical,
human) as well as indirect effects (i.e. lost income or productivity, greater national
debt or inflation, and a decreased focus on prevention efforts in favor of emergency
relief) (Schipper & Pelling, 2006).
Providing humanitarian assistance has become more dangerous over the years,
as humanitarian emergencies tend to occur in areas of political instability or armed
conflict. Furthermore, the nature of humanitarian relief has changed over the past
decades, as most conflicts do not occur between but within weakened or col-
lapsed states (Burkle, 1999), and climate change may further reinforce this trend.
Humanitarian aid workers are increasingly targeted by armed groups and face signif-
icant security threats and problems of accessing affected populations and providing
services in insecure, disrupted, and remote settings (Sheik et al., 2000). Acute
humanitarian crises often turn into prolonged emergencies in large geographical
areas with ongoing difficulties arising from instability, mass migration, lack of
accountability, and human rights abuses. It has been shown that disasters and crises
that are acute and receive significant attention from the media also tend to receive
the most humanitarian assistance (Brownscombe, 2005). However, two of the three
types of climate hazards that may lead to humanitarian crises, droughts and floods
(as opposed to tropical storms) are likely to have a slower onset and a more chronic
course, which may make them invisible to the general public. Humanitarian needs
arising from the effects of climate change are likely to be complex. Addressing men-
tal health and psychosocial issues in this context should take such complexities into
account and occur in coordination with the affected population, governments, and
the humanitarian and development communities.
Assessment and Intervention

The assessment of mental health and psychosocial issues as well as the design
and implementation of programs in humanitarian contexts is ripe with contro-
versy and criticisms, which have explored the assessment, validity, and treatment
of mental health problems as well as their historical, cultural, and sociopolitical
contexts (Pupavac, 2004; Summerfield, 1999). Short-lived interventions that are
implemented in response to humanitarian crises by mainly Western mental health
professionals, and that solely focus on problems of stress and trauma resulting from
the current crisis, have been criticized as inappropriate for several reasons, and
they often do not take the perceived needs of affected populations into account.
Humanitarian crises do not occur in a vacuum but within a framework of previ-
ous stressors and vulnerabilities as well as subsequent difficulties and events. As
mentioned previously, mental health problems are often closely tied to underlying
economic difficulties, political instability, social marginalization, and poor overall
health (Nordanger, 2007; Summerfield, 1999). Communities may perceive other
problems and daily stressors such as poverty and domestic or community violence
as more pressing than specific events considered “traumatic” by Western aid work-
ers (Miller, Kulkarni, & Kushner, 2006; Summerfield, 1999). Focusing solely on
mental health effects of one “traumatic event” (e.g. a flood or a storm) may also
not capture complexities of prior stressful experiences and future stressors of pro-
tracted humanitarian crises. Research suggests that current difficulties such as poor
social support or stigmatization can be stronger predictors of mental health problems
such as depression than past traumatic experiences of atrocities (Gorst-Unsworth &
Goldenberg, 1998).
Humanitarian crises do not only occur within the context of various prior and
future stressors, but are also experienced and perceived by individuals and commu-
nities within specific cultural frameworks. Western assumptions about the extent and
type of suffering and mental illness or about the etiology, assessment, and treatment
of mental health problems therefore require critical examination. Historically, clin-
icians, researchers, and humanitarian workers have often worked under the premise
that everyone exposed to a “traumatic event” or a “critical incident” was in need
of intervention, and whole groups and populations were assumed to be “trauma-
tized” (Pupavac, 2001). This assumption may have stemmed from a medical model,
in which an impact occurs on a static object (the body) that subsequently may
show signs of such impact that seem relatively universal. As noted earlier, however,
various research studies suggest that most individuals who have been subjected to
crises and even to horrific events do not subsequently suffer from mental disorders
(Inter-Agency Standing Committee, 2007). An important distinction should be made
between the actual events and the subjective reaction to those events, which vary
from person to person. Furthermore, it has been found that large-scale single-session
mass interventions, such as debriefing, can be harmful (Rose, Bisson, Churchill, &
Wessely, 2002; Summerfield, 1995) and are no longer recommended (Inter-Agency
Standing Committee, 2007).
It should also be considered that mental health problems among affected diverse
cultural communities may not fit with Western DSM or ICD criteria (Summerfield,
2002). Local expressions or “idioms of distress” (Breslau, 2004; Kleinman, 1995)
may show similarities and differences compared to standardized diagnostic crite-
ria, depending on the cultural context. In many regions such as Southeast Asia,
for example, psychological distress can manifest as somatic complaints including
headaches, stomachaches, or chronic pain, while other symptoms such as sleep
paralysis have been observed in Cambodian refugees (Miller et al., 2006). Admitting
to experiencing mental health difficulties is also associated with shame and stigma
in many cultures, which may also contribute to the presentation of symptoms in a
somatic context or which may deter people from seeking help. Expressions of dis-
tress can also manifest in impaired social or occupational functioning or in socially
deviant behaviors such as substance use and domestic and community violence
(Marsella & Christopher, 2004). Aid organizations and researchers tend to focus
programmatic efforts on particular subgroups such as children, women, or victims
of violence while less attention has been paid to other important groups such as
the elderly, men, and individuals suffering from learning disabilities, developmental
disorders, or severe mental disorders (Allden et al., 2009; Breslau, 2004). Yet, those
with severe mental disorders are among the most vulnerable during humanitarian
crises. A recent study compiling data from community-based mental health services
in five humanitarian settings found that complaints of reactions to extreme stress
and adjustment disorders only constituted 0–19% of presenting problems, while
other severe neuropsychiatric disorders (e.g. epilepsy and schizophrenia) made up
28–91% of complaints (Jones et al., 2009). Yet, broader mental health services are
typically not available, leaving those with preexisting mental health problems at
higher risk for death, injury, suffering, and human rights abuses.
Another critique of mental health in humanitarian settings is that the medi-
calization of trauma separates it from its sociopolitical context, where it belongs
(Miller et al., 2006; Summerfield, 1999; Zarowsky, 2004). Furthermore, the focus
is placed on the individual problems rather than the surrounding social problems
(Kleinman, 1995), and suffering is seen as individual and not collective (Zarowsky,
2004). Indeed, individuals and communities themselves may experience their suf-
fering as social or political and not as medical and as relating to a larger framework
of testimony and advocacy. This point also seems applicable to the context of
climate change and its consequences, which occur within a larger framework of
social and political causes and responsibilities. Mental health interventions dur-
ing humanitarian crises can also undermine traditional, nonprofessional family and
community support mechanisms, local coping strategies, and natural recovery pro-
cesses (Pupavac, 2001; Summerfield, 1999). After the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami,
it was reported that the vast majority of individuals sought support from family
members and turned to prayer and religious leader in times of stress, and that
many children were upset by counselors from different organizations that would
come for brief periods of time and ask them to retell their story multiple times
(Good, Good, & Grayman, 2009). It is also critical to note that those affected by
humanitarian crises engage in making meaning and sense of the events, individu-
ally and collectively. In the case of Aceh, the Tsunami was seen by some as sent
by God to bring an end to the conflict (Good et al., 2009). Aid workers and clin-
icians can interfere with this, imposing their own views of what happened in a
language of medical symptoms and causes and effects that may not be shared by
the affected population (Almedom & Summerfield, 2004). Individuals may also
view themselves as active survivors rather than as passive victims, which should
be supported rather than undermined (Pupavac, 2004). One important determinant
of the risk for mental health problems following adverse events is the perception
of those events and the construction of meaning around them (Herman, 1992).
The process of constructing meaning and forming different realities around the
same events is deeply cultural (Marsella & Christopher, 2004). As discussed in
more detail in Chapter 11, local ways of framing and coping with events can also
help individuals and communities overcome adversity. Outside helpers may view
climate-related hazards as caused by climate change, which is ties to natural forces
and anthropogenic CO2 emissions, but affected communities may hold a differ-
ent view. People also tend to fare better when they feel that they are in control
of their own destiny, which can be undermined by humanitarian interventions that
can foster a sense of dependency and helplessness (Pupavac, 2004). Lastly, men-
tal health and psychosocial interventions in humanitarian settings are often short
lived and not sustainable. Yet, many countries expected to be at the highest risk
due to climate change already have a weak mental health infrastructure and are
likely to benefit from capacity building rather than brief programmatic efforts by
mental health specialists. Mental health and psychosocial programs are also not
immune from general critiques of the humanitarian field including poor coordination
among different agencies, reliance on reactive funding, lack of accountability, and
poor continuity in transitioning short-term relief into long-term sustainable develop-
ment activities. Considering the urgent humanitarian needs expected due to climate
change as well as past critiques of mental health and psychosocial approaches pro-
vides an important imperative for increased efforts in better coordination with other
programs and actors, professionalism, high ethical standards, and adherence to best
practices and guidelines among psychologists and mental health professionals. The
following section will discuss ways in which mental health professionals and psy-
chologists can participate in responding to humanitarian crises, reducing underlying
vulnerabilities, and extending the evidence base on best practices.
Potential Roles of Psychologists and Mental Health Professionals

Responding to Humanitarian Crises
In recent years, increased attention has been paid to mental health and psychosocial
issues in humanitarian settings (Inter-Agency Standing Committee, 2007; Mollica
et al., 2004). Yet, mental health and psychosocial support generally still receive a
low priority by donors in humanitarian settings, and few organizations list men-
tal health as one of their program areas, resulting in mental health needs often
remaining unmet (Kim, Torbay, & Lawry, 2007). However, best practices and guide-
lines are emerging that can assist governments, humanitarian NGOs, and other
organizations in addressing mental health and psychosocial issues. The recently
released Inter-Agency Standing Committee Guidelines (IASC) on Mental Health
and Psychosocial Support in Emergency Settings provide practical advice for pro-
tecting and promoting mental health and psychosocial well-being, considering a
wide range of areas such as coordination, monitoring and evaluation, human rights,
human resources, community mobilization, health services, and education (Inter-
Agency Standing Committee, 2007). The Sphere Handbook, which sets minimum
standards for humanitarian aid, now also has a section on mental health and social
aspects of health, which covers topics such as providing psychological first aid,
designing community-based psychological interventions, and considering the exist-
ing sociocultural context in all programmatic efforts (Young & Harvey, 2004).
There have also been efforts to define cultural competencies for psychologists work-
ing with communities affected by disaster (Hansen, Pepitone-Arreola-Rockwell, &
Greene, 2000; Marsella, Johnson, Watson, & Gryczynski, 2008). Several authors
in the field have called for the adoption of a public health framework in working
with populations affected by crises and conflict (Blanch, 2008; Brymer, Steinberg,
Sornborger, Layne, & Pynoos, 2008). Such an approach would focus not only on
the individual but also on the community and support preventive efforts, well-being,
and resilience rather than only treating psychopathology. This approach is poten-
tially cost-effective and can be more sensitive to social, economic, and political
issues.
IASC guidelines state that mental health and psychosocial interventions can be
categorized as falling on a continuum of support ranging from psychological first
aid and nonspecialized and community services designed to meet basic needs of an
entire population to specialized services for select individuals needing more special-
ized mental health care (Inter-Agency Standing Committee, 2007). When designing
interventions in humanitarian settings, it has been recommended to follow the steps
of an initial needs assessment, subsequent program design, implementation, and
continued monitoring evaluation, which should involve the affected community as

much as possible (Inter-Agency Standing Committee, 2007). Methods have been
developed for rapid mental health needs assessments that involve both qualitative
and quantitative data collection and map local community resources such as natu-
ral healers, to assess local idioms of distress and culturally relevant indicators of
functioning (Bolton, 2001; Bolton & Tang, 2002; De Jong & Van Ommeren, 2002).
Such methods actively engage affected communities in discussing their priorities
and in defining what constitutes well-being, distress, and functioning within their
cultural and regional context. Participatory methods can also involve communities
in designing and shaping an intervention that is acceptable and useful to them and
in monitoring and evaluating outcomes (Eisenbruch, De Jong, & Van De Put, 2004;
Schulz, Israel, & Lantz, 2003). It is crucial to not only involve the local population
but also build on existing community capacities. Local psychologists, traditional
healers, or community leaders can serve as culture brokers who tend to have a much
deeper knowledge of expressions of distress and methods of coping. Furthermore,
they can receive appropriate training, deliver interventions, and provide referrals.
They often have established relationships of trust in the community and remain in
the country after outside funding for mental health or psychosocial programs has
ended. The expertise and knowledge of psychologists and mental health profession-
als can potentially also make the work of other humanitarian actors more effective
and more responsive to psychosocial issues. Partnership with other programs could
improve compliance with medical regimens, address maternal depression and dis-
tress that can impact child development and nutrition, or address substance use
issues that can stunt benefits of microcredit or other economic recovery initiatives.
Currently, innovative programs are emerging such as providing psychosocial sup-
port and improving mother–child relationships at local feeding centers (Rahman
et al., 2008), which may also have relevance, given the link between climate change
and food insecurity due to drought and other conditions.
Building Local Capacity
It has been emphasized that adaptation to climate change to build resilience is essen-
tial, especially among developing countries that should receive appropriate support
from developed countries (Stern, 2006). Reducing vulnerability and building capac-
ity with the aim of promoting and protecting mental health and well-being can
focus on underlying social and economic issues affecting mental health, as well
as on building mental health infrastructure. Recently developed conceptualizations
of social vulnerability (Brklacich, Chazan, & Dawe, 2007) or community resilience
(Norris, Stevens, Pfefferbaum, Wyche, & Pfefferbaum, 2008), which take aspects
such as economic development and social capital into account, are potentially
applicable in this regard.
Efforts are currently under way to promote global mental health, especially in
developing countries (Patel, Saraceno, & Kleinman, 2006), which is also relevant
in the context of climate change and humanitarian crises. The World Health
Organization has recently launched the mental health Gap Action Programme
(World Health Organization, 2008), which outlines ways in which mental health
problems can be effectively addressed in low- and middle-income countries.
Recommendations include cost-effective interventions at the community level and
integration of mental health care into primary health care services. Priority condi-
tions include depression, schizophrenia, substance use, epilepsy, and developmental
disorders in children, but there is no guidance on anxiety or PTSD (World Health
Organization, 2008). The Lancet dedicated a special issue to global mental health in
2008 (Patel et al., 2008; Patel & Sartorius, 2008), and the “Movement for Global
Mental Health” (Eaton & Patel, 2009) was subsequently launched (Patel et al.,
2008). Investing in local mental health infrastructure may be especially important
in those countries that have been identified as climate change “hotspots” and have
low local mental health capacity. The extent of existing mental health infrastruc-
ture could also factor into vulnerability indices for countries and communities,
which could help to further understand and predict the potential impact of cli-
mate change and guide decisions for funding and support. Sources of funding such
as the Kyoto Protocol Adaptation Fund and the National Adaptation Programs
of Action (NAPA) are being made available to developing countries to adapt to
and respond to climate change. Financial assistance is provided in areas such as
agriculture, health, infrastructure development, improving disease control and pre-
vention; and supporting capacity building related to prevention and response to
natural disasters (Adaptation Fund Board, 2009). Mental health and psychosocial
issues are rarely considered in climate change adaptation and capacity building
plans but could be integrated in accordance with recent humanitarian and capac-
ity building guidelines (Inter-Agency Standing Committee, 2007; World Health
Organization, 2008).
Expanding Directions for Research
There is broad agreement on the critical need to build the evidence base for men-
tal health and psychosocial interventions in humanitarian and low-resource settings
and to gain a better understanding of mental health within different cultural contexts
(Inter-Agency Standing Committee, 2007; Saraceno, 2007; Summerfield, 2008).
The majority of existing research has focused on describing mental health prob-
lems among populations affected by humanitarian crises rather than on effective
interventions (Eisenbruch et al., 2004). Of the intervention research that does exist,
very few studies have followed current guidelines or recommendations such as
actively involving the affected population, conducting a prior needs assessment,
or developing psychometric measures of local idioms of distress (Batniji, Van
Ommeren, & Saraceno, 2006; Bolton et al., 2007). There is also very little research
on individuals with severe mental disorders affected by humanitarian crises (Batniji
et al., 2006, Jones, 2009 #5160). Although general guidelines exist, research is still
needed to evaluate the effectiveness of feasible, accessible, low-cost interventions,
which could be scaled up (Morris, van Ommeren, Belfer, Saxena, & Saraceno, 2007;
Patel et al., 2007). It should be noted, however, that conducting research in human-
itarian settings poses numerous difficulties, such as instability and insecurity in
affected regions, questions of cultural validity and acceptability of psychometric

instruments and interventions, and the challenges of conducting research that is eth-
ical and can benefit existing communities (Allden et al., 2009). Nongovernmental
organizations that are engaged in providing mental health and psychosocial services
in crises settings often do not evaluate the outcomes of their work, and it is diffi-
cult to obtain funding for such evaluations (Allden et al., 2009). Future research is
clearly needed that follows existing guidelines and recommendations, assesses local
expressions of distress and well-being, builds on existing strengths and capacities,
and has potential for sustainability and scaling up. This will require collaboration
and partnerships between researchers, practitioners, and affected communities.
Summary and Conclusions
Gaining a better understanding of mental health and psychosocial issues in the con-
text of humanitarian crises due to climate change requires several considerations.
Adverse effects of climate change are the result of both climate hazards (e.g. floods,
droughts and tropical cyclones) and underlying natural, human, social, financial,
and physical vulnerabilities (Thow & de Blois, 2008). Climate change “hotspots”
are characterized by a high probability of climate hazards and significant preexist-
ing vulnerabilities. Mental health and psychosocial issues are rarely considered in
this context, but there are several links that can be highlighted. Individuals with pre-
existing mental disorders face a higher risk of death, injury, and human rights abuses
during humanitarian crises. Mental health problems can also be causes and effects
of underlying vulnerabilities such as poverty and poor health. The provision of
mental health and psychosocial programming in humanitarian settings has not only
experienced significant critique based on neglecting population needs and cultural
contexts but has also been hampered by its absence from the global health agenda
and from many relief and development activities. Yet, guidelines and methods are
emerging that hold considerable promise in improving local participation and own-
ership, forging links with other humanitarian areas and programs, and building the
evidence base on best practices. It is now up to psychologists and mental health pro-
fessionals to connect the dots between climate change, humanitarian crises, and their
own expertise and to work with other disciplines and local populations around com-
mon goals. This also requires expanding the borders of the field beyond traditional
diagnostic and treatment approaches, toward gaining a deeper understanding and
appreciation of different countries and cultures, and joining with other fields in
addressing global problems.
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Chapter 6
Security and Conflict: The Impact of Climate
Change
Chad Michael Briggs and Inka Weissbecker
Introduction
The connection between climate change and security is now increasingly recognized
as a legitimate cause for concern whether the implications are for military security
(CNA Corporation, 2007), energy security (Paskal, 2009), or ecological security
(Pirages & De Geest, 2003). The United Nations Security Council held its first
debate on climate change in April 2007, stating that “an unstable climate will
exacerbate some of the core drivers of conflict, such as migratory pressures and
competition for resources” (United Nations Security Council, 2007). Similarly, for-
mer UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has referred to climate change as a ‘threat
to peace and security’ (opening address on 15 November 2006 to the 12th ses-
sion of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC in Nairobi). In April 2007,
high-ranking retired US generals published a report terming climate change a seri-
ous threat to the security of the USA that will promote extremism and terrorism,
especially in unstable regions (CNA Corporation, 2007). This has been followed
by official warnings from the US Department of Defense’s 2010 Quadrennial
Defense Review (QDR) and 2010 US State Department’s Quadrennial Diplomacy
and Development Review (QDDR), which both identified climate and other environ-
mental changes as strategic security risks. However, others have been more cautious
in drawing conclusions, pointing out that the links between climate change and
security are complex and that various other factors that can make regions more vul-
nerable should be taken into account (Salahyan, 2008). This chapter will lay out the
new concepts of security being developed in the USA and other countries and exam-
ine some potential security impacts and possible solutions, drawing on literature on
environmental science, political science, sociology, and social psychology.
C.M. Briggs (B)

Air University, USAF, Maxwell Air Force Base, AL, USA
e-mail: chad@globalint.org


98 C.M. Briggs and I. Weissbecker
Definitions of Security
The definition of the term “security” as the absence of armed conflict and violence
has broadened since the end of the Cold War, and varying definitions exist. The term
‘human security’ tends to be a far broader concept than traditional security defini-
tions and is meant as a way to emphasize that security issues have consequences
far below the state-level analyses common in political science (Buzan, 1991). The
term “human security” was introduced in 1994 in the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), which encompasses security threats in seven areas: eco-
nomic security, food security, health security, environmental security, personal
security, community security, and political security (United Nations Development
Programme, 1994). This human security concept stands in sharp contrast with tra-
ditional versions of ‘national security.’ National security emerged as a field of
study following the First World War in an attempt to explain the tragic violence
between European states and was reinforced by the Second World War and subse-
quent focus on nuclear politics during the Cold War. The overriding concern was the
outbreak of war, defined as legitimized violence between states (countries), which
were assumed for simplicity’s sake to be rational, unitary actors on the international
stage (Hartmann, 1998; Kaplan, 1991). Despite some work in the field of interna-
tional relations that emphasized substate and transnational processes (Buzan, 1991;
Dalby, 2006), much of political science methodology continues to focus on the state.
Security studies was therefore often at a loss for explaining security that was not
controlled by state governments, or (as with some terrorism studies) assumed that
countries did ultimately control everything.
Climate Change, Security, and Conflict
The emerging discourse on links between climate change and violent conflict has
largely focused on increased resource scarcity and migration as the main drivers of
conflict. Yet, considerable debate exists regarding those linkages, and it has been
argued that various other risk factors need to be taken into account. Climate issues
also necessitate the use of new methodologies and nontraditional security con-
cepts in order to encapsulate the complexity of environmental, energy, and social
dynamics that influence both process and impact.
Resource Scarcity
The potential role of resource scarcity and overpopulation in driving conflict is not
a novel argument. The 1990s witnessed the first significant debates over the role of
the environment in security, which quickly coalesced around questions of how envi-
ronmental scarcity led to the outbreak of violence between states (Deudney, 1991;
Homer-Dixon, 1991; Kaplan, 1994). Earlier conceptions have focused on population
6 Security and Conflict: The Impact of Climate Change 99
growth and consumption forcing changes on the environment and resource scarcity.
Such analyses tended to see the environment as a static quality, and those suffering
from shortages of food or water were often blamed for their own ‘overpopulation’
as being root causes of their own misery.
In 1994, Robert Kaplan wrote an influential article in The Atlantic Monthly,
warning of coming resource wars in Africa and the dark, violent future that we
faced. The logic of Kaplan’s article followed that of much political discourse and
research in the 1990s, arguing that population pressures lead to competition for
resources, and that this competition would increase conflicts across the globe.
President Clinton required his cabinet to read the piece, which described racial
hatred and overpopulated countries and made direct reference to the research of
Homer-Dixon.
Outside the stretch limo would be a rundown, crowded planet of skinhead Cossacks and juju
warriors, influenced by the worst refuse of Western pop culture and ancient tribal hatreds,
and battling over scraps of overused earth in guerrilla conflicts that ripple across continents
and intersect in no discernible pattern – meaning there’s no easy-to-define threat. Kennan’s
world of one adversary seems as distant as the world of Herodotus. (Kaplan, 1994)
The limousine reference was a metaphor for the richer West, who would remain
behind protective walls that incorrectly implied a strict territorial boundary between
resource deprivation in Africa and high levels of consumption in the West. In
lamenting the loss of the Cold War version of security (“Kennan’s world,” a ref-
erence to George Kennan and the Cold War policy of communist containment),
Kaplan was reflecting an unease that political science was unable to explain many
conflicts, particularly complex emergencies that could not be attributed vis-à-vis
Soviet-US tensions. Many security specialists lacked methodologies that could
explain security in a broader framework and incorporate the complex pathways
of environmental interaction with livelihoods, infrastructure, health, and related
risks.
Some writers have also warned about resource wars between the rich and the
poor. In a US Department of Defense report, Schwartz and Randall (2003) write
that “nations with the resources to do so may build virtual fortresses around their
countries, preserving resources for themselves. Less fortunate nations (. . .) may
initiate struggles for access to food, clean water or energy (. . .) defense priori-
ties shift and the goal is resources for survival rather than religion, ideology, or
national honor” (Schwartz & Randall, 2003; cited in: Saleyhan et al. 2008). Those
scenarios also highlight what Dalby (2002) has noted: “the problem with environ-
mental security is that it begs the question ‘security for whom’?” (Dalby, 2002;
cited in Winter, 2006). While many authors have highlighted the security con-
cerns of wealthy nations, others have countered the argument by painting wealthy
nations themselves as a threat to security by contributing to systematic industri-
alization, exploitation, and inequity. Indeed, one of the members of the Namibia
delegation (member of the G77) stated in the 2007 Security Council debate about
climate change that “humanity, and the developing countries in particular, have
been subjected to what could be described as low-intensity biological or chemi-

cal warfare. Greenhouse gases are slowly destroying plants, animals and human
beings.”
Despite the visibility of the potential connection between natural resource
scarcity and the outbreak of violent conflict, it has been very difficult to substantiate
causal links. In both cases, whether the claims of overpopulation or the concerns
over environmental conflict (some authors more explicitly linked these ideas), the
focus tended to remain on less developed areas, and the inclusion of security con-
cerns often seemed ill-fitting (Dalby, 2006). Practically, making strong connections
between climate and violence may get the attention of the public, and this argument
has been used to underline the urgency of acting on the threat of climate change.
However, such oversimplification is likely not useful either for policy makers or
those concerned with climate adaptation. Several authors have argued that there is
no evidence that environmental scarcity actually led to the outbreak of violent con-
flict and that other factors tend to be involved as well (Barnett, 2000; Gleditsch,
1998; Hauge & Ellingson, 1998). Realistic group conflict theory suggests that con-
flict can result if groups are in competition over scarce resources but that this often
co-occurs with distortions in perception of the other group as being aggressive as
well as with scapegoating and blaming (Christie et al., 2008; Winter & Cava, 2006).
Peace psychologists and political scientists have noted that such conflict does not
inevitably lead to violence and may (if not more often) even lead to cooperation
and relationship building rather than conflict (Deutsch, Coleman, & Marcus, 2006;
Christie et al., 2008). When conflict does exist, it can be argued that environment
tends to be one of many factors that may have helped lead to the outbreak of vio-
lence, but it was rarely if ever the determining factor. Claiming, for example, that
water scarcity between Israel and Jordan led to the 1967 conflict between the coun-
tries removes rather significant context of history and instead attempts to reduce
such a complex question down to correlation between simplified factors (Lowi,
1995). This example is itself simplified, for it relates to one environmental fac-
tor (water) in a localized context. To pose the question in terms of global climate
change, where cause/effect and local geography are themselves complex, risks sim-
plify the issue even more. Although it makes sense that resource competition should
raise the risks of violence, without examination of cooperation and coping strate-
gies of those most affected by environmental changes, we risk seeing only what we
wish to see. Climate-induced environmental change is a global process that erases
most political boundaries, is only indirectly related to resources or population, has
local impacts that vary widely according to place and society, and requires study by
a large range of disciplines and experts. Most notably, climate security involves
assessment of risks that are potentially very high in impact and yet have prob-
abilities that can rarely be assessed with any accuracy (Barnett, 2003). Whether
resource scarcity leads to violent conflict or cooperation and which factors predict
one outcome or the other are fruitful research areas for political scientists, sociolo-
gists, and psychologists in the context of climate change (as discussed later in this
chapter).
Migration
Migration has been cited as another possible pathway in linking climate change
and violent conflict. Climate change is projected to contribute to significant
displacement of populations due to adverse environmental conditions (e.g. droughts)
and water-level rise in coastal areas. For example, with some predictions of sea level
rise in the 21st century approaching upward limits of four to six meters, large areas
of coastal regions will be inundated. Absent large-scale and long-term reclama-
tion efforts, as in the Netherlands, sea water flooding is generally an overwhelming
force to which one cannot simply adapt as a local community. Migration of the
entire affected area will likely be necessary, with a larger community needing to
intervene in order to accommodate those displaced. Small Pacific island nations
like Tuvalu will likely disappear first, forcing relocation of entire populations to
other countries. In regions like Bangladesh, even modest sea level rise will force
displacement of tens of millions of people, with obvious destinations including
eastern India (Renaud et al., 2007; Warner et al., 2008). Even land that is not com-
pletely submerged may be uninhabitable, as rising nearby seas may bring dangerous
storm surges, especially when combined with storm intensity issues as described
above. Continued settlement of coastal regions and flood plains will greatly increase
future risks of forced displacement, especially in regions with low social cohesion
combined with high-risk exposure. Those areas already suffering from instability
are much more likely to exhibit displaced populations than those with resilient
capacities (Briggs, 2009).
Customary practices of many cultures used migration to adapt to seasonal
changes in food and water availability, especially the opening of arable land for
agriculture or pasture. This historical process has been severely curtailed over the
years with the rise of the nation-state and strict immigration regulations, so that now
migration is sometimes considered ipso facto, a security concern when people cross
state boundaries. Even when not based on concerns over terrorism, it is often argued
that climate-induced migration from one country to another will cause instability
and conflict. Integration of large, displaced populations can take many years, with
emigrants forced to confront hostility from previous residents. This may especially
be the case if residents compete with host populations over scarce resources such
as food, water, land, and employment opportunities. Migration can also exacerbate
preexisting ethnic tensions, if it threatens the dominance of one group over another.
Ethic identities can be exploited for political purposes, which can lead to social
exclusion and contribute to conflict (Lohrmann, 2000).
However, it has been noted that migration alone does not lead to conflict and
that policies of social integration and citizenship are particularly important factors
(Gleditsch, Nordås, & Salehyan, 2007). Furthermore, it has been argued that migra-
tion is more often a symptom of instability than the cause of it. If large numbers of
people are suddenly moving from one place to another due to environmental con-
ditions, either the conditions themselves are so extreme so as to overwhelm the
community structure or the structure itself was so weak that the environmental
conditions were merely a catalyst for underlying problems in the community

(Afifi & Warner, 2008; IOM, 2005; Warner et al., 2008).
The experience of Irish immigrants to the USA in the 1800s may be instruc-
tive. Difficulties of migration and integration are not necessary outcomes, and
problems may be mitigated by concerted efforts to accommodate and integrate
those forced to leave their homes. In smaller communities such accommodation
may be expected, but in the international community identity politics play a much
larger role in how well and effectively a country is able to absorb environmen-
tal migrants. In this sense, identification of climate migration as a security issue
may be counterproductive, should security be defined as state centered or identity
specific.
Limitations of Previous Approaches and Analyses
Security analyses of climate change to date have tended to simplify both cli-
mate processes and security impacts, often combining summaries of the Fourth
IPCC Assessment with Cold War models of interstate warfare (CNA, 2007;
European Commission, 2008; GBN, 2007; German Federal Ministry for Economic
Cooperation & Development, 2002; NIC, 2008; Schwartz & Randall, 2003; WBGU,
2008) or by assuming that climate impacts were fait accompli (International Alert,
2008). The prevalent conceptualizations of climate security are overly narrow for
several reasons, both analytical and practical. First, it defines only one outcome of
climate security scenarios and does not examine counter-cases where environmental
changes do not lead to conflict. One tends to look where there is already conflict or
extreme political tension and then asks what effect climate changes will have. It is
impossible with such an approach to isolate environmental issues from the preex-
isting conflict, in which other factors may be much more crucial but unexamined
because the environment is highlighted.
This is closely related to the second concern with narrow approaches to conflict
and climate, which is that in any politically charged situation, environmental factors
may be of more symbolic importance than a substantive concern. In other words,
people may fight over environmental issues or natural resources, but as a proxy for
other issues that cannot be addressed for one reason or another. The environmental
movements in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s, which helped to topple a number of
communist governments, were short lived precisely because the environment was a
substitute for other, deeper political divides.
The idea of proxy issues also leads to the third consideration, that of identity
and action. Many environmental security writings risked ‘naturalizing’ the debate
or using the environment as a physical factor in explaining complex political con-
flicts. To describe environmental factors as a ‘root cause’ of conflict or migration
(as with Homer-Dixon, 1991, Kaplan, 1994; Myers, 2005) is to imply that envi-
ronmental change is a necessary and sufficient cause for security outcomes. Such
arguments strongly imply that identities are fixed and that social dynamics in the
face of changing conditions necessarily result in the breakdown of social order.
Empirically this is not necessarily the case, as communities faced with disaster
risks or other environmental challenges often react positively against a perceived
collective risk, even when previous divisions may have indicated otherwise. The
reactions of people in such cases depend partly upon past experiences with similar
risks, as, for example, small communities faced with food insecurity and drought
may have coping mechanisms that involve charity and cooperation that may not
exist under normal circumstances. If risks are perceived as collective, and coping
with environmental conditions are super-ordinate goals, then disasters may bring
members of a community closer together. Such analyses also tend to downplay
social and psychological impacts, particularly when they are second- or third-
order effects of broader geophysical changes. Also missing are the psychological
aspects of resilience, or the ability to withstand or adapt to severe environmental
changes.
Fourth, discussions focused on traditional security definitions and conceptual-
izing interstate violence arising from rational actions of unitary political states are
not the concern with climate change risks. A study that utilized the database of
the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Research on the
Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED, 2010), which has recorded all the storm and
flood disasters since 1950, found a connection between storm and flood disasters and
an intensification of conflict, violent unrest, and/or political crisis in 12 of 171 cases.
In many cases those disasters resulted in domestic political crises. The review of 73
empirically well-recorded ‘environmental conflicts’ that occurred between 1980 and
2005, however, also showed that these were limited to a regional scope and did not
present any serious threat to international security (German Advisory Council on
Global Change (WBGU); 2008).
A fundamental problem with environmental and climate security discussions lies
in the very nature of violent conflict and the inability of social scientists to predict
conflict. Even if social scientists can describe conditions that might give rise to out-
breaks of violence or terrorism, these are never sufficient factors for determining
the outcome of a given situation, nor are the pathways to violence consistent. When
applied to potential future situations, the ability to predict outbreaks become even
more contentious. Security experts were unable to predict the North Korean inva-
sion of South Korea in 1950, the Tet Offensive in Vietnam in 1968, the fall of the
Berlin Wall in 1989 and subsequent attempted Soviet coup in 1991, the genocide in
Rwanda, and other major events where either information was available, or where
intense monitoring was in place.
Lastly, discussions of climate security have tended to remain focused on tradi-
tional security definitions, describing such environmental changes as ‘threat mul-
tipliers’ that serve to exacerbate existing international security concerns. Although
there is some truth to this, it tends to imply that the world of the future will be very
much like the world we have now, only more so. However, tracing the connections
from climate changes to conflict and violence is a difficult task. Put simply, there
is no direct connection between environmental changes and violence, and focus-
ing on such linear pathways tends to create ‘tunnel thinking’ in which alternate
pathways to humanitarian crises and systemic instability are missed because they
are not watched. In fact, it is the reliance upon notions of linear causality that so
often leads to confusion and oversimplification. Even authors who discuss nonlinear
relationships and complex systems very often proceed with analyses that are sub-
stantively little different from any other (Homer-Dixon, 1995). With environmental
issues, this generally involves seeing the environment as an external variable that
impacts society, while failing to consider complex interactions and feedback loops
in and between systems (Busby, 2007; Price-Smith, 2002). Admittedly, carrying out
such assessments of complex systems and cascading effects is extremely difficult,
and the requisite research on network failures and resilience has only emerged in
the past decade (Albert, Jeong, & Barabási, 1999).
Vulnerability and Risk Factors
The complexity of environmental issues and lack of strong causality have led
some researchers to conclude that climate change is not a security issue (Walt,
2009), because it either does not fit into predetermined categories of measure-
ment or is too difficult to determine cause and effect. However, there is substance
to concerns that climate change can lead to security situations (Halden, 2007;
Litfin, 1999). However, this requires greater redefinition of security, and the role
that environmental systems play in maintaining underlying stability of complex
social systems. Determining where systems are vulnerable likewise requires aban-
donment of assumptions of linear cause–effect and demands greater attention to
cross-disciplinary research. Analytically, the concept of human security may be con-
sidered so broad that it is difficult to understand how it is defined or measured. But
the shift to vulnerability studies draws upon the experience of research in risk assess-
ment, ecology, sociology, and epidemiology/public health in order to help identify
‘weak spots’ in relationships and systems (Wisner et al., 2005). The focus shifts
from adverse outcomes (i.e. violence) to conditions that underlie stability of social,
political, ecological, and geophysical systems, in an attempt to provide foresight
and warning in advance of instability. Vulnerability assessments therefore main-
tain the normative orientation of human security and incorporate environmental
factors while integrating established methodologies. More important for practition-
ers, the focus on vulnerability aims to allow prevention of worst outcomes, often by
identifying possible future scenarios, and the means by which they can be avoided
and/or adapted to. Psychology and other disciplines also have an important role in
identifying such vulnerabilities.
Indeed, it has been argued that future social impacts of climate change are
unlikely to trigger “classic” interstate wars, but they may lead to destabilization
processes and conflict between groups if other factors are present. Peace psychol-
ogists have defined conflict as arising from “perceived or real incompatibilities
in goals between individuals or groups” (Christie et al., 2008). The causes of
violent conflict are complex and multifaceted and include risk factors such as a
low level of economic development, realistic group conflict, relative and absolute
deprivation and disparities, social identities, nationalism, an instrumentalization of
environmental degradation for group-specific interests, a lack of societal mecha-

nisms for regulating conflict, weak state structures, the organization and arming
of parties to a conflict, a large population and/or a high population density, rough
terrain, border on a neighboring country in which a violent conflict is being waged,
and the influence of past conflict (e.g. Christie et al., 2008; Smith & Vivekananda,
2007). It has been suggested that there are 46 countries in which the effects of
climate change create a higher risk of conflict due to various economic, social, and
political problems such as current or recent wars, poverty and inequality, and bad
governance (Smith & Vivekananda, 2007).
Poverty – Absolute and Relative Deprivation
Absolute Deprivation
Estimations of the overall economic costs of climate change come to the conclu-
sion that an increase of just a few degrees Celsius could result in a global loss
of welfare in the order of up to 5% of global GDP (Solomon et al., 2007; Stern,
2006), disproportionately affecting developing countries. Research suggests that
limited economic and livelihood opportunities can increase people’s propensity to
join armed groups or resort to violence. Deprivation can also lead to the adoption
of destructive ideologies in which others are viewed as barriers to need satisfaction
(Christie et al., 2008).
Relative Deprivation
Another consequence of climate change may be an increase in the disparity between

the “haves” and the “have-nots,” both within and between nations. Some authors
suggest that one group’s perception of a discrepancy between its current standard
of living and that of another group can result in conflict and intergroup hostility
(Christie et al., 2008). Indeed, countries in which the gap between the most affluent
and the poorest sections of the population is especially large are considered to be
fundamentally more prone to conflict (German Advisory Council on Global Change
(WBGU), 2008). As Sen (1999) has pointed out in the past, many instances of star-
vation in the world are not the result of simply too little food for too many people
but have important social and political dimensions that prevent food from reaching
those who need it or prevent affected populations from adapting to the situation pro-
ductively. This is especially relevant in the context of projected climate-related food
insecurity in many developing nations.
While conflict often occurs along lines of ethnic and cultural identities and soci-
etal polarization, it has been suggested that it is not polarization itself that increases
vulnerability to conflict, but rather that the dominance of one ethnic group over
another, whereas the existence of multiple ethnic and religious fractions can actually
lower the risk of conflict (Collier quoted in Smith, 2004). However, when perceived
and actual group differences in access to resources coincide with ethnic divisions,
the risk of conflict increases. Several authors have noted the dangers of “horizontal
inequality”, which refers to social, economic, political, or other inequality between
different subcultures living in the same society, which may fall along the lines of
ethnic, linguistic, cultural, or religious group identities (Steward, 2004). The risk for
conflict is seen as especially high if a majority exists against an almost equally large
minority and when low incomes coincide with social exclusion (Steward, 2004).
Intergroup relations suffered in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, for example,
where the loss of key resources highlighted racial group differences in financial and
geographic security. African Americans were also more likely than whites to inter-
pret the government’s response as indicating racism (Adams, O’Brien, & Nelson,
2006).
Unequal distribution of resources and resulting food insecurity for some nations
can also lead to government instability if the government is seen as responsible.
Reports have emerged that states already worried about food security have taken
preemptive measures, but often ones that bolster national security in one state at the
expense of another. In the first 6 months of 2009, some 20 million hectares of land
in Africa and Southeast Asia were leased or sold, very often to secure arable land
for foreign countries. Not all of the land will be used for food, as biofuel production
may be more profitable and fits with parallel concerns over energy insecurity. Such
measures, however, reduce locally available crops for consumption in countries that
often already experience food scarcity and lack the resources to import food from
elsewhere. The government of Madagascar fell in early 2009, after revelations that
1.3 million hectares of land (roughly the size of Belgium, and half the arable land in
the country) were to be leased to the South Korean firm Daewoo Logistics for corn
and palm oil exports to South Korea (FAO/WFP, 2009; Gower, 2009). Reportedly,
Daewoo would have paid nothing for use of the land (Jung-a, Oliver, & Burgis,
2008). In other regions, land deals by wealthier countries plan to deforest large areas
of land in order to produce biofuels, thereby feeding back into worsening climate
change conditions. Such practices are likely to lead to worsening inequity of food
distribution with consequently negative health and economic effects on vulnerable
populations, exacerbating existing tensions.
Social Division and Fragmentation
Abrupt and unexpected changes can overwhelm otherwise resilient communities,

creating the cascading failures demonstrated in complex network research. Those
networks that already exhibit either vulnerable network topologies (e.g. those that
are hierarchical and not scale free) or weak network connections (e.g. lack of trust)
are more likely to break apart or suffer complete failure as a result of environmen-
tal stresses (Briggs et al., 2009; DeFur et al., 2007; Füssel, 2007; Gallopín, 2006;
Wisner et al., 2005). Communities under severe social stress and economic division
prior to disaster conditions may fragment even more under shifting environmental
conditions. In this case, environmental changes do not create the divisions; the
disaster only uncovers preexisting vulnerabilities in society that had been caused
by nonenvironmental factors. Those divisions can be exacerbated by relative depri-
vation of one group, as noted above, or by other factors. In industrialized countries,
income inequality is often an indicator of a weak and vulnerable community, as,
many argue, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina demonstrated (Wisner et al., 2005).
Divisions may also be created artificially, in order to serve political ends. The divi-
sion in Darfur between “Africans” and “Arabs” was encouraged by outside actors
and those attempting to maintain political power; they were not given categories of
identity, nor were disputes over resources a predetermined outcome. In many ways,
conflicts over natural resources in Darfur are examples of where the environment is
used as a weapon against others (i.e. resilience targeting), and it would be highly
misleading to say that environmental conditions caused the conflict.
Dissatisfaction with the Government

States functions are important in relation to moderating risk of climate change as
well as conflict, and states play a key role in containing or aggravating violence.
The interaction between environmental and political factors is therefore critical for
understanding violence and conflict (Salahyan, 2008). It has even been argued that
the extent to which climate change triggers “a succession of new wars” in Africa
ultimately “depends more on governance and governments than on the strength of
the climate ‘signal’ itself” (United Nations Environment Programme, 2007; cited in
Brown, 2007). Indeed, disasters frequently shed light on government failures such
as poor housing development in vulnerable areas, lack of implemented building
codes, and insufficient or poorly coordinated disaster preparedness and response
(Drury und Olson, 1998). Such failures, which are seen as responsible for added
damage and casualties, often enter the public discourse in the aftermath of disasters
(Drury und Olson, 1998). Such failures can contribute to eroding the social con-
tract between state and citizens, which can contribute to political instability or even
violent conflict (Smith & Vivekananda, 2007).
Three examples may be illustrative. (1) The 1970 typhoon in East Pakistan
killed approximately 300,000 people (today’s Bangladesh) and led to a strength-
ening of the separatist opposition over the government’s insufficient aid measures.
The government responded with repression and violence, which was followed by
a civil war that claimed about 3 million lives. Bangladesh gained independence in
1971. (2) Climate changes are also affecting availability of water in several Asian
states such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan,
exacerbating already scarce freshwater resources. Combined with colder winters
and rising energy prices for fossil fuels, the electricity shortages in Kyrgyzstan’s
capital Bishkek have resulted in dissatisfaction with the government as schools
and businesses have closed (Normatov & Petrov, 2006; Osmonaliyeva, 2010).
(3) The breakdown in conditions and response to Hurricane Katrina in the USA
in 2005 highlight not only racial and economic inequalities but also governmental
shortcomings such as past practices of land use and diversion of disaster-response
resources to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Risk Mitigation and Peace Building
Investing in Foresight and Warning

Ultimately, one of the most effective and necessary ways in which the interna-
tional community can ensure the well-being and security of people affected by
climate change is to develop effectively focused foresight and warning capabilities.
Ability to plan for possible scenarios is a necessary component of adaptive capac-
ity building and effective response. This does not mean that accurate predictions
will be possible or that effective probabilities will be calculable. Rather, precau-
tionary action can be taken against future conditions, even when their likelihood is
unknown, so long as the impact of such events is significant enough. Identification
of such scenarios requires knowledge of up-to-date climate science and possible
future conditions, understanding of how such geophysical changes created cas-
cading impacts onto ecosystems and infrastructure, and how social, political, and
economic systems are then likewise affected. Expertise is also therefore needed
at the ecological and geographical levels, plus regional expertise on the unique
impacts that would be experienced by various scenarios and where key vulnera-
bilities lay in infrastructure, ecosystems, economies, and sociopolitical networks.
Without this resolution, the ability to scale assessments from the global processes to
local levels and back, our understanding of security implications will be overly sim-
plified and truncated. International efforts like GlobalEESE (the Global Energy and
Environmental Strategic Ecosystem1 ) have attempted to bring together the requisite
expertise to provide advance warning of such issues, but risk communication to the
public of security and health risks will still be a crucial component of addressing
climate security.
Promoting Community Adaptation and Access to Resources

Dire predictions about coming environmental wars imply that climate change
requires military solutions, to secure by force one’s own resources or erect solid
barriers to large-scale distress migration. But focusing on military responses both
raises the stakes and diverts attention from the more cost-effective alternative of
adaptation.
Community adaptation practices rely upon trust and administration. Adaptation
measures are rarely as effective when carried out by individuals as compared to
communities, at least in part because the community networks allow for failure in
one section while the rest of the community survives. Should a few, random house-
holds suffer disaster in a healthy community network, the others in the community
can provide support and access to resources that the affected families would other-
wise lack. The network bonds rely upon trust between individuals and groups and
regulative frameworks (either formal or informal) that allow for common practices
1 http://www.globaleese.org/
of charity, assistance, or temporary loans. Violent incidents and crime such as “loot-
ing” after disaster are less frequent than commonly believed, and there tend to be
more reports of a wave of mutual goodwill within affected societies and a fall in
the crime rate (WGBU, 2008). Such social network practices can be as simple as
neighbors agreeing to help one another, or can involve insurance policies, disaster
relief practices, or resource reallocation (DeFur et al., 2007; Füssel, 2007; Gallopín,
2006; Wisner et al., 2005). It is important that such practices should be developed
in advance of potential environmental changes or disasters, either as an emergent
property of the system or deliberate policy of a government.
Another key measure of adaptive capacity which reduces climate change risks
is access to resources, which itself has several components: financial and resource
access, trust, and administration. Financial and resource access may be the most
obvious component of this type of resilience and refers to availability of money and
capital (financial, human, natural, or otherwise) in changing or adapting to envi-
ronmental conditions (Wisner et al., 2005). Whether draining wetlands to control
malaria or installing air conditioning to lessen the effects of extreme heat, such
actions require capital and are investments in reducing vulnerability. There are also
cultural forms of capital that are equally valuable as resources (Lantze & Raven-
Roberts, 2006). Traditional societies often have ways of coping with changing
environmental conditions, in large part because they have lacked the technology to
change the environment itself. Farmers could (at least at times) withstand droughts,
households could survive without electricity, and infrastructure was not as sensitive
to natural disasters. Often these forms of cultural capital were lost over the years,
although it is possible to adopt them anew or once again (Füssel, 2007). Consistent
with peace-building approaches, it has been suggested to engage communities in a
social process, communicate implications and risks of climate change, and generate
adaptation measures that build on local knowledge and existing resources and that
strengthen social networks and mutual support (Smith & Vivekananda, 2007).
Reducing Inequalities
Standard development economics assume that more wealth equals more resilience
and therefore focuses on economic growth as a path to decreased vulnerability.
This may be a highly misleading assumption in this context, given that not poverty
itself but relative deprivation and resource inequalities appear to play a major role
in contributing to conflict. Peace researchers have argued that the risk of conflict
can be reduced by promoting positive peace, which refers to rectifying structural
inequities and promoting input and participation of marginalized groups (Galtung,
1996). Positive peace is promoted by engaging in “structural peace building,” which
has the aim of restructuring political and economic systems in ways that promote
social justice and the equitable and sustainable access to resources for the satisfac-
tion of human needs (Christie et al., 2008). Those concepts gain new relevance in
the context of climate change and violent conflict, with structural peace building as
one potential mitigation strategy.
Improving Governance
Promoting political transparency, accountability, and the rule of law is crucial for
preventing violent conflict. Corruption and cronyism often prevent resources from
reaching the most vulnerable populations, leading to gross income inequalities
and severe poverty (Salahyan, 2008). Governments can play an important role in
reducing the risk of conflict by facilitating access to public services and social
activities without discrimination, aiding the integration of immigrants (including
climate refugees), safeguarding minority rights, and promoting tolerance among the
local population. Conflict resolution mechanisms and techniques at the local and
international levels such as negotiation, mediation, arbitration, diplomacy, interac-
tive problem solving, and cooperation on superordinate goals can also help prevent
conflicts from arising (Salahyan, 2008; Hare, 2007).
Promoting Cooperation and Collaboration

Warfare can be considered an inefficient and costly way to resolve conflicts over
resources, while cooperation may be more advantageous for both parties than
competition (Salahyan, 2008). Researching the conditions under which competing
political actors either cooperate with one another or engage in conflict has always
been one of the core tasks of political science as well as some areas of psychology.
Competitive relations are fraught with impaired communication, suspicion, crit-
icism, disagreement, power plays, coercion, and the belief that solutions benefit
one party but not all parties. In contrast, cooperation is characterized by effective
communication, friendliness, helpfulness, coordination of effort, shared values and
beliefs, willingness to enhance the other’s power, and the viewpoint that conflict is a
mutual problem to be solved (Christie et al., 2008). Whether opposing parties man-
age a conflict by competition or cooperation appears to depend on several factors.
It has been noted that conflicts can be especially difficult to manage construc-
tively when they are structured in a zero-sum fashion, in which parties believe that
one side’s win is the other side’s loss (Deutsch, 1973). On the other hand, the devel-
opment of superordinate shared goals that would benefit both groups (e.g. building a
bridge, a school, and a hospital) can be an excellent way to develop cooperation and
reduce conflict (Deutsch, 2008). It has also been suggested that agreements worked
out over shared resources such as water have even helped diffuse tensions on other
matters and can lead to changes in social identities and perceived interdependencies
(Winter & Cava, 2006). Such a cooperation agreement is more likely when certain
benefit-sharing factors, such as economic advantages, are foreseeable (Klaphake
and Voils, 2006). Conca (2001) has listed three dimensions for enhancing envi-
ronmental cooperation and identity shifts: transparency, reciprocity, and extended
future time frame.
In some cases a natural disaster can help bring a community closer together, as a
form of superordinate goal where everyone helps as a whole (Wisner et al., 2005).
Similarly, parties engaged in resource-based conflict have benefitted from work-
ing on integrative agreements, or win-win solutions. Historically, the examples of
cooperation between states over renewable resources such as water have far out-
numbered those of violent conflict (Wolf et al., 2003; Homer-Dixon, 1999), perhaps
because renewables are less available for immediate exploitation than are nonre-
newables such as oil (Winter & Cava, 2006). Coordinating and optimizing the use
of water over state borders brings benefits to all involved participants, such as an
improved water management system, the conservation of freshwater ecosystems,
dam building for shared power generation, and improved efficiency in the agricul-
tural and energy sectors (Sadoff & Grey, 2002; Philips et al., 2006), which provides
strong incentives in favor of cooperation.
Disasters and Climate Change as Peace-building Opportunities?

Some authors have suggested that climate change and resulting challenges such
as disasters and challenging environmental conditions can be treated as a peace-
building opportunity (Worldwatch Institute, 2005; Smith & Vivekananda, 2007).
In the wake of the tsunami of 2004, for example, a peace agreement was reached
between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the Indonesian central government.
The movement and the Indonesian army had been fighting since 1976 over the status
of the province of Aceh. After a severe earthquake in the Pakistani area of Kashmir
in October 2005, the Indian and Pakistani governments agreed on relief efforts for
the disaster area.
Addressing climate change could facilitate the development of practical, prob-
lem solving dialogue through which cooperative relationships could be established
and promoted and otherwise divided communities could be reconciled by posing a
threat against which to unite and tasks on which to cooperate (Smith & Vivekananda,
2007). Furthermore, adaptation efforts can include elements of peace building,
promoting social engagement, equal access to resources, government transparency
and accountability, and dialogue and social engagement around subordinate shared
goals. However, it should also be considered that in many of the countries most
at risk, the government is likely to be unwilling or unable to take on the tasks
of adaptation and peace building and governance may even be part of the prob-
lem. Promoting adaptation and peace-building measures is likely to continue to
be challenging and may require international cooperation and the support of local
and community initiatives (Smith & Vivekananda, 2007). The Global Environment
Facility now funds development projects that have the potential to prevent resource-
based conflict, and the Environment and Security Initiative (ENVSEC) set up in
2002 by the United Nations and European countries identifies global examples for
environmental peacemaking (Winter & Cava, 2006).
Conclusions
Certain shifts in climate are already being observed, such as melting of the
Greenland ice sheet or loss of Arctic sea ice. Potential implications include higher
risks for storms, droughts, and floods, to which low-resource regions and groups are
particularly vulnerable. The net aggregate effects of climate change are expected
to be overwhelmingly negative, whether measured in terms of ecosystem health,
excess morbidity and mortality of human populations, mental health impacts, eco-
nomic damages, or political and social measures of stability. Availability of vital
resources such as land, food, and water may threaten the sustainability of commu-
nities unable to adapt, and vulnerable nodes in key systems may fail, spreading
impacts far beyond the local and visible. Several authors have warned of impeding
resource wars and environmental conflicts fueled by resource scarcity and increased
migration. However, we have argued that an escalation of violent conflicts that might
be regarded as genuinely ‘environmental conflicts’ is not currently likely to occur.
Security cannot focus on issues of violence as in the past, nor will visible issues
such as resource scarcity and mass migration suffice. These are likely symptoms
of deeper issues in the area, which must be more comprehensively addressed and
understood. Researchers and practitioners must also remain aware that impacts may
be second- or third-order effects of earlier changes, and that these relationships may
be far removed in space and time. Care should be taken to increase the ability of
states and communities to adapt to new situations, to decrease key vulnerabilities
and risks prioritize policies to mitigate effects and prevent systemic failure of fragile
systems.
Means of decreasing vulnerabilities and reducing the risk of conflict include fore-
sight and early warning, promoting community adaptation and access to resources,
reducing inequalities, and promoting cooperation and shared goals in the devel-
opment of disaster mitigation and response. However, more research is needed to
shed light on key factors and their interrelationships. Research on environment
and conflict has been dominated largely by political science. The social sciences
and natural sciences need to cooperate more closely for the purpose of investigat-
ing the societal implications of climate change. This can be achieved with greater
cooperation among the associated disciplines and by developing common metrics
and conceptual frameworks that can integrate data and information from various
sources.
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Part II
Specific Populations
Chapter 7
Women and Climate Change: Vulnerabilities
and Challenges
Anita L. Wenden
Introduction
Though some skeptics remain, increasingly climate change is recognized as the

crisis of the 21st century, affecting not only the lives of the present generation but
reaching far into the future to dramatically change the environmental space of gen-
erations to come. It is also agreed that while everyone will suffer the consequences
of climate change regardless of race, caste, ethnicity, sex, and level of income (e.g.,
Dunkelman, 2008; Mitchell, Tanner, & Lussier, 2007), the world’s poor, of whom
70% are women, are the most vulnerable (Aguilar, 2009; American Psychological
Association [APA] 2009; Brody, Demetriades, & Esplen, 2008; United Nations
Development Program [UNDP], 2007; Women’s Environment and Development
Organization [WEDO], 2007; Genanet/LIFE e.V. [gen] & Women in Europe for a
Common Future [WECF], 2006). Climate change is not gender neutral (Dunkelman,
Alam, Ahmed, Gueye, Fatema, & Mensah-Kutin, 2008).
This relationship between women and climate change has been implicitly recog-
nized in gender equality policies and agreements, which include provisions linking
women with environment and sustainable development dating back to the late
1970s. For example in 1979, The Convention on the Elimination of Violence against
Women (CEDAW) called for integrating a gender perspective into environmental
policies, obliging parties to take necessary measures to ensure that women partici-
pate in and benefit from rural development. Similarly, Strategic Objective K of the
Beijing Platform for Action (1995) committed to securing the active involvement
of women in environmental decision making and integrating gender concerns and
perspectives in policies and programs for sustainable development.
More recently, in 2008, the Manila Declaration for Global Action on Gender,
Climate Change and Disaster argued for a gender-sensitive approach to climate
change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, and the 52nd Commission on the
A.L. Wenden (B)

Earth and Peace Education International (EPE), Rego Park, NY, USA; NGO/CSW Subcommittee
on Women and Climate Change, New York, NY, USA
e-mail: wenden@rcn.com


120 A.L. Wenden
Status of Women identified gender perspectives on climate change as its key

emerging issue. In Resolution 21(jj), Financing for Gender Equality and the
Empowerment of Women, the commission urged governments “to integrate a gender
perspective in . . . . national environmental policies . . . . [and] . . . . to ensure women’s
full and equal participation in decision-making at all levels on environmental issues,
in particular on strategies related to climate change and the lives of women and
girls” (E/CN.6/2008/L).This notion reappears in the Statement of the CEDAW
Committee on Gender and Climate Change (2009), adopted at its 44th session. It
calls for “State Parties to include gender equality as an overarching guiding prin-
ciple in the UNFCCC agreement expected at the 15th Conference of Parties in
Copenhagen”.
However, despite this documentary foundation on the link between women, envi-
ronment, and climate change, which has inspired an increasing number of women
NGOs to advocate for the inclusion of a gender perspective in climate change
policies and programs (e.g., Global Gender & Climate Alliance [GGCA], WEDO,
WECF) thus far, according to Aguilar (2009), most of the debate on climate change
“has been gender blind” (p. 59), and, as stated in the Statement of the CEDAW
Committee (2009), a gender perspective remains absent in the UNFCCC and other
global national policies on climate change.1 Unsurprisingly, this also applies to cli-
mate change research. The integration of a gender-sensitive perspective in this body
of literature is recent, and for this reason little of it focuses on the linkages between
climate change and gender (Brody et al., 2008).
In response to this lack of recognition of women’s vulnerability to climate change
and the leadership they can offer in mitigation and adaptation, this chapter intends
to demonstrate that it presents a severe threat to the dignity, livelihood, and, in some
cases, even to the very survival of women, primarily those who constitute 70% of
the world’s poor but, at the same time, have the capacity to respond to these threats.
To that end, insights from a selected review of the literature on women and climate
change will be drawn upon to provide an overview of (1) how sociocultural fac-
tors contribute to women’s vulnerability to climate change and (2) how the need to
adapt to climate change can challenge women to become agents of change in their
communities and, in doing so, to reshape their roles and realign relationships of
inequality.
Vulnerability of Women to Climate Change
According to O’Brien (2007 cited in Dunkelman et al., 2008), the consequences

of global warming are closely determined by the context in which they are experi-
enced, and so a vulnerability approach to analyzing and prescribing for the impact
of climate change is advocated (also cf. Lambrou & Piana, 2006; Wisner, Blaikie,
Cannon, & Davis, 2004). As suggested by a contextual approach, vulnerability
refers to the conditions determined by physical, social, economic, and environmen-
tal factors or processes that influence a group’s capacity to anticipate, cope with,
resist, and recover from not only the impact of natural disasters of a catastrophic
7 Women and Climate Change: Vulnerabilities and Challenges 121
nature but also other less dramatic manifestations of global warming (based on
United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction [UNISDR], 2004;
Wisner et al., 2004). However, while appreciating the range of factors that determine
vulnerability, the focus of this discussion, as noted above, will be mainly limited to
the social-cultural factors contributing to women’s vulnerability as, for the greater
part, these apply whatever the specific context of a group.
SocioCultural Factors Contributing to Women’s Vulnerability

to Climate Change
As noted in the literature (e.g. Pan American Health Organization, n.d.; Enarson,
2000; Genanet et al., 2006; Mitchell et al., 2007; Neumayer & Plümper, 2007; Javate
de Dios, 2008), the cultural norms built into every day socioeconomic relations and
legal frameworks determine the gendered division of labor and the access women
have to a community’s assets. Institutionalizing gender inequality in terms of rights,
resources, and voice, these socially ascribed roles and responsibilities make women
especially vulnerable to the direct and indirect threats to human security, which
come in the wake of climate change, that is, threats to security of survival, liveli-
hood, and human dignity. (For an elaboration of this framework, see Dunkelman
et al., 2008.)
Gendered Division of Labor

Resource degradation and scarcity, natural disasters and disease, displacement, civil
war, and conflict, all direct or indirect consequences of climate change, contribute
to threatening the human security of women through the roles and responsibilities a
society assigns to them, examples of which are given below.
Women as Food Providers

In rural societies, which depend on local natural resources for daily sustenance, it
is the task of women and girls to provide food for their families (Smyth, 2008). In
fact, rural women, in particular, are responsible for half of the world’s food pro-
duction and produce 60–80% of the food in most developing countries (Aguilar,
2009; Mitchell et al., 2007). They are primarily responsible for collecting, using, and
managing water and the energy sources necessary to prepare the food (Dunkelman
et al., 2008). The scarcity of these basic resources and the difficulty of access to
and the cost of what is available increase women’s workload and, in the case of
girls, put at risk their opportunities to attend school (WEDO, 2007; Mitchell et al.,
2007; Thanh, 2008). In addition, faced with the burden of caring for dependents
while being obliged to travel farther for water or firewood, women and girls are
prone to stress-related illnesses and at risk for attack and violence in insecure envi-
ronments (Canadian International Development Association [CIDA], 2002 cited
122 A.L. Wenden
in Brody et al., 2008), while the use of inferior energy sources and exposure to
contaminated water resources lead to health risks (Enarson, 2000; Patt et al., 2007
cited in Dunkelman et al., 2008; Aguilar, 2009).
Women as guardians of health and caregivers. It is also the responsibility of
women to watch over the health of their families and communities. They are the
primary caregivers when illness strikes (Smyth, 2008; Genanet/LIFEe.V.& WECF,
2006). Global warming adds to the burden of these tasks (Mitchell et al., 2007).
Rising sea levels resulting from natural disasters bring vector and waterborne
diseases, such as malaria, in their aftermath; increasing temperatures result in heat-
related illness and mortality, with older people and children at the highest risk. The
declining quantity and quality of drinking water and calorie deficiency due to food
scarcity increase vulnerability to disease and malnutrition. The physical and men-
tal stress of environmental refugees, displaced by food and water scarcity or civil
conflict, due to a variety of socioeconomic factors but ignited by scarce resources
(Wallace, 2009; CNA, 2007; WEDO, 2007), adds to the responsibilities and chal-
lenges of health care as does the limitation of health care options open to women
due to the loss of traditional medicines resulting from the decrease in biodiversity
brought on by permanent temperature change (Aguilar, 2009).
Women as economic actors. Women not only produce food for their families
but also contribute to the economy of the community (Dunkelman et al., 2008).
However, because they are overrepresented in agricultural and informal sectors
(Smyth, 2008; Thanh, 2008; WEDO, 2007), the diminishing availability of arable
land, due to weather extremes, and the reduction in agro-biodiversity upon which
women rely to diversify their crops to accommodate to climatic variability, is a
threat to their livelihood (Enarson, 2000). Increased epidemics resulting from cli-
mate variability have also made it harder, especially for female-headed households
to adopt new strategies for crop production or to mobilize livestock (Mitchell et al.,
2007). In addition, because of their responsibilities as food providers and caregivers,
women, unlike men, are often prevented from migrating to look for better employ-
ment and/or from availing themselves of opportunities to acquire new skills that
would add to their options as economic actors.
Women as heads of households. Resource shortage and unreliable job markets,
due in part to the impact of climate change on agricultural livelihoods, have led men
to leave their homes in search of employment, leading to an increase in female-
headed households. Civil conflict in which men participate at higher rates has also
taken men from their familial responsibilities. As a result, there is an increasing
number of female-headed households (Genanet et al., 2006). Women must assume
the burden of men’s responsibilities as well as their own without access to the needed
resources and, as noted above, in the face of climate variability which threatens their
sources of livelihood (Aguilar, 2008, 2009).
Limited or Lack of Access to Community Assets
A group’s vulnerability to risks will depend to a great extent on the assets they have
available to deal with them (Aguilar, 2009). Because of the gender inequality built
into cultural norms, women have limited access to or, in some cases, a total lack
of access to community resources – physical, financial, human, social, and natural
capital – which would enhance their capacity to cope with climatic changes (Brody
et al., 2008; Lambrou & Piana, 2006; Aguilar, 2008). In many societies, opportuni-
ties to benefit from services for education, training, health, and legal matters are not
easily accessible to women and, sometimes, not accessible at all (e.g., see the case
studies on Ghana and Senegal in Dunkelman et al., 2008). Additionally, women are,
often, not a part of the communication network that provides information regarding
forecasted natural disasters and other hazards from climate change. Nor are they
informed of related relief programs and technologies for dealing with its impact.
They are absent from or have minimal input in the decision-making bodies that plan
for natural disaster preparedness and rehabilitation and other climate change miti-
gation and adaptation activities. As a result, their priorities are neglected. They do
not have access to a fair share of financial (e.g., credit), technological, and social
resources (e.g. health care services and nutritional resources). These include the
distribution of natural disaster immune and arable land and resources for land use
(Dunkelman et al., 2008; Brody et al., 2008; Kalyanimitra Foundation, 2008; Smyth,
2008; Thanh, 2008; WEDO, 2007).
How Vulnerability to Climate Change Affects Women
As outlined above, due to climate change, the responsibilities assigned to women as

food providers, guardians of health, and caregivers have increased their workload.
There is more to do, and the difficulty of access and availability adds to the burden
of these added tasks. The magnified need for caregiving during periods of environ-
mental stress makes women less mobile and less able to deal with effects of climate
change. Moreover, women, like those for whom they must care, find themselves
vulnerable to the health risks brought on by improper nutrition and contaminated
water resources (Thanh, 2008). As economic actors, they find their options reduced
while, at the same time, they are faced with taking on the additional responsibili-
ties of men, fulfilling the tasks of the head of a household. All this is with limited
or total lack of access to the needed resources that are available in a community.
Additionally, the threats to their human security outlined above are compounded by
(1) the mortality and injury they suffer in the face of natural disaster and (2) the
feminization of poverty and the violation of their human rights both exacerbated by
climate change.
Mortality, Morbidity, and Injuries due to Natural Disasters
Research has shown that increased extreme weather events, such as cyclones, hur-
ricanes, floods and heat waves, place a higher toll on the lives of women than that
of men (Genanet et al., 2006; Smyth, 2008). For example, findings from Neumayer
and Plümper’s (2007) much quoted study of 141 countries that had experienced
natural disasters between 1981 and 2002 found that natural disasters lower the life
124 A.L. Wenden
expectancy of women more than that of men; the stronger the disaster, the stronger
this effect on the gender gap in life expectancy, though the effect was weaker among
women from a higher socioeconomic status. Neumayer and Plümper conclude that it
is the socially constructed gender-specific vulnerability of women built into every-
day socioeconomic patterns that leads to relatively higher female mortality rates
compared to those of men in times of natural disasters. Indeed, in the face of nat-
ural disasters, women’s caregiving responsibilities can prevent them from fleeing
the home (Beinin, 1981 & Oxfam Int’l, 2005 cited in Neumayer & Plümper, 2007).
And even if caregiving did not prevent them from doing so, some cultural norms
require that they not leave the home in search of safety without a male relative,
nor may they relocate after a natural disaster without the relative’s consent. These
same norms have prevented them from acquiring lifesaving skills, such as swim-
ming (Genanet et al., 2006; Cannon, 2000 cited in Neumayer & Plümper, 2007;
Aguilar, 2008; Thanh, 2008). Moreover, not only does mortality come in the wake
of natural disasters, such catastrophic environmental events are also accompanied by
increased numbers of injuries and disease morbidity among survivors. In the case of
women, they are at higher risk for suffering from PTSD and the domestic violence
that has been shown to result from natural disasters and the conflict it may engender
(Galea, Nandi, & Vlahov, 2005).
Feminization of Poverty
As noted earlier, the world’s poor, of whom 70% are women, are on the front lines
when the manifestations of climate change strike. Thus, together with the sociocul-
tural norms that determine the gendered division of labor, poverty is an economic
factor that must be recognized as contributing to the vulnerability of women to
climatic disasters (Pan American Health Organization, n.d.; Genanet et al., 2006;
Mitchell et al., 2007; Neumayer & Plümper, 2007) and other less dramatic but also
harmful impacts of global warming.
While, on the one hand, poverty makes women more vulnerable to climate
change, on the other hand, the impact of climate change on their lives exacerbates
these conditions of poverty under which they live. As already noted, poor women are
overrepresented in agricultural and informal sectors and so more likely to lose their
sources of livelihood in the face of natural disasters, such as hurricanes. Women
farmers are often allocated the nonarable land in a community, which will be ren-
dered useless in the event of a drought, thus making rehabilitation more difficult if at
all possible. As a result poor women “slip deeper into poverty and the inequality and
marginalization they suffer from because of their gender, increases” (Dunkelman
et al., 2008, p. 10). Thus climate change contributes to a cycle of poverty, inequality,
and vulnerability: it exacerbates the feminization of poverty and, as a result, magni-
fies existing inequalities between women and men, which in turn make them more
vulnerable to and less capable of coping with climate change (Masika, 2002; UNDP,
2007; WEDO, 2007; Mitchell et al., 2007; Dunkelman et al., 2008; Aguilar, 2009;
Brody et al., 2008).
Violation of Human Rights

Thus far the impact of women’s vulnerabilities to climate change has been consid-
ered from the perspective of human security, analysed by the WEDO framework
as (1) security of survival, (2) security of livelihood, and (3) dignity (Dunkelman
et al., 2008). In contrast, in their briefing paper, Climate wrongs and human rights,
OXFAM (2008) views the impact of climate change from the perspective of human
rights. They list four basic human rights acknowledged in the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant of Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (ICESCR), similar to the first two dimensions of human security,
outlined in the WEDO framework: the Right to Life and Security (UDHR, arti-
cle 3), the Right to Food (ICESCR, Article 11), the Right to Subsistence (ICESCR,
Article 1.2), and the Right to Health (ICESCR). The report maintains that climate
change is set to undermine these human rights on a massive scale and that as doc-
umented by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the continued
and excessive emissions of greenhouse gases by countries with highly industrialized
economies continues to deprive millions of people of the water, soil, and land they
need to survive. Moreover, they note that the rights of vulnerable and marginalized
groups, such as women, are particularly at risk.
Indeed, climate change as a human rights issue is a notion that has been
recently affirmed in the January 15, 2009 Report of the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which highlights the observed and
projected impacts of climate change and their implication for the enjoyment of
human rights and the responsibilities of states under international human rights law
(A/HRC/10/61). The Statement of the CEDAW Committee on Gender and Climate
Change (2009) addressed to the UNFCCC also demands that climate change and
disaster risk reduction “respect human rights”.
From this perspective, the impact of climate change on the human security of
women is, in effect, a violation of their human rights and a direct threat to the imple-
mentation of CEDAW and the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA). These sources
of human security, that is, survival, livelihood, and dignity, are at one and the same
time inviolable rights listed not only in the UDHR and the ICESCR but also in the
CEDAW, the women’s bill of rights, and the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA),
which aims to implement CEDAW. This is illustrated in Fig. 7.1, which lists some
of the vulnerabilities to climate change discussed in preceding sections as examples
of human rights violations.
Adaptive Capacities of Women in Responding

to Climate Change
Climate change presents women with one of the greatest opportunities in history
for addressing inequities and enhancing human security (O’Brien, 2007 cited in
Dunkelman et al., 2008). It presents them with the opportunity to challenge the
relationships of gender inequality written into the norms of social institutions and
126 A.L. Wenden
Right to life – survival, security and health

• Inferior energy sources and contaminated water lead to health risks.
• During natural disasters, more women die than men because they
are not warned, cannot swim, or cannot leave the house alone.
• Mental health problems also come in the wake of natural disasters.
UDHR 3; CEDAW 12,14-2b; BPfA 1,C.2
Right to sources of livelihood—food, water, energy, shelter, economic
security
• Climate change (CC) increases the difficulty of accessing food,
water, and sources of energy, typically the responsibility of women.
• Sociocultural norms and increased caregiving responsibilities due to
CC prevent women from migrating to look for shelter and work when
a disaster hits.
UDHR 25 CEDAW 13, 14-2g,h; BPfA F.1
Right to participation— decision-making opportunities and information
• Increased responsibilities due to climate change (CC) limit women’s
participation in planning and decision making about CC adaptation
activities.
• Women’s lack of access to local communication networks denies
their right to information regarding forecasted natural disasters and
related relief services.
UDHR 21, 27; CEDAW 7, 8, 14-2 a, f, 15 BPfA G.1, K.1.
Right to capacity development—education and income generation

opportunities
• Increased responsibilities resulting from CC deprive women of
opportunities to train for alternative sources of income generation.
• During or after disasters, more girls drop out of school to reduce
household expenses or to assist with household tasks, or because
of early marriage.
UDHR 23, 26; CEDAW 10, 11, 14 1, 2 d, e; BPfA A.2, B.1, L.4
Fig. 7.1 Climate change as a violation of women’s human rights. Adapted from Information
Sheet, Climate change and the CEDAW, prepared by the NGO/CSW Subcommittee on Women
and Climate Change www.ngocsw.org
the perceptions with which they are viewed by society and by which they often view
themselves.
Women as Agents of Change in Their Communities
After 150 years of industrialization, global warming has gained momentum and will
continue to affect the Earth’s natural system for hundreds of years. Nonetheless,
measures can and must be taken to reduce the rate of warming by curbing the emis-
sion of greenhouse gases (GHG) by human activities. Societies must learn how to
reduce the size of their carbon footprint if GHG concentrations are to be kept at a
safe level. Efforts must also be made to help people adapt to the consequences of
climate change, that is, to be less vulnerable and more resilient.
It is in this endeavor that women can and must step forward to take leadership
as equal partners with men. A view of women and climate change that focuses only
on their vulnerabilities is ‘misleading’ (Lambrou & Piana, 2006). It is only one
half of the picture; as suggested in Dunkelman et al. (2008), “Too often women
are primarily perceived as the main victims of climate change and not as positive
agents of change and contributors to livelihood adaptation strategies” (p. 11), and in
the Statement of the CEDAW committee (2009), “. . . . women are not just victims of
climate change – they are powerful agents of change and their leadership is critical.”
Aguilar (2009) agrees that women’s leadership is ‘critical,’ adding that they
have the potential to either “help or hinder strategies for energy use, deforesta-
tion, population, economic growth and science and technology . . .” (p. 59). In fact,
women are already more engaged in climate change–related activities than what
is recognized and valued in their community (Escobar-Darvahal, Quintero-Angel,
& Vargas-Garcia, 2008). Worldwide, they are taking the initiative in adapting to a
changing climate and articulating what they need to secure and sustain their liveli-
hoods more effectively (Mitchell et al., 2007; Aguilar, 2009), thus challenging the
perception of victimhood that results when the focus is only on their vulnerabilities
and taking on the role of change agents in their communities.
Promoting Women as Leaders in Adapting to Climate Change
Community projects aimed at developing resilience to the manifestations of climate

change have enabled women to assume roles of leadership by using one or more of
the following strategies.
Providing for Equal Participation of Both Women and Men in Planning

and Decision Making
In the municipality of La Masica, a project of community preparedness for disaster,
launched by the Central American disaster prevention agency, included both men
and women in the establishment of local organizations in charge of risk and dis-
aster management, training in geographical mapping of hazards and development
of an early warning system. Women took on the task of monitoring the warning
system, and therefore when the hurricane struck, the municipality was prepared and
evacuated the area promptly, thus avoiding deaths (Women in Development Program
Unit, 1999).
Using Women’s Traditional Knowledge and Expertise

During a drought in the Federated States of Micronesia, local women knowledge-
able about island hydrology found potable water by digging a new well that reached
the freshwater lens. While Pacific island men know more about fishing in deep
waters, women know about the shoreline, because they often collect shellfish close
to the waters’ edge. Thus, their knowledge could add significant value to programs
designed to protect against coastal erosion (AusAID, 2008).
128 A.L. Wenden
Providing Women with Opportunities to take Leadership and Solve

Problems Creatively
In Tamil Nadu, water is a very precious commodity due to an arid climate exac-
erbated by global warming. To adapt, women have organized self-help groups to
protect the areas around hand pumps. The groups have canalized the wastewater and
used it to water vegetable and fruit gardens, collecting a water users’ fee from every
household for maintenance of the hand pumps. Already trained in rainwater har-
vesting, the women have learned how to repair hand pumps. Having thus responded
to their community’s need for water, the women now feel empowered to raise their
voices with Panchayati officials from the forest conservation departments regarding
environmental issues (Experiences in Tamil Nadu, n.d.).
Providing Skills Training and Access to Agricultural Technology

Mali, a Sahelian country, is two thirds desert, and 90% of the country’s energy
needs are met by burning wood and charcoal. The Sinsibere project works to reduce
desertification by developing sustainable sources of income for rural women as an
alternative to their commerce in wood. Besides environmental literacy and financial
education, rural women are trained to grow vegetable gardens, make soap, and use
energy-efficient stoves, thus diversifying their income sources. After six years, 80%
of the participating women no longer cut wood for commercial purposes and, in this
way, mitigate the future threat of climate change (UNISDR, 2008).
Redefining Women’s Roles and Realigning Relationships of Inequality

While not an exhaustive list of strategies, the above projects illustrate how women
can take leadership to anticipate, cope with, resist and/or recover from the impact
of climate change (cf. Aguilar, 2009 and Dunkelman et al., 2008 for other exam-
ples). Such involvement brings with it the potential of redefining their roles and
realigning culturally determined relationships of inequality, a notion affirmed by
Enarson (2000) and O’Brien (2007), who note, referring to how women respond
to natural disasters, that this could give women a singular opportunity to chal-
lenge and change their gendered status in society (cited in Dunkelman et al.,
2008, p. 11).
How such change may happen is suggested by the examples in the preceding
section. In La Masica, women work as partners with men in a project for commu-
nity preparedness for disaster, a task typically allocated to men. As food providers,
Micronesian women collect shellfish close to the waters’ edge, acquiring knowledge
of the shoreline and the island hydrology. This knowledge, which men, who fish in
deep waters, do not have, places women in a position of power when it comes to
decision making and planning for programs to protect against coastal erosion and to
dig wells to find potable water. It provides them with the capacity to take initiatives
in tasks outside the home, which would traditionally fall within the scope of men’s
responsibilities.
In Tamil Nadu, as providers of food and water for their families, women orga-
nized to deal creatively with the village’s scarce water supply. These creative efforts
empowered them not only to take on leadership within the village but to move
beyond the village to provide input to forest conservation departments regarding
environmental issues. In this case we see an ever-widening scope of responsibilities
for women – moving from the home and local community, the traditional venue of
their involvement, to governmental departments, the public sphere beyond the local
community. (See the case studies in Dunkelman et al., 2008, for a similar expan-
sion of roles). The Sinsibere project demonstrates the critical role education plays
if women are to be change agents within their communities. New knowledge pro-
vided by the training project and the behavior change that followed resulted in better
control of the adverse effects of climate change. Such an outcome has the potential
of bringing about a feeling of empowerment basic to challenging relationships of
inequality.
That involvement in projects to adapt to climate change has the potential to lead
women to challenge their gendered status is a notion that derives some support from
the American Psychological Association [APA] (2009) discussion of the psycho-
logical benefits associated with responding to climate change, though the research
referred to is not of women as a subgroup. Noting that “actions to deal with the
challenges of climate change may transform and strengthen the resilience of . . . . a
community and individuals (my italics) (p. 93),” they refer to research findings that
found competence, enhanced personal meaning, a sense of self-efficacy that resulted
from effective efforts at climate change adaptation and mitigation. All these factors
could contribute to the empowerment of women necessary to challenge relationships
of inequality.
Cupples’s (2007) insights derived from her research on the reworking of gender
identity and subjectivities as women respond to natural disasters offer conflicting
support to the notion that empowerment flows from involvement. She reports that
while some women perceived themselves as victims, others felt a new sense of free-
dom. However, the focus of her research is the impact of Hurricane Mitch and not
adaptation projects aiming at resiliency as described above. In other words, more
research is necessary to determine definitively whether new tasks and responsibil-
ities will lead to a change in self-identification and a stable redefinition of gender
roles.
Research on the Gendered Dimensions

of Climate Change
The integration of a gender-sensitive perspective in climate change research is rela-
tively new (Brody et al., 2008), and as noted earlier, there is little existing research
considering the linkages between climate change and gender, although the need for
such research is a theme that recurs in the literature reviewed (e.g. Brody et al., 2008;
Smyth, 2008; Neumayer & Plümper 2007; Aguilar, 2008; Thanh, 2008; Genanet
et al., 2006). In this concluding section, therefore, I will take up this theme and
130 A.L. Wenden
briefly suggest what could contribute to a better understanding of the vulnerabilities

of women to climate change and their adaptive capacities.
Research on Vulnerability
Except for research on gender and natural disasters, for the greater part, insights on
the vulnerability of women to climate change is derived from descriptive reports of
the impact of climate change in various world regions. There is a need for system-
atic research on gender differences as these apply to the impact of climate change,
adaptation, and resource use. The following examples of questions that should be
explored are based on Brody et al. (2008); Neumayer and Plümper (2007), Lambrou
and Piana (2006), and Genanet et al. (2006).
Gender-Specific Effects of Climate Change

How and why do natural disasters affect women differentially from men? How has
the health of women and men been differentially affected by climate change? How,
specifically, does climate change lead to violence against women and girls? How
does natural resource depletion and limited access lead to gender-related conflict
within households?
Gender and Decision Making on Climate Change

Have programs aimed at mitigating environmental impacts or at improving resource
management included women? What are the current levels of female participation
in decision making on climate change at local, regional, national, and international
levels – both in terms of the numbers of women participating as well as the quality
of that participation? What are the barriers to participation and to being heard and
taken seriously?
Gender-Specific Resource Use Patterns

What are the different energy consumption patterns of men and women? For
example, in transport, household management, agriculture? Who is causing most
emissions and for what purpose? How do socioeconomic status and education affect
resource use by women? By men?
Gender-Specific Accessibility to Technology and Community

Resources
Are new technologies for dealing with the impact of climate change equally acces-
sible to women and men? Extension services? Credit facilities? If not, what are the
barriers to women’s access?
Research on Adaptive Capacities

As regards women’s adaptive capacities, as examples in the preceding section indi-
cate, there is an emerging body of research on best practices, that is, women’s
capacity to adapt to climate change (e.g. Dunkelman et al., 2008; UNDP, 2008; FAO,
2003). This needs to be expanded (Brody et al., 2008). New research in this area
should also aim to specify gender-based aspects of mitigation and adaptation. The
notion that involvement in adaptation projects has the potential to redefine the roles
of women would also benefit from systematic subjectivity research of women as a
subgroup, using the approach described in Cupples (2007). Longitudinal case stud-
ies are also needed to determine whether women’s participation in adaptation and
mitigation activities actually results in stable change in role definition and gender
identity perception.
Note
1. It must be recognized, however, that since Fall 2009 when this paper was submitted for publi-
cation, due to the efforts of the GGCA, WEDO and other women’s advocacy groups, gender
equality has become more prominent in the outcomes of the UNFCCC’s annual Conference of
the Parties, most recently the Cancun Accords (2010), which recognize women as integral to
effective actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change, including eight references to gender
across seven sections of the text.
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Chapter 8
Climate Change Refugees
Michael Hollifield, Mindy Thompson Fullilove, and Stevan E. Hobfoll
Overview
Because the term “environmental refugees” has been used broadly and
inconsistently in the literature, Lonergan suggested five types of causal environ-
mental stressors for evaluative purposes: natural disasters, cumulative or slow-onset
environmental changes, natural or industrial accidents, development projects, and
conflict and warfare. Events associated with climate change that may create refugees
include shoreline erosion, coastal flooding, and agricultural disruption (Lonergan,
1998). Shifting global temperatures and consequent alterations in regional ocean
acidity and flow patterns threaten coral reefs, marine biodiversity, and thus habitats
for humans and other animals. One to three degree increases in global temperatures
exacerbate droughts, dustbowls, and perhaps tornados in some regions. If tempera-
tures rise three to six degrees, ocean plankton will be threatened by further ocean
acidity, there will be more heat waves such as the one in 2003 that killed 30,000 peo-
ple in Europe, the Amazon basin will grow increasingly dry, and melted snowpacks
will threaten major cities due to more severe storms and increasing tides. The evi-
dence for disruption and displacement due to these specific climate change events is
not yet as robust as for other types of environmental stressors such as political con-
flict, warfare, and natural disasters. However, it is estimated that up to 200 million
people could be overtaken by sea level rise, coastal flooding, and droughts once the
full effects of global warming take hold (Myers, 2002).
The general effects of climate change on human health and well-being are
detailed in other chapters. These effects include nutritional insufficiency due to
drought, heat stress from heat waves, injuries due to extreme weather events and
their sequelae, infectious disease outbreaks due to changing patterns of insect and
M. Hollifield (B)
The Behavioral Health Research Center of the Southwest, Pacific Institute for Research and
Evaluation, Albuquerque, NM, USA; University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA;
University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA; Program for Traumatic Stress, The VA Long Beach
Healthcare System, Long Beach, CA, USA
e-mail: mhollifield@bhrcs.org


136 M. Hollifield et al.
waterborne diseases, and poor nutrition from reduced access to food (Blashki,
McMichael, & Karoly, 2007). Mental health effects of climate change events are
less well understood (Fritze, Blashki, Burke, & Wiseman, 2008). It is known that
mental health outcomes differ by the type and severity of events experienced and the
social, cultural, and historical contexts in which they occur (Ozer, Best, Lipsey, &
Weiss, 2003). It has been theorized that climate change will affect mental health by
direct and indirect pathways (Berry, Bowen, & Kjellstrom, 2009). Types of climate
change events are discussed in part I of this book. In this chapter we focus on the
psychological and psychosocial effects of such events, particularly when climate
change creates refugees.
While the definition of “refugee” varies by different international organizations,
all include aspects of displacement (Williams & Westermeyer, 1986). However,
because of the slower nature of the events, climate change will also create a new kind
of refugee who will be either nondisplaced or minimally displaced geographically,
but who instead will be distressed by a new environment that has been displaced
onto them. In fact, the term “solastalgia” has already been coined to indicate the
“distress that is produced by environmental change impacting on people while they
are directly connected to their home environment,” which is described in more detail
in Chapter 2 (Albrecht et al., 2007). These climate change refugees will be defined
less by displacement and more by resources that are lost or redistributed in their
environment. Whether displaced or not, the primary resources that will be at risk
and that have a powerful impact on mental well-being will be stability of place,
identity, and belonging, as well as internal physiological homeostasis. Mental health
outcomes will be determined by individual and group capacity to adapt to new con-
ditions. After discussing theoretical and applied concepts of the resources at risk
and adverse mental health outcomes, we provide a framework for how the global
community might prevent and treat psychosocial problems associated with climate
change.
A Broad View: Resource Conservation Versus Loss
The relative loss, gain, and redistribution of resources over time are important
variables in predicting individual and collective adaptive capacity after traumatic
experiences. For example, a task force on war-related stress concluded that the risk
for developing a stress-related illness is best predicted by the degree of objective
stressors and actual resources at the individual’s disposal (Hobfoll et al., 1991).
Other studies have shown that the loss of resources is also a predictor of psycholog-
ical distress in survivors of war, natural disasters, and terrorist attacks (Hall et al.,
2008; Hobfoll et al., 2009; Norris, Friedman, & Watson, 2002; Palmieri, Canetti-
Nisim, Galea, Johnson, & Hobfoll, 2008; Silver, Holman, McIntosh, Poulin, &
Gil-Rivas, 2002; Smith, Veenhuis, & MacCormack, 2000). Well-being depends on
the availability and successful management of both internal and external resources
(Hobfoll & Jackson, 1991), which operate in a social context where there is sharing
and exchange between individuals and their community. In the wake of the chronic
8 Climate Change Refugees 137
stress and trauma associated with climate change, some people are so injured – so
resource depleted – that it is difficult for them to take advantage of resources that
might be offered. For those displaced to new countries with new languages to learn,
they almost always have a new, less-powered sociopolitical status such that their
capacity to reestablish place, restructure identity, and regain a sense of belonging
is just that much more difficult. This scenario promotes a cycle of loss, termed a
“loss spiral” (Benotsch et al., 2000). When resources diminish, symptoms increase,
and there is a bidirectional relationship between resources and symptoms over time
(Benotsch et al., 2000).
The Conservation of Resources (COR) theory bridges the gap between environ-
mental and cognitive/perceptual viewpoints by conceptualizing stress as “a reaction
to the environment in which there is the threat of a net loss of resources, the
actual net loss of resources, or the lack of resource gain following the invest-
ment of resources” (Hobfoll, 1989). This view is highly relevant to climate change
and the refugee experience in which specificity of experience is overwhelmed
by “world loss” that confronts those faced with chronic stress, extreme trauma,
and displacement. It is also an appropriate model to capture the nature of the
stress associated with slower changes, such as a slowly rising tide that has caused
minimal displacement yet significant redistribution of resources. In this model,
there are four general categories of resources – objects, personal characteristics,
conditions, and energies – that are at risk of being lost, are lost, and may be
gained in the healing process. Climate change refugees may have many types of
resources placed at risk due to shifting environments. However, common to all
types of stressful events are those that threaten the physical and psychological
integrity of the self: one’s place, identity, and sense of belonging and physiological
homeostasis.
Resources in and Around the Self

The risks to core external (i.e., place) and internal (psychological and physiological
homeostasis) resources for climate change refugees can be more fully under-
stood from developmental and biopsychosocial perspectives. In his synthetic work,
Attachment and Loss (1969–1982), John Bowlby had as a premise that the recip-
rocated attachment between infants and their principal attachment figure provides
an evolutionary survival benefit. The innate attachment behavioral system serves to
achieve and maintain close proximity to the principal figure, which provides safety,
security, protection, and ultimately confers genetic replication. With age, adaptive
attachment behaviors are transactional and grow in number and scope of figures
as the child gains capacity to venture out from the primary figure to the world
around. By developing an internal working model of social relationships, the per-
son develops a unique set of thoughts, memories, beliefs, expectations, emotions,
and behaviors to form identity. By late adolescence, the primary attachment figures
begin to recede as the larger community gains predominance for identity forma-
tion. Bowlby argued that each person occupies a unique personal environment that
serves as an “outer ring of life-sustaining systems complementary to the ‘inner-ring’

of systems that maintain physiological homeostasis” (Bowlby, 1973, p. 50).
George Engel coined and developed the biopsychosocial model on the premise
that “nature is ordered as a hierarchically arranged continuum, with its more com-
plex, larger units superordinate to the less complex, smaller units” (Engel, 1981).
Engel’s depiction, adapted below as Fig. 8.1, shows how the nesting of these units
implies the orchestration between molecules, cells, persons, dyads, communities,
and the larger biosphere. While each unit is an “organized dynamic whole” and
has its unique properties and rules of functioning, each smaller unit is necessarily
a component of larger units. In his classic article “The Clinical Application of the
Biopsychosocial Model” (Engel, 1981), Engel describes how one unit (e.g., person)
is a part of the larger units in a stable configuration in time and space. For example, a
cell has no identity separate from person who is necessarily identified and influenced
by external environment. In this article, Engel continues to demonstrate the clini-
cally relevant interactions between the units both internal and external to the person
in the specific case of a man having a heart attack. In this case, the immediate event
begins within the person, yet over time internal physiological adaptation is also
dependent on external resources (e.g., effective versus noneffective interventions by
Biosphere
Society - Nation
Culture - Subculture
Community
Family
Two Person
Nervous System
Organ – Organ System
Tissue
Cell
Organelle
Molecule
Fig. 8.1 Pictoral depiction of Engel’s Biopsychosocial Model

others, goodness of the care system) and features of personal identity (e.g., confi-
dence, pain, anxiety, anger, help-seeking versus withdrawal). The value of Engel’s
work was that he pictoralized and applied a model of health that was real and that
captured how social and psychosomatic medicine worked. It allowed for the rele-
vance of social and psychological factors on biological health, not requiring them to
be reduced into biochemical and cellular terms in order to have meaning.
For the climate change refugee, the immediate event begins outside of the self,
yet health outcomes will also depend on internal and person-level resources. A sud-
den disaster or a slowly rising tide threatens individual and collective resources.
Whether displaced or not, place will be disrupted, and there will be shifts in
boundaries of identity and belonging and, along with them, internal homeostasis.
Disruptions of Place, Identity, and Belonging
Place
In detailing the psychology of place, Fullilove describes different dimensions of

place as a way of defining the immediate and intimate portion of the environ-
mental unit outside of the person and the psychiatric implications of displacement
(M. Fullilove, 1996). Place and home can be thought of as the “geographic center,”
which facilitates attachment, development and identity, and survival and is optimally
healthy when it also has nondiscriminatory structures that promote the human search
for meaning, creativity, and generativity. Place can also be understood as “standing
for the human interactions occurring in a given location,” and represents the “nodes
of the life biography,” important in providing the “sum of resources and human rela-
tionships in a given location,” which sets the conditions for human identity. A stable
and optimal place offers the best chance for a homeostatic environment. Disruptions
to place threaten biopsychosocial homeostasis by altering attachments, familiarity,
and place identity and may result in psychological problems of nostalgia, disori-
entation, and alienation. Place loss not only affects people’s sense of identity and
belonging but is also an identified risk factor for poor mental health.
Places that are and will be most affected by climate change are more likely to be
less than optimal and at more risk for ongoing disruption. One example of this is
Sri Lanka, a country that is highly susceptible to rising tides from global warming
or catastrophic events such as the 2004 tsunami. Chronic stress because of social
and cultural divisions was the backdrop for the collective trauma of one of the worst
floods in history. In 1948, the island of Ceylon gained independence from Britain. In
spite of decades of British imprinting, the island held two other identified groups: the
Sinhalese, who comprise 74% of the island and are said to be descendants of Prince
Vijaya after being exiled from the Sinahapura kingdom in northwest India, and the
Tamils, whose origins appear to be the current area of southern India and Northern
Sri Lanka before the land mass separated. In 1956, the government named the major-
ity Sinhala the official language of the state, immediately establishing the Sinhalese
as the identified owners of Ceylon and the Tamils as the “other.” These man-made
demarcations resulted in the ensuing feelings of marginalization by the Tamils, and
reactive anti-Tamil riots in 1958 were an almost predictable response that marked
the overt beginning of ethnic distrust. Growing conflict continued after Ceylon was
named Sri Lanka in 1972, fueling the formation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam in 1976 and the beginning of the civil war by 1983. Over the next 21 years
this internal struggle would surge and regress in spite of international interventions
and prophesied truces and cease-fires.
It was in this chaotic social and physical ecology that the Asian tsunami hit on
December 26, 2004. Sri Lanka reported 31,187 deaths and 545,715 displaced. The
Southern province with a population of 2.3 million was severely affected by the
tsunami. A third of the people live below the poverty level, and the public health
care system was resource-poor, partly due to the ongoing civil strife. The Peraliya
area is adjacent to the main coastal road, and its people primarily support themselves
by fishing. Over 95% of Peraliya’s structures were destroyed, 450 families became
homeless, and approximately 296 inhabitants and 1,500 people on a train that was
traveling through the area perished when the tsunami struck. Because of the devas-
tation and the new government-imposed rule prohibiting new building within 100
meters of the sea, villagers had to relocate, rebuild, and shift their places and with it
part of their identities. People in Peraliya noted that the power relationships that gov-
erned how funds were distributed shifted, sometimes reinforcing the hold over the
community by some families and power brokers while at other times creating new
power alliances. Resettlement and rebuilding within Sri Lanka after the tsunami was
negotiated in the backdrop of inequalities that have formed in the fault lines of war
and ethnic inequality (Ruwanpura, 2009). These post-disaster processes have only
strengthened what had been going on for decades. Splitting identities along ethnic,
familial, and social status lines mimicked the ongoing battle between Sinhalese and
Tamils.
Forty percent of people in Peralia had clinically significant symptoms of posttrau-
matic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety 21 months after the tsunami
(Hollifield et al., 2008). Another study showed even higher levels of distress in Sri
Lankans living in temporary shelters 6 months after the storm: 64% of women and
42% of men had significant PTSD symptoms (Ranasinghe & Levy, 2007). This
symptom prevalence was fourfold higher than what was predicted by the World
Health Organization soon after the disaster (Miller, 2005) and was most certainly
an interaction between the effects of the tsunami and decades-long disruption of
place and ongoing stress of poverty and war, which has been identified as “trauma
on trauma” (Ozgediz, Adams, & Dicker, 2007).
Loss of place has been identified in many other studies as a significant pre-
dictor of poor mental health, although this loss is inevitably confounded by many
other stressors. In Sri Lanka, prolonged displacement was one factor contributing to
depressive and PTSD symptoms in adolescents in addition to psychosocial and fam-
ily losses and poor maternal mental health (Nikapota, 2006; Wickrama & Kaspar,
2007). On the Andaman and Nicobar islands following the tsunami, Port Blair
had 12 camps that provided shelter for 4,684 survivors, and there were 62 camps
that sheltered people who stayed in their habitat despite needing temporary shelter.
Overall psychiatric morbidity was 5.2% in the displaced group – more commonly,
panic disorder, anxiety disorders, and somatic complaints – and 2.8% in those who
could remain near their home, a preponderance being adjustment reactions (Math
et al., 2008). Interestingly, PTSD and depression were distributed equally among
the two groups. Whether from displacement or disruption of place, other stud-
ies have revealed the negative effects of place loss due to hurricanes (Acierno,
Ruggiero, Kilpatrick, Resnick, & Galea, 2006), socioeconomic problems (Mogollon
Perez & Vazquez Navarrete, 2006), demolition and urban development (Bowie,
Farfel, & Moran, 2005), and war (Desjarlais, 1995; Sikic, Javornik, Stracenski,
Bunjevac, & Buljan-Flander, 1997; Steel, Silove, Bird, McGorry, & Mohan,
1999).
Identity and Belonging

The disruption caused by climate change will necessarily alter boundaries of identity
and belonging for individuals and communities. Many deteriorating environments
present the option to stay or to go. For example, some disaster survivors decide to
remain at home, promising to rebuild and make a better life for themselves. Others
find it intolerable to remain, haunted day and night with memories provoked by
ongoing stress and nightmarish reminders. For such individuals, where place dis-
ruption has provoked shifts in identity and a sense of belonging, removing oneself
and one’s family from the now-alien place may be seen as the best option to move
forward. This emerging refugee, like his counterpart who has maintained a sense of
identity and belonging in the stressed environment, often feels there is no choice but
to flee from an increasingly dangerous world.
The potential for this dual response is illustrated by movement patterns after the
1999 earthquake in Turkey. Among those whose homes were rendered uninhabit-
able, 88% relocated to shelters. Loss of psychosocial resources was the primary
axis predicting relocation. Specifically, relocation was predicted by the loss of loved
ones, the degree of material loss, and behavioral avoidance of situations that were
reminders of the earthquake (Salcoglu, Basoglu, & Livanou, 2008). Those who
could no longer identify the destroyed place as their place were more likely to
relocate where there was hope for self- and family reconstruction.
In her essay Postcoloniality and the Aftermath of Revolution among Vietnamese
Refugees, Jenkins details the long history of altered identity in Vietnam, which
served as the backdrop for mental health effects in externally displaced refugees
(Jenkins & Hollifield, 2008). After years of Chinese occupation, long-standing
national identity confusion was intensified by the French takeover in 1882–1883
when the new ruling elite began to incorporate elements of the cultural West because
they considered it superior to Sino-Vietnamese civilization. Over the next three
decades, the internal structure of what had been “Vietnam” was as much disinte-
grated as clarified. Older scholars and social leaders could no longer lead because
Chinese characters were replaced with the Roman alphabet and Confucian teachings
were at odds with the new culture. Only about 10% of children received promised
European-based education, leaving the majority at cultural odds with their own
political structure. Even the rise of the Indochinese Communist Party in 1935, led
by Ho Chi Minh, did not consolidate split identities and loyalties. Years of political
struggle resulted in postponement of an identified nation-state and created further
internal conflict about what it meant to be Vietnamese. The Geneva convention of
1954 further served to formalize the problem of Vietnamese identity that had been
going on for centuries, providing for two-zone split at the 17th parallel, with the
north dominated by the Vietminh and the south by the puppet government of the
French. Subsequent population shifts were fueled by persistent confusion about the
boundaries of identity, which provided the backdrop for both Vietnamese and US
leaders to be uncertain of who were friends and who were foes during the 1968 to
1975 US-Vietnam war.
At war’s end in 1975, hundreds of thousands of former South Vietnamese gov-
ernment and military officials, as well as intellectuals and private citizens, were
subjected to retribution through systematic imprisonment within now-infamous
“reeducation” camps. These once-proud leaders suddenly became outcasts – “non-
Vietnamese” – because of an acute-on-chronic environmental change. Identity
confusion was thus both a result and a subsequent cause of trauma and displace-
ment. For the survivors, their release from prison only extended their struggle to find
a sense of identity and belonging in the face of continued oppression. Emigration
to other countries was a choice for some and not for others. Even so, relocation did
not always help individuals regain what was already a tenuous sense of identity, as
stated by a Vietnamese man who had been a high-ranking military leader and impris-
oned for years. After being released from camp, he recalls remaining alienated in a
Vietnam that was now controlled by less-educated Vietminh:
I got so used to that, I mean you know, to always be an outsider. I mean whatever you
do. . .you might make the people (Vietminh) comfortable and happy but again, (they do) not
always appreciate what you are doing, and feel just like you are too superior, that (they)
should not keep (me) here. You have the paperwork to qualify to leave the country but you
choose not to. And the communists say what are you doing here? You can go to another
country like the others, then why are you choosing not to?
Identity conflict and further oppression eventually pressed this man to leave his
country for the USA, where he has found security but continues to suffer from many
symptoms and be nostalgic for his home country:
Yes, here I enjoy the freedom, liberty and I’m enjoying my life. And now I am living with
my wife and getting social security. But I realize that the Vietnamese are under communism,
so I expect and I never throw away my expectation to come back to my country and to
liberate my country from communist dictatorship. I live here and say I am American, but
mentally I am Vietnamese.” Then with a low voice and slow cadence: “To be truthful, I am
always Vietnamese.”
Another Vietnamese ex-military leader expressed the problem of alienation in

Vietnam during and after his release from prison, but more successfully negotiated
attachment to the USA as his country:
(In prison) we could not say something belonging to our conscience. We had to stay in the
scope of a re-educationer. I met a very close friend but we could not say anything to each
other. We knew the communists would maybe keep us until we were old or until we died
so I didn’t have any feeling of belonging or being possessed by anything or anyone. The
feelings of belonging when I came to the United States were much different than the time in
prison or out of prison in Vietnam. Here in the United States I actually feel belonging and
like I’m being taken care of and good feelings and help from the whole society and friends
who are here. When I took the citizenship test they asked me which country I belonged to
and I said my country is the United States.”
The loss of the sense of identity and belonging is associated with poor men-
tal health in refugees, whether due to war or to natural processes that may be
from climate change. In a study of 76 Somali adolescents displaced to the USA,
a greater sense of belonging at school was associated with less depression and
higher self-efficacy regardless of the severity of previous exposure to traumatic
events (Kia-Keating & Ellis, 2007). Five years after their immigration to Israel
from the former Soviet Union, and in spite of a positive change in absorption
and functioning in their new surroundings, immigrants still had the same level of
perceived stress and psychological symptoms as when they first arrived. Among
other factors associated with continued distress were perceived lack of social
support and nonidentification with the host society (Lerner, Kertes, & Zilber,
2005). In Palestinians who were facing forced removal from Gaza, distress and
demoralization were predicted by higher-risk perception and greater alienation
from the government in addition to a handful of other factors, while life satis-
faction was associated with greater place attachment, less risk perception, less
feeling of alienation from the government, and a more positive outlook about
returning to Gaza (Billig, Kohn, & Levav, 2006). The association of acute and
chronic weather-related environment change on one’s sense of identity and belong-
ing has also been described (Carroll, Morbey, Balogh, & Araoz, 2009; Dugan,
2007).
Betrayed by the World: The Environment Personified
In her work on the development of attachment to place during childhood, Louise

Chawla expounds on seminal works of Bowlby by describing how children expand
safe areas by exploring away from and returning to the shelter of the caretaker in
ever-larger spatial and psychic diameters (Chawla, 1992). As this process unfolds,
needs for dependency and protection are moved into the larger world, which, if safe,
is seen in the dimension of interdependency. The known external environment is part
of individuals’ identity and increasingly becomes the de facto caretaker. In this light,
environmental change that is stressful or traumatic may be seen as a betrayal by the
world and a sharp threat to identity.
The felt betrayal by the natural world was evident after the tsunami. The havoc
wreaked from the water is one kind of calamity that will be expected over ensuing
decades in the face of climate change. The tsunami had altered the collective identity
of those left in its wake. Most felt the loss of the sea as a protector and provider.
Always a source of peace and sustenance, the ocean had become a mnemic of the
devil’s actions in the world. In many of the coastal areas, children were no longer
allowed to go to the sea, and many children were insisting they were too frightened
to do so. A whole generation of children are expected to internalize adult fears as
they move forward in their development, as adults communicate their fears and that
they do not want anything to do with the beach or the ocean. In their work with
survivors, Nikopota and colleagues noted that coastal areas remain a source of grief
and loss, heard from one man:
I always went down to the beach whenever I wanted consolation. Now I have lost that too
(Nikapota, 2006).
Host Responses: Adaptation Versus Symptoms and Illness
The response of individuals or communities to stressful events may be a determi-

nant of health outcome as much as the event itself. The majority of refugees from
any cause do not develop stress-related disorders (Fazel, Wheeler, & Danesh, 2005).
For example, in the context of mass casualties after weather-related events, most are
highly adaptive and do not report psychological distress (Hobfoll et al., 2009). Yet, a
significant minority of refugees do experience distressing symptoms. The presence
of or lack of an adaptive response is a complicated process with many relevant bio-
logical, psychological, and social factors involved. In our framework, capacity for
an adaptive response can be thought of as a product of the total resources that people
have at the onset of the challenge and the extent of resources that they are able to fos-
ter and protect through the period of challenge. As our discussion reveals, personal,
social, and material resources are interwoven and challenged in concert by climate
change to threaten one’s place and sense of identity and belonging. The response to
these challenges and threats will be one determinant of relative adaptation or relative
failure of adaptation that leads to disintegration and illness.
Adaptation: Resistance and Resilience
“I have crossed so many rivers, I no longer get wet” is a Kurdish saying that
identifies the prolonged exposure to traumatic experiences and the resistance or
resilience of many refugees. “Resistance” is a term that has been used to describe
that majority of persons who experience transient but not enduring psychological
distress after severe stressful experiences (Bonanno et al., 2006, 2007). Bonanno
and colleagues have defined resilience as the “ability to maintain relatively sta-
ble, healthy levels of psychological. . .functioning” (Bonanno, 2005) in the face
of highly threatening events. Olsson and colleagues highlight the lack of con-
sensus about how resilience is best defined and measured (Olsson et al., 2003).
When resilience is defined as an internal property of an individual, there is dis-
agreement about how to best assess it. When resilience is conceptualized as a
process, variables that moderate the interaction between risk and protective fac-
tors are higher cognitive ability, positive self-esteem, hopefulness, problem solving
repertoire, and flexibility (Richardson, 2002). In contrast, defining resilience by pos-
itive outcomes requires specifying constructs indicative of positive adaptation in
response to adverse experiences. Measures of functionality, mental health, social
competence, life satisfaction, and somatic health have all been included in various
combinations as resilience-as-outcome constructs (Olsson et al., 2003).
As part of the New Mexico Refugee Project (Hollifield et al., 2005), in-depth
interviews were conducted to better understand factors that were adaptive and pro-
tective to health. Extant literature was used to identify key domains of resilience.
Review of participants’ narratives facilitated locating words and statements that
were reflective of resilience domains. Participants’ stories illustrated how potential
losses (i.e., to agency or physical well-being) had either been averted or how actual
losses (i.e., vitality, freedom) had been regained or recreated over time. Refugees
were saying that it was the interaction between who they are and what they have,
who and what they have lost, and who and what they have regained that either helped
them survive and thrive or caused further pain and suffering. Internal resiliency and
external protective factors were reconceptualized to illustrate distinctions between
innate characteristics, resilient actions, and protective factors associated with con-
text. Categories of innate characteristics included strength, adaptability, belonging,
and purpose. Categories of action paralleled innate characteristics (i.e., actions of
strength, actions of adaptability, etc.). Protective factors associated with context
included personal resources, social networks, place, social institutions, community
stability, and relationship with social institutions.
Hobfoll and colleagues have built on theoretical work by outlining four symp-
tom trajectories over time during an ongoing threat of mass casualty, in this case,
the latter period of the Second Intifada (Hobfoll et al., 2009). Two adaptive tra-
jectories were identified. The resistance trajectory was defined by individuals who
never develop significant symptoms of clinical distress. The resilience trajectory
was defined by initial distressing symptoms followed by recovery. In contrast, two
other trajectories identify less-adaptive capacity: chronic distress was characterized
by individuals who are initially symptomatic and remain so over time, and delayed
distress was defined by those who appear to be initially resistant but later develop
significant distress. In their sample of Arabs and Jews living in Israel, 157 (22%)
were resistant, 96 (14%) were resilient, and 383 (54%) and 73 (10%) had chronic
and delayed distress, respectively. It should be noted that the resistant and resilient
definitions required no more than one traumatic stress-related symptom on the 17-
item PSTD symptom Scale (Foa & Riggs, 1993) and no more than one depressive
symptom on the 5-item Patient Health Questionnaire (Grabe et al., 1999), which is
a relatively high standard for lack of distress. Predictors of resistance were male
gender, Jewish background, being secular, higher income and education, and less
psychosocial and economic loss. When demographic variables were controlled, less
resource loss was the best predictor of psychological adaptation to this chronic
environmental stress.
Failure of Adaptation: Distress, Disorder, and Disruption

When adaptation is not fully successful, distress and illness may ensue.
Environmental disruptions and traumatic exposure alone are significant risk factors
for distressing emotional and somatic symptoms, psychiatric disorders, psychoso-
cial problems, and poor health habits, and these effects are clearly linked to
longer-term illness and decreased life expectancy. For example, nonrefugees who
have experienced more than three traumatic childhood events (compared to none)
have a 4- to 12-fold increased risk for mental disorders, a 2- to 4-fold increased
risk for smoking and poor self-rated health, and an increased risk for physical
inactivity, obesity, and the presence of many adult diseases (Felitti et al., 1998).
For refugees, problems with loss of place and identity/belonging may also result
in various forms of psychological distress, such as alienation, demoralization, and
solastalgia in addition to psychiatric and medical illness, somatic symptoms, and
psychosocial problems.
Alienation, Demoralization, and Solastalgia

Place, identity, and belonging are intertwined and understood according to symbolic
constructions by those within the intimate place and the surrounding community.
Identity depends on having and belonging in a place where one is valued. When
identity is betrayed by place loss or devaluation of a person in relation to place,
alienation may result (M. Fullilove, 1996). In their qualitative work with Bosnian
refugees in the USA, Keyes and Kane identified elements that affected feelings of
belonging and adapting. Belonging was promoted by the protection of cultural mem-
ory, a sense of identity and respect for difference, demonstrations of empathy and
reciprocity, and perfection of speech. Adapting depended on coping with transitions
and memories of past and ongoing losses, coping with the tensions of having to
accept and fit into a new cultural space while holding on to their own, and learn-
ing the new language (Keyes & Kane, 2004). The authors identified the concurrent
alienation and hope of displaced refugees:
Implicit in the refugees’ experiences were states of culture shock, loneliness, psychic numb-
ness, grief, nostalgia, and feelings of dejection, humiliation, inferiority, and as if they
belonged nowhere. Simultaneously, the refugees reported feelings of relief and safety after
leaving behind the threat of death in their old homes, feelings of gratefulness for their new
freedom to hope for a better life, and their restored ability to notice beauty, as well as a
sense of normalcy in their new lives.
Demoralization is a parsimonious phenomenon across emotional disturbances

and is often related to a sense of alienation. A term that was coined by Jerome Frank,
demoralization “. . . results from persistent failure to cope with internally or exter-
nally induced stresses that the person and those close to him expect him to handle.
Its characteristic features, not all of which need to be present in any one person, are
feelings of impotence, isolation, and despair. . .Insofar as the meaning and signifi-
cance of life derives from the individual’s ties with persons whose values he shares,
alienation may contribute to a sense of the meaninglessness of life” (Frank, 1974).
With alienation and a lack of belonging, refugees are prone to demoralization with
or without psychiatric disturbances. One study showed that refugees and migrants
are often diagnosed with major depression, yet on the average do not benefit from a
normal course of treatment. However, data analyses suggested that demoralization
was a preferable concept for many of the subjects rather than depression (Briggs &
Macleod, 2006).
Albrecht coined and defined the term “solastalgia” (detailed in another chap-
ter of this book) as a separate and related phenomenon to nostalgia (G. Albrecht
et al., 2007; G. A. Albrecht, 2005), which has long been recognized as a poten-
tially lethal condition associated with melancholia in people who have an enduring
desire to return to their homes after displacement. First reported in 1688 briefly as
‘philopatridomania’ (Sanchez et al., 1994), nostalgia has been minimized in modern
writings as a minor and relatively harmless emotion. Fullilove alternatively points to
an environmental perspective, in which psychological disturbances such as nostal-
gia associated with loss of place cannot be considered as separate from the loss of
objects and its effects on communities and individual lives (M. Fullilove, 1996).
Albrecht and colleagues posit that solastalgia is a form of ‘psychoterric’ illness
(earth-related mental illness caused by threats of severing healthy links between
people and their homes) that refers to the “pain caused by the loss of, or inability
to derive, solace connected to the negatively perceived state of one’s home envi-
ronment” (G. Albrecht et al., 2007). As evidence, they point to work in eastern
Australia where coal mining and droughts have had a serious impact on lived spaces.
The unwelcomed transformation of the landscape and the change in soil chemistry
by pollutants have altered the sense of place, identity, physical and mental health,
and general well-being of the residents who feel powerless over the environment
change.
Psychiatric Disorders
A broad range of psychiatric disorders are seen in refugees, the most common being
PTSD, depression, and anxiety (Fazel et al., 2005; Hollifield et al., 2002). The best
evidence of this comes from the literature on severe environments resulting from
natural disasters and war, since there is as of yet little data about climate change
refugees.
In the months and years after weather-related disasters, the prevalence of PTSD
and depression range from 15 to 67% (Hollifield et al., 2008). In the year after the
event, PTSD symptoms will abate for approximately half of those who were acutely
symptomatic. Those who have symptoms for one year or more are likely to stay
disabled for years (Shalev, Tuval-Mashiach, & Hadar, 2004). It also appears that
rates of PTSD longer than one year after disasters are strikingly similar between
events at about 22–28%, although another review suggests that between 7 and 67%
of people exposed to mass trauma will develop PTSD at some time (Norris et al.,
2002).
The relevant epidemiological evidence for psychiatric disorders in war refugees
is conflicting because of the use of different sampling and assessment methods. This
is instructive regarding assessment of refugees in general. For example, estimates of

the prevalence of PTSD in adult refugees have ranged from 3 to 86% and those
for major depression have ranged from 3 to 80% (Hollifield et al., 2002). Mina
Fazel and colleagues conducted a meta-analysis of 20 studies that comprised 6,743
adults from seven countries that had been forcibly displaced to other countries.
Ten percent of adult refugees displaced to western countries had PTSD, 5% had
major depression, and about 4% had generalized anxiety disorder with comorbid-
ity being common. Specific study methods had a significant impact on prevalence
rates. For example, studies with larger and more rigorous surveys reported lower
prevalence rates than studies with less optimal designs. In addition, sampling
methods and primary language of the interpreter affected prevalence rates. In her
work with Chinese-American immigrants, Hicks showed that diagnostic accuracy
using structured interviews by lay interviewers was poor because the interview
questions were about individual symptoms, whereas Chinese immigrants tend to
view symptoms in a collective manner based on cultural determinants (Hicks,
2002).
Somatic Symptoms
Refugees tend to experience multiple somatic symptoms with or without psycholog-
ical symptoms. Such symptoms are often not characteristic of PTSD, depression, or
other defined psychiatric disorders. Somatic symptoms are common in refugees who
have experienced traumatic events, and, in medical settings, somatic symptoms are
more commonly presented than psychological symptoms when a psychiatric disor-
der is subsequently found to be present (Gilgen et al., 2005). As recently reviewed,
the cause and meaning of somatic symptoms is complicated (Hollifield, Warner,
Krakow, Jenkins, & Westermeyer, 2009). Most studies have not conducted com-
plete psychiatric and medical evaluations of somatic symptoms to determine their
cause. They have, however, shown that unexplained somatic complaints are asso-
ciated with low acculturation, high treatment seeking, the presence of psychiatric
disorders, and self-identified medical problems (Cervantes et al., 1989; Cheung,
1993; Hauff & Vaglum, 1993; Westermeyer, Bouafuely, Neider, & Callies, 1989).
Ta and colleagues utilized history, review of medical records, physical examina-
tion, and laboratory assessment in 266 Southeast Asian refugees from a psychiatric
outpatient clinic and concluded that 146 patients had at least one medical condi-
tion and that their psychiatric disorder may have been caused or exacerbated by the
medical disorder in 48 of the cases (18% of the total) (Ta, Westermeyer, & Neider,
1996).
The New Mexico Refugee Symptom Checklist–121 (NMRSCL-121) was devel-
oped to assess a broader range of symptoms than was previously available. Years
after their forced migration, refugees of war experienced on average 48 per-
sistent and bothersome somatic and psychological symptoms (Hollifield et al.,
2009). These symptoms were strongly associated with their war-related experiences
and moderately with current impairment. Nine somatic and three psychological
scales were identified during development of the NMRSCL-121. Compared with
the somatic scales, the psychological scales correlated better with other standard
psychological measures that were concurrently administered. This may suggest that
some of the variance of somatic symptoms on the NMRSCL-121 is due to nonpsy-
chiatric factors, consistent with data from Ta and colleagues. However, correlations
between the NMRSCL-121 somatic scales and the HSCL-25 and the psycholog-
ical scales were not insignificant. Overall, the data imply that somatic symptoms
may have a significant contribution from psychophysiological processes, yet other
medical illness may be present and should be assessed.
Psychosocial Problems
The approximately 500 incidents worldwide that meet the Red Cross’ definition
of disaster are most likely to occur in developing countries, which have fewer
resources than more developed countries (Norris & Alegria, 2005). It is pre-
dicted that disasters from climate change will continue to predominantly affect
developing countries. One commonality between weather-related events is that
there is an imbalance between demands and resources and between damage
and the ability to provide repair, such that adaptive mechanisms fail and vul-
nerabilities emerge. Norris and other investigators have reported on how social
structures and support deteriorate after disasters in developing countries and how
this is associated with both individual and collective distress (Norris & Alegria,
2005).
A needs assessment after the 2004 tsunami provides an example of the psychoso-
cial needs that may exist after weather-related events (Vijaykumar, Thara, John, &
Chellappa, 2006). Table 8.1 shows the range of harms and subsequent needs in a Sri
Lankan community in the few months after the tsunami.
Table 8.1 Needs assessment in Sri Lanka after 2004 tsunami
Rank Needs Required by (%)
1 Household items 78.4

2 Shelter 64.7
3 Assistance in getting financial compensation/relief vouchers 55.0
4 Clothing 54.9
5 Psychological support/counseling/medication 52.9
6 Any other specific needs of children/elderly disabled 41.2
7 Vocational/occupational needs 39.2
8 Religious/spiritual needs 33.3
9 Educational needs 31.4
10 Others 27.4
11 Legal assistance 21.6
12 Physical health 15.1
13 Food 13.7
14 Assistance in locating missing family members/friends 2.0
From Vijaykumar (2006)

There is also evidence that psychosocial problems after weather-related events

may be long lasting. In Sri Lanka, 20 months after the storm, 60%, 25%, and 25% of
the cases were experiencing mild, moderate, and severe impairments, respectively,
on the Sheehan global disability scale, and similar rates of impairment were seen in
specific work, family, and social functioning. Psychological and somatic symptoms
were highly correlated with these psychosocial problems (Hollifield et al., 2008).
Interpersonal and domestic violence appear to worsen in displaced and nondis-
placed survivors of environmental disasters. The post-Katrina context in 2006 is
instructive. Interpersonal violence increased dramatically in the months and even
years after the hurricane. Gender-based violence increased fourfold among inter-
nally displaced persons and was associated with poor mental health (Anastario,
Shehab, & Lawry, 2009). The risk of suicide attempts and completions after dis-
placement were 78 and 14 times baseline rates prior to the disaster (Larrance,
Anastario, & Lawry, 2007).
Psychobiology and Long-Term Health Consequences

Information about how psychological distress and psychiatric disturbances are asso-
ciated with body functions is rapidly expanding. Given this vast literature, it is
instructive to focus on the complex effects of PTSD on physiological homeosta-
sis, with the caveat that PTSD is only one of many adverse outcomes in refugees.
PTSD is associated with dysfunctions of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA)
axis, autonomic nervous system (ANS), central nervous system (CNS), immune
and inflammatory systems, and even the way genes express themselves in making
proteins. All of these systems regulate psychological and physical processes, and
disturbances in these processes confer a higher risk for distress, psychiatric disor-
ders, comorbid psychiatric and medical illness, and later medical disease (reviewed
in a number of recent works (Koenen et al., 2009; Lanius, Bluhm, Lanius, & Pain,
2006; Rohleder & Karl, 2006; Yehuda et al., 2009; Yehuda & LeDoux, 2007)).
Together, these data point to a failure of adaptation to the stress response, which
causes significant disruption in physiological homeostasis within and between
multiple body systems. The most likely primary dysfunction in PTSD is in com-
munication between the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the anterior cingulate
cortex (ACC) with the amygdala. The failure of mPFC/ACC activation to moderate
amygdala functioning during traumatic reexperiencing is a neural correlate of the
failure of recovery of the stress response. This alteration is implicated in emotional
and cognitive interactions involved in fear conditioning, habituation, and endocrine
responses via regulation of the HPA axis and the ANS. This integrated disruption
is responsible for symptoms that occur during reexperiencing events such as night-
mares, sweats, tremors, and palpitations (Bremner, Elzinga, Schmahl, & Vermetten,
2007; Prins, Kaloupek, & Keane, 1995; Shin, Wright, Cannistraro, & Wedig, 2005)
and also promotes the higher risk for cardiovascular and inflammatory disease seen
in PTSD (Boscarino, 2004, 2006; Boscarino & Chang, 1999; Cwikel, Abdelgani,
Goldsmith, Quastel, & Yevelson, 1997; Dobie et al., 2004; Gander & von Kanel,
2006; Kadojic, Demarin, Kadojic, Mihaljevic, & Barac, 1999; Schnurr, Spiro, &
Paris, 2000; Shemesh et al., 2004). PTSD symptoms and later risk of medical ill-
ness may be mediated by a low-level chronic pro-inflammatory response (Spivak
et al., 1997; von Kanel et al., 2007).
The relevance of this body of knowledge to climate change refugees is of theo-
retical and practical importance. The psychological effects of environment change
on place, identity, and belonging are transmitted into physiological disruption and
medical illness for a significant minority of those exposed. Consistent with Engel’s
biopsychosocial paradigm, smaller units are necessarily components of larger units,
inexorably tied to and affected by them. The outside world makes its way into
organs, cells, and molecules of the individual. This means that environment matters,
not only because of the seen effects but also because of the unseen, the delayed, and
the potentially disastrous effects on human health.
Pre- and Post-Displacement Impact on Psychosocial Disturbances

Poor mental health of refugees is most commonly attributed to the traumatic events
that lead to displacement. However, post-migration stressors such as poor access to
health care and jobs, communication difficulties, obstructions to social integration,
poverty, and worries about family back home also contribute to mental health prob-
lems in this population (Porter & Haslam, 2005; Silove et al., 1997). Furthermore,
clinical investigators have opined that problems for refugees in the resettled coun-
try are significant and sometimes overwhelm available services (Silove, 2002). The
studies that have evaluated the relative contribution of both pre- and post-migration
events to the mental health of refugees have found that post-migration stress pro-
vides a risk similar to premigration war trauma (Fenta, Hyman, & Noh, 2004;
Marshall, Schell, Elliott, Berthold, & Chun, 2005; Momartin, Steel, Coello, Aroche,
Silove, & Brooks, 2006; Steel, Silove, Bird, McGorry, & Mohan, 1999).
Global Responsibilities for Promoting Adaptation to Climate

Change
Whether people become displaced or have new environments displaced onto them,
the psychological health related to climate change is a global problem and a global
public health responsibility. There are no consensus guidelines about promoting
psychological health during climate change since the field is relatively new. We
suggest guidelines based on work from other environmental change conditions.
One challenge to this task is that the effects of climate change on environments
are likely to be heterogeneous, for example, ranging from slow losses of shores to
rapid flooding from catastrophic events. These various events will call for various
interventions. Furthermore, empirical data about psychological and social interven-
tions for either slow or rapid environment changes are lacking (Hobfoll et al., 2007).
Our recommendations are thus mostly broad principles to address the ongoing risk
of resource loss and particular risks to place, identity, and belonging, and indi-
vidual physiological homeostasis. Information about specific interventions is also
provided.
Primary and Secondary Prevention

Assessing and Encouraging Resource Conservation
The fact that actual and perceived resource losses are important predictors of devel-
oping stress-related symptoms suggests that classical psychological interventions
have limitations in a context where objective stress and loss are real, difficult, com-
plex, and ongoing as they are with environment change and displacement (Hobfoll
et al., 1991). Since the Conservation of Resources theory is a broad model with
defined items in resource categories, it can be used to assess risk of loss as well as
help establish intervention needs. Furthermore, education about what is at risk and
how it might be stabilized in the various situations related to climate change could
mitigate against psychological distress. The COR assessment is flexible: there are
74 items in eight scales from which to choose dependent on the purpose (Hobfoll &
Lilly, 1993). For example, one study utilized seven COR items to assess psychoso-
cial loss related to a terrorist attack (Palmieri et al., 2008). Another ongoing study
has selected 31 items that assess interpersonal, personal, material, work, and health
losses and gains in refugees displaced to the USA. A shorter instrument that might
be used to assess economic and psychosocial resources is a 10-item scale developed
by Norris and colleagues (Closs, Stead, Arshad, & Norris, 2001) that was recom-
mended by the National Institute of Mental Health for all terrorism-related research
following the events of September 11, 2001.
Preventing Displacement, Encouraging Stability of Place

Displacement is associated with reduced access to health care and humanitarian
assistance, strained health systems that impact both locals and the displaced, and
worse health outcomes. For these reasons, it has been proposed that, from a health
perspective, the best option is to avoid human displacement if possible (Leus,
Wallace, & Loretti, 2001). This is a complex task relative to climate change events
that destroy place. The most obvious preventive measure is to keep environments
intact by reducing carbon emissions and other human-caused sources of climate
change. Another option is to continue to develop more powerful tools to understand
the effects of climate change on various locales and provide support to communities
at risk to encourage stability of place. This will mean dedicating global resources
to assess the decay in areas affected by climate change, to model global and local
interventions to stabilize decay, and to provide resources that are culturally relevant
to implement interventions. An example of doing this in the context of structural
social decay in US cities has been provided. Assessing the physical integrity of
an area can be used to develop projects that enhance social cohesion, which is
one indicator of overall health (Fullilove, 1998). Another example is the guide-
lines suggested by partners of the World Health Organization for humanitarian
emergencies, which are designed to stabilize the health of individuals by work-
ing with communities to bolster assets and capacities of beneficiaries (Leus et al.,
2001).
Assistance with Resettlement

When displacement does occur, it is critical to structure resettlement in a way
that helps those displaced regain a sense of place and encourage stability of iden-
tity and belonging. This is of course no easy task, given the disparate settings
to which refugees are displaced. Agencies around the world are already doing
great work to assist displaced refugees with the resettlement process. Components
that need further work include conducting timely health assessments, particu-
larly for mental health, establishing longer-term capacity for access to health
care, being more aggressive in enhancing language capacity and the ability to
work, and providing for community participation to develop places and activi-
ties that help refugees retain their culture while also acculturating to the new
environment.
Tertiary Prevention: Interventions

Screening
Efficient and targeted screening of refugees for all types of adaptive failures are
rarely conducted in a systematic way due to perceived time constraints and the
lack of valid and efficient models for screening for psychological health in a pub-
lic health setting. One program in the US state of Colorado was implemented to
screen 1,580 refugees using a rationally developed 25-item instrument designed to
assess for PTSD, depression, and anxiety (Savin, Seymour, Littleford, Bettridge, &
Giese, 2005). Nine percent screened positive for one of the disorders, and 37%
of those who were provided a treatment referral went for treatment. Factors that
predicted treatment seeking were co-location of “physical” and “mental” health ser-
vices, clinic staff experienced in working with culturally diverse people, frequent
contact between refugee case managers and clinical staff, and a good relationship
between case managers, clinical staff, and public health officials (Savin et al., 2005).
Limitations to current screening practices are the lack of valid screening measures,
the exclusive focus on diagnostic categories, and the lack of instruments in many
languages. In addition to being assessed for resource loss and gain, refugees should
be assessed for the following: (1) psychological and somatic symptoms of distress,
(2) alienation, demoralization, and solastalgia, (3) psychiatric disorders, (4) psy-
chosocial dysfunction, (5) capacity for coping and resilience, (6) risks for future
psychological and medical illness, (7) trauma exposure, and (8) impairment due
to assessed problems. Ideally, screening assessments would occur on two occa-

sions – early after arrival and 8–12 months later – because of the fact that some
refugees have chronic and some have delayed onset of distress (Hobfoll et al., 2009).
Identification of chronic mental illness not related to the stress of environmental
change should also be identified. It is important to include a cultural formulation
in the screening, assessment, and treatment planning for culturally diverse groups
(Baarnhielm & Scarpinati Rosso, 2009; Watters, 2001).
Principles for Intervention

A group of scholars convened to develop essential elements of intervention for the
immediate and mid-term period after mass trauma. The proposed elements were not
specific interventions, but rather principles to guide clinicians, policy makers, and
investigators in planning subsequent interventions and trials. One focus was to iden-
tify principles that are best supported by the extant literature as promoting resistant
and resilient outcomes, and as such are highly relevant to climate change refugees.
The five principles identified were to promote: (1) a sense of safety, (2) calming,
(3) a sense of self- and collective efficacy, (4) connectedness, and (5) hope (Hobfoll
et al., 2007). The authors emphasized that there are many ways to operationalize
these principles, that they should be applied in carefully designed interventions that
are responsive to the ecology of the culture and type of trauma, and that there are
no empirical data on the effectiveness of applying these principles. However, this
approach may be highly relevant for the climate change refugee who has suffered
losses and threats to place, identity, and belonging and internal homeostasis.
Counseling
As opposed to specific treatment, refugees may benefit from counseling about the
risks of psychological disturbances, the risk of medical illness associated with ongo-
ing stress, and ways to mitigate these risks. To reduce stigma while concurrently
reinforcing the fact that psychological and physical illnesses are related, coun-
seling may be best conducted as part of routine medical assessment. Refugees
should be counseled about the benefits of conserving and regaining lost resources,
which might include ways to both acculturate and retain cultural pride and behav-
iors in the new environment. It is critical to honor their experience and help them
reidentify and find meaning and belonging in their new domicile. Experimental
evidence for the benefit of this approach is lacking and needs to be addressed in
future research.
Specific Treatments
Medications and various forms of culturally adapted psychotherapy have been
shown to be helpful for refugees with PSTD, depression, and anxiety (Boynton,
Bentley, Strachan, Barbato, & Raskind, 2009; Hinton, Hofmann, Pollack, & Otto,
2009; Hinton & Otto, 2006; Otto & Hinton, 2006; Paunovic & Ost, 2001; Renner,
2009; Smajkic et al., 2001). To the degree possible, attention should be paid to
potential ethnopharmacological differences when medications are used and socio-
cultural variables when psychotherapies are employed. Whatever approach is used,
it is critical to help the refugee understand the most salient clinical problem and
to provide a reparative relationship while providing specific treatment (Kinzie,
2001). Classic cognitive and behavioral interventions effectively target ongoing
stress, avoidance behavior, and cognitive dysfunction. However, refugees have many
physical and safety needs and a fluctuating sense of identity in addition to classic
distressing psychological symptoms. In this context, cognitive and behavioral exer-
cises may be difficult and may not necessarily make sense. It is not uncommon
for displaced refugees to describe the confusion associated with betrayal, loss, and
injection into a foreign place with the implied expectation of seamless integration
within months. For most, these transitions are difficult but negotiated successfully.
For others, this does not happen as well. It is critical to target resources that are
lost or at risk and most likely to cause a loss spiral. For some, psychiatric disor-
ders are most prominent and medication may be the best primary option. For others,
the losses are external, and a social- and community-based approach may be best.
And yet for others, taking a social and health rights advocacy approach might be
most helpful. Examples of such approaches that have evidence for effectiveness in
refugees include psychological first aid (Brymer, Steinberg, Sornborger, Layne, &
Pynoos, 2008), school-based educational and trauma healing exercises for children
(M. Fazel, Doll, & Stein, 2009; Gupta & Zimmer, 2008), multifamily disclosure,
education, and support (Weine, Kulauzovic, 2008; Weine, Raina, 2003), and trauma
disclosure and testimony approaches for adults and children (Lustig & Tennakoon,
2008; Neuner, Schauer, Klaschik, Karunakara, & Elbert, 2004; Onyut et al., 2005;
Weine, Kulenovic, Pavkovic, & Gibbons, 1998). Other successful approaches in
refugees include the use of lay counselors to administer therapy for larger popula-
tions (Neuner et al., 2008; Stepakoff et al., 2006) and the use of body-based therapies
such as qigong and tai’chi (Grodin, Piwowarczyk, Fulker, Bazazi, & Saper, 2008)
and dance and movement therapies (Harris, 2007).
Helping Host Communities Prepare
It would be ideal if politicians, local policy makers, and the general public were
more aware of the events, responses, and potential adaptive capacities as well as
problems of refugees. If there were support for community centers that assisted
refugees in maintaining their personal and cultural identity, and in so doing edu-
cated a generation of children about climate change and other real-world issues in a
multicultural space, benefits to refugees and host communities might be profound.
If refugees were provided the ability to belong and reidentify themselves as part of
the new community because the host was more prepared for helping them on arrival,
prevention of adaptive failure may be maximized. In this scenario, the refugee and
the host community would gain a better appreciation of the interconnectedness of
cells, organs, individuals, and larger communities.
Future Directions
There are several gaps in knowledge about climate change refugees that point to
future directions for understanding the phenomena and the needed policies and
interventions in this field. The kinds of climate change events are variable and will
provide different challenges and problems for refugees. Research on the short- and
long-term effects on psychological health of these disparate events is needed in order
to make policy and plan appropriate interventions. Ways to effectively keep com-
munities together with strong social cohesion in the face of ongoing environmental
threats may be one of the best preventive measures that could be employed. Effective
and efficient screening of communities at risk will be essential for the global com-
munity to have an impact on prevention and intervention. Currently, screenings exist
for psychiatric disorders and some psychosocial problems, but those lack validity
for various contexts. There are no screening tools for the other adaptive failures that
are seen in refugees and that will emerge with climate-related environment change.
Screening must be developed to detect both strengths and weaknesses in individuals
and communities (Betancourt & Khan, 2008) and must demonstrate effectiveness to
health outcomes in order to be viable. More research is needed to understand how
to best promote resistance and resilience in the face of ongoing stress. Specifically,
identifying ways to solidify identity in a new social context is critical. The inter-
actions between climate change stress, the capacity for adaptation versus distress
and illness, and longer-term somatic health need to be identified and understood
in order to plan more effective intervention strategies. Comparative effectiveness
trials will identify culturally relevant, effective, and efficient ways to best pro-
vide for the vast number of people that will be affected by weather-related events.
Finally, improving knowledge about how to enhance understanding of and sensitiv-
ity for refugees in host communities will allow us to work toward optimally healthy
environments.
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Part III
Guidance and Recommendations
Chapter 9
Resilience, Spirituality and Posttraumatic
Growth: Reshaping the Effects of Climate
Change
Tamasin Ramsay and Lenore Manderson
Changing Perspectives of Climate Change
We live in a time of enhanced vulnerability at many levels, indicated through

an increase in reported environmental and human disasters – extreme weather
events, civil disruption and war, drought and famine, global economic crisis, insti-
tutional hardship and individual and social suffering. In recent years, there has been
increased reporting and arguably increased prevalence of environmental disasters
strongly tied to climate change, as an outcome of deforestation, the use of polluting
chemicals, the increased use of fossil fuel, and production and consumption pat-
terns resulting in inordinate amounts of waste. The United Nations Climate Change
Conference in Copenhagen, held in December 2009, revealed how inequalities and
disaster compound, and the arguments that ensued over this period and subsequently
highlight how political, economic and social schisms intertwine with and compli-
cate action in relation to the environment. Regular media accounts of climate change
and associated poverty and hardship are routine reminders of the local affects of this
global problem. Our purpose in this chapter is not to address these difficulties but to
consider how individuals, families and communities find meaning in their face.
Faith-based communities are among the first on the ground at times of sud-
den disaster, as usually occurs with extreme weather events. In this chapter, we
focus not on their short-term pastoral and practical roles, however, but on the role
of spirituality and belief systems in managing suffering and supporting resilience.
After contextualizing the traditional role of religious communities in providing
care and current humanitarian guidelines on religion in disaster, we discuss the
principles of positive psychology, drawing on Frankl’s work on logotherapy and
the more recent work of psychologists Tedeschi, Calhoun and Janoff-Bulman, in
At the time of writing, Dr Ramsay was a PhD candidate at Monash University. Dr Ramsay is
now NGO representative to the United Nations for the Brahma Kumaris. This chapter was made
possible with the support of a Monash University Postgraduate Publishing Scholarship.
T. Ramsay (B)
Social Sciences and Health Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences,
School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Monash University, Caulfied East, VIC 3145, Australia
e-mail: tamasin@bkun.org


166 T. Ramsay and L. Manderson
posttraumatic growth, meaning making and resilience. For many people, faith and
spiritual practice are powerful contributors to support resilience and deal with the
personal effects of climate change and associated catastrophe.
Although contemporary scholars are often unwilling to speak and write about
spirituality, it plays a significant role in caregiving, support and meaning making
in local cultural contexts, in the everyday practices of faith communities, and in
the psychology of resilience and posttraumatic growth. We understand this best in
terms of the beliefs and practices of major religions. But in this chapter, we use as
an example a relatively small (in global terms) new religion, the Brahma Kumaris
World Spiritual University (Brahma Kumaris), within which environmental and
anthropogenic disasters are normalized through spiritual philosophy. Drawing on
ethnographic data collected by Ramsay between 2007 and 2009, we illustrate how
daily scriptures, delivered in morning services, provide Brahma Kumaris (BKs) with
lessons of the significance of disaster and trauma and about how to manage the
mind’s internal state during calamitous or difficult times. Through spiritual praxis
and philosophy, BKs find meaning in disaster for themselves and adopt spiritual
ways to manage their suffering. BKs also find unique ways to be of service to others,
despite the physical constraints that disaster brings.
Because extreme events and sustained hardship associated with climate change
affect all aspects of personhood and community life, we argue the importance of
drawing on multiple methods and eclectic approaches to enhance resilience and, in
doing so, to acknowledge the value of diversity in belief systems and responses. Our
argument is one that supports spiritual, as well as physical, mental and emotional,
dimensions to health and well-being. This is one that could be made in relation to
any disaster, but the theology of the Brahma Kumaris provides a particular frame
to comprehend the complex multifaceted problems of climate change (see also Eco
Buddhism, 2009).
Faith-Based Response to Disaster
Meteorological and other environmental disasters have been a recurrent feature of

world history, an area in which colonial missionaries played an active role in pro-
viding physical aid while proselytizing (Padel, 1995; Stipe, 1999). The undisguised
opportunism of the occasion for conversion – disaster linked to divine displeasure,
recurrence averted through conversion – is no longer common, yet there is residual
scepticism and caution about the role of faith-based organizations in disasters, and
suspicion that disaster presents unethical opportunities to proselytize (Jayasinghe,
2007). However, religious organizational responses to disaster have changed sub-
stantially. Bergman (2008) documents the 1930s as a time when progressively,
faith-based organizations provided disaster relief within a neutral framework, and
since then, large established religions and new religious movements have become
less championing of particular philosophies and more concerned with ‘service’
to the community at large (Olson, 2003; Leong, 2008; Southern Baptist Disaster
Relief, 2004). In times of crisis, as occurs in environmental disasters due to climate
9 Resilience, Spirituality and Posttraumatic Growth: Reshaping the Effects. . . 167
change, responses to suffering, pain and loss are shaped by the urgency to save lives,
provide physical care, and offer immediate pastoral and practical support. Following
disaster, there is commonly an influx of emergency service personnel, health profes-
sionals and community volunteers. Fuelled by the desire to help, faith communities
are among the first to respond in the aftermath of disaster, according to the direc-
tives of their faith, offering practical and spiritual contributions while considering
the need to balance congregational needs with the needs of the broad communities
that they serve (Yetman, 2006).
Within different religious communities, there has been growing consideration of
faith-based solutions to those who have experienced trauma (Leong, 2008). Religion
can help to offer meaning in a way that does not threaten or challenge one’s world-
view, but offers tools that are empowering. With non-proselytizing support, the
‘experiencer’ designs a new narrative that enables him or her to move through the
situation with greater ease. This is an important step for individuals and commu-
nities who must come to terms with loss, including – as illustrated by Hurricane
Katrina of individuals, pets, personal possessions and houses, as well as commu-
nity infrastructure. Religious congregations, local search and rescue groups, and
other community-based organizations have unique knowledge of local risks and
resources, and attachment to place and population that allows for sustained sup-
port (NVOAD, 2009, Smale, 1998). In consequence, there has been a call for the
greater collaboration of participants in disaster response and the better utilization
of faith-based organizations, because they provide and support existing social net-
works and strong trust-based community relationships (Koenig, 2005) and so can
help build trust between governments, various NGOs (including faith based) and
their populations at times of crisis (Hall, 2006).
Faith-based organizations from all theological standpoints now form a sig-
nificant body of the United Nations (UN) community of non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) (Ferris, 2005). Many affiliated with the UN also belong
to the United States umbrella organization of relief organizations – National
Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD, 2009), which includes diverse
Christian (Pentecostal, Episcopalian, Catholic, Mennonite, Baptist, Lutheran, Latter
Day Saints, Presbyterian, Methodist), Jewish (National Association of Jewish
Chaplains), Hindu (Ananda Marga Universal Relief) and Buddhist (Tzu Chi)
groups. Although not with NVOAD at time of writing, the Brahma Kumaris is a
new religious movement that affiliated with the UN in 1980. Founded in northwest
India in the mid-1930s, Brahma Kumaris holds general consultative status with the
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), consultative status with the Children’s
Fund (UNICEF), and is affiliated with the Department of Public Information (DPI).
Various caucuses and agencies within the UN regularly consult Brahma Kumaris
representatives to the UN, like other faith representatives, on matters to do with
the human spirit, in different fields, including climate change (BKWSU, 2007,
2009b) and sustainable development (BKWSU, 1992, 1995, 2000, 2002, 2006).
Such advice is made without prosyletization, by reaffirming core spiritual principles
that inform the foundational UN Charter (UN, 1945).
All disasters are multifactorial, the consequence of a complex interplay of social,

environmental and political factors, and affect all aspects of human life and threaten
all facets of well-being. Climate-related disasters are no exception, although the
capacity of people and their governments to head off further disaster and take appro-
priate longer-term action for a sustainable future is complicated by debates about
causality and the timelines for effective change. The effort in climate-related disas-
ter therefore is concentrated in the short term, and beyond this point, in general,
co-operation between governments and civil society both in social and physical
reconstruction and in addressing the spiritual and cultural needs of people is limited
(Aguirre, 2006, see also Fjord and Manderson, 2009). This is despite IASC guide-
lines for mental health and psychosocial support in emergency settings, published
in 2007 through the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) and reiterated in the
Sphere Project, a key manual for humanitarian aid workers in disasters. IASC and
Sphere argue unequivocally for sensitivity to and awareness of community, spiritual
and religious practices to ensure the best possible outcome for people affected by
environmental disasters.
The guidelines suggest that humanitarian aid workers approach local religious
and spiritual leaders and other cultural guides to establish the wide impact of
the event and to ensure sensitivity in working with affected communities. The
guidelines highlight the need for ethical practice and cultural sensitivity, including
communicating respectfully with religious and spiritual leaders to provide the best
support. The guidelines emphasize that humanitarian aid workers are supplemen-
tary to local resources. While ensuring adherence to the international standards of
human rights, proper care must consider local cultural, religious and spiritual forms
of support and coping, and proper acknowledgement of local knowledge, customs
and beliefs including in relation to the physical as well as social environment.
Resilience, Meaning and Logotherapy

Like other states and responses, resilience is developed and shaped by social, eco-
nomic, political, familial and institutional factors. Societal and cultural continuity
relies on resilience, including in response to colonization and industrialization as
well as the more acute experiences of disaster. People use and incorporate local
knowledge and understanding to mitigate and adapt to geophysical, meteorological
and hydrological, as well as political and economic, events. Archeological evidence
of the Andes, for instance, demonstrates that the pre-Colombian Andean people
lived with a high risk of earthquakes, with traditional housing and infrastructure
designed to limit consequent disaster (Cook, 1981), and in extreme environments
and regions of regular vulnerability everywhere, living conditions are adapted to
minimize loss. In these instances, resilience follows from and builds on institutional
and structural factors. In this chapter, however, we use the term “resilience” to refer
to individual responses to disaster, trauma and distress – a kind of internal elasticity
that, like a stick of bamboo, may bend with the wind. We refer to the capacity
for individuals and communities to adapt to stress and to make sense of events of
stress. For many people affected by disaster, including increasingly extreme weather
events, modernization, industrialization and urbanization have undermined conven-
tional coping mechanisms such as cultural practices and rituals, which helped people
to find meaning, to make sense of the events, and so rebuild their lives. Below, we
explore the role of faith-based community practice and ideology in responding to
disaster and finding meaning in its wake.
Creating meaning is fundamental to building resilience and ensuring personal
growth following traumatic events. In theorizing these relationships, Viktor Frankl
founded logotherapy, a highly influential school of psychotherapy and a precursor
to positive psychology. Building on his own experience, his survival of internment
in Nazi Germany, Frankl first elaborated his theory in Man’s Search for Meaning
(1962 [1946]). Logotherapy has three fundamental philosophical and psychological
precepts (Marshall, 2009). The first is that life has meaning, and the will to meaning
is central to Frankl’s understanding of human adaptation and resilience even in the
most tragic of circumstances. For those on a spiritual path such as that of Buddhism,
Christianity or Brahma Kumaris, suffering is understood to be meaningful and never
arbitrary.
To experience growth through suffering in the context of traumatic experiences,
psychologists suggest that “the stressor must be sufficiently disruptive to core beliefs
to prompt a search for meaning” (Stanton, Bower, & Low, 2006, p. 165; Calhoun &
Tedeschi, 2006a, 2006b; Janoff-Bulman, 2006; Tedeschi & Calhoun, 2006). For
example, facing death can offer an enhanced appreciation for life to a degree that the
individual may not have previously experienced; the loss of a home may highlight
the distinction between material and social goods and values.
Frankl explains that each person has the freedom to choose how he or she
approaches and responds to life circumstances and tragedies; his “tragic optimism”
(1984, pp. 161–179) posits that whatever happens in life, whatever is experienced,
taken away or destroyed, each person retains the “ultimate freedom” to choose his or
her attitude to these circumstances. Human freedom is not freedom from particular
circumstances, Frankl argues, but the freedom to take a stand and to face conditions
as presented. These two tenets – the will to meaning and the autonomy of an indi-
vidual to act in a particular way – are echoed in various religious precepts. BKs,
for example, take a similar approach to meaning, as developed through their theol-
ogy and meditation, and endeavour to transform their own attitudes, when based on
division and fear, to attitudes based on higher spiritual principles of inclusion and
tolerance. Buddhists call for similar attention to meditation, which, for individu-
als, “develops mental clarity, (allows) insight into conditioned reality (and) freedom
from negative states” (Trainor, 2004, p. 74) to construct a positive narrative, a key
contributor to resilience. Buddhist and Christian philosophies emphasise that peo-
ple have a choice in how they understand life experiences – what BKs may call ‘the
power to face’ or Christians the capacity to ‘turn the other cheek’. The Sikh scrip-
ture says, “Those who beat you with fists, Do not pay them in the same coin, But go
to their house and kiss their feet” (Guru Granth Sahib, 1604).
Brahma Kumaris philosophy understands the self as master and maintains that
each person can be self-sovereign by understanding his or her original virtuous state.
BKs explain that each person has an eclectic inner box from which to choose their
response to a given situation. This inner framework may include genetic predisposi-
tions, learned behaviours and aspirational values. However, BKs and other spiritual
practitioners endeavour to strengthen values that are both attainable and desirable.
Buddhists and Jains explain similarly that one must draw on the inherent capacities
of the mind to facilitate change in the world around them (Dundas, 2002; Wallace,
1996). Beyond the body and mind, the spirit equips people with the will to explore,
to decide, to choose and to change. Thus, religious philosophy provides what anthro-
pologists characterize as an ‘explanatory model’ to make sense of changes, disasters
and disruptions that occur beyond their own capacity to control or intervene.
Frankl wrote in secular terms of the human spirit as dynamic and did not include
a religious perspective in his description of logotherapy as a therapeutic tool. His
philosophy of spirit, however, is akin to various religious tenets, and logotherapy
provides a framework that can contain multiple theologies and experiences. Frankl
explains that the spirit or the self is energy, not substance (Seidner, 2009). It can-
not be destroyed, divided, reduced or duplicated. Spirit is the essence of a person,
beyond biology and all forms of learned behaviour. A person is a spirit. A person
has a body and a mind. The person (spirit) is expressed through the body and mind,
but it is distinct from them. The spirit is, therefore, the ultimate form of freedom
for each person in the way they live their lives, with meaning, and an identity not
confused by the burden or restraint of physical consciousness (Frankl, 1962 [1946];
Marshall, 2009).
As the third tenet of logotherapy, Frankl argues that meaning is a form of healing.
He suggests that one can tolerate suffering and failure if there is meaning in either;
without meaning, one will be led to despair. Searching for meaning offers a path-
way in traumatic circumstances. In some cases, as with Frankl’s own experience in
concentration camps, the losses are the very catalysts that reinvigorate the search
for meaning. Herman (2004) and Frank (2000) suggest that finding meaning and
constructing a coherent life story are an important part of recovery from trauma,
disasters associated with climate change, and disruptions in social, economic and
everyday life. Logotherapy is fundamentally holistic (Rice et al., 2009).
Wong’s development of the idea of people as spiritual as well as psychologi-
cal, social and biological beings is relevant in its capacity to consider spiritual and
existential issues as central to healing, well-being and growth, as well as holding
transformative power to help people re-author narratives (Wong, 1998). Calhoun
and Tedeschi (2006b) have also augmented Frankl’s theories, and they suggest that
the experience of trauma, either personal or large-scale disaster, can be instrumen-
tal for positive change (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996). Calhoun and Tedeschi’s work
systematically recognizes the value of spirituality as a framework for people to expe-
rience and manifest positive change in the context of disaster and in connection
with resilience. In so doing, their research and writings supplement and moderate
theories of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and provide a way forward for
people who might be so diagnosed (Asmundson, Carleton, Wright, & Taylor, 2004;
Asmundson, Stapleton, & Taylor, 2004; Fontana & Rosenheck, 2004; Napoleon,
1991; Perera, 2002). Wong too sees that every crisis is an opportunity and every
transition is a transformation (see also Janoff-Bulman, 1992, 2006). These theo-

ries recognize spirituality and existential questions as an intrinsic part of meaning
making and may be applied to acute and chronic manifestations of climate change.
Extreme weather events such as cyclones and floods, and geological disasters such
as earthquakes and volcano eruption, in particular, require survivors to draw on all
resources – psychological, spiritual and community – to be able to rebuild their
social as well as the physical structures of place.
Posttraumatic Growth
Posttraumatic growth is concerned with potential positive physical and psycholog-

ical consequences of trauma (Calhoun & Tedeschi, 2006c). Although the term was
devised only recently, the idea is not new; heroic myths are often founded on tales of
exponential personal growth and fulfilment in the face of trauma and suffering, and
within religious canons, such stories provide templates for the response of congre-
gations to moments of personal or community distress. The posttraumatic growth
inventory (PTGI) was developed in 1996, enabling scholars of psychology and the
social sciences to better understand the phenomenon. Tedeschi and Calhoun (1996)
include five components of growth in the PTGI: relating to others; new possibili-
ties; personal strength; spiritual change; and appreciation of life. In this therapeutic
approach, posttraumatic growth is considered both a process and an outcome, part of
a continuum and a life narrative. Personality characteristics contribute to people’s
capacity to experience growth, as does a cohesive and supportive social network.
This is significant for those involved in environmental disaster as social networks
are often substantially disrupted through death and forced relocation. The five com-
ponents above, determined to be psychological capacities, coincide with what BKs
understand of what it means to be spiritual. Tedeschi and Calhoun contend that
serious disruption is a necessary condition for posttraumatic growth. This does not
imply that traumatic experiences are desired, but if they occur, then it is impor-
tant that the events are challenging enough to the assumptive world to activate the
cognitive processing necessary for growth. Spirituality can be a key component of
posttraumatic growth, again giving us license to centralize matters of the spirit.
The overlap between psychological and spiritual understandings of these terms is
elaborated below.
While recognizing the benefits of studies into PTG, further studies are required
to be able to apply theories of PTG more broadly (Jackson, 2007). Also, in terms of
scholarly understanding of resilience, meaning and human response to trauma, PTG
is a relatively new school. Studies into PTG and other studies on psychological
resilience indicate that spirituality contributes powerfully to meaning and resilience
in the face of trauma (Basit, 2007; Chester, 2005; Chester, Duncan, & Dibben,
2008; Chhean, 2007; Hoffman & Oliver-Smith, 1999; Koenig, 2007; Leong, 2008;
Levy, Slade, & Ranasinghe, 2009; Pollock, 2007; Ramsay, Manderson, & Smith,
2010). Although there is little empirical data exploring the role of PTG in the
specific context of climate change, one can make certain inferences in relation to
extreme weather events and environmental disruptions based on our knowledge of

psychological responses to certain stressors.
Intentional disasters like the WTC collapse result in a particular trauma because
of the associated malice, consequently eroding trust in groups of people and associ-
ated communities. Intentional disasters from acts of terrorism are thought to be more
devastating than other disasters because of the purposeful intent to cause harm, and
the lack of a clear end point, making it difficult to move into stages of recovery and
grieving. The very aim, with terrorism, is to create significant secondary and ongo-
ing psychological casualties (Bongar, Brown, Beutler, Breckenridge, & Zimbardo,
2007). In war and terror, there are often greater expressions of anger and feelings of
worthlessness after the fact, although these also occur with disasters caused by cli-
mate change or other environmental disruption. In the rapidly changing and highly
politicized landscape of climate change, there have been significant shifts from
belief in ‘natural disasters’ and ‘acts of God’ beyond human volition, to a grow-
ing understanding of the human contribution to climate change. However, shifts in
understandings of risk, causality and responsibility to include governments, individ-
uals, industry and coalitions, make it difficult to apportion blame and so understand
the logic, (in)justice, and consequent restoration, reparations and preventive action.
This lack of clear understanding adds a new layer of trauma to disasters caused by
climate change.
Brahma Kumaris
The Brahma Kumaris began in northwest India in the mid-1930s as a small exclu-
sive ascetic community of 300. The organization was established by a middle-aged
jeweller, Dada Lekhraj (later known, with respect, as Brahma Baba), and entrusted
by him to a group of young women, then in their teens and early twenties. Almost
80 years on, a few original members are still alive and remain the spiritual and
administrative leaders of the Brahma Kumaris. The Brahma Kumaris is millenarian,
believing in forthcoming cataclysmic events preceding a paradisiacal world. Broad
patterns of climate change, environmental instability and economic unpredictabil-
ity, and distinct events such as war, extreme weather events and political crises, all
indicate ‘the age of confluence,’ a critical point of a 5000-year cycle of life when
the world is moving towards a critical junction between the worst and the best times
of human existence. Further economic, political, social and environmental crises are
expected and portentous.
Like lay members of other ascetic communities such as Jain (Vallely, 2002)
and Buddhist (Rahula, 1974), BKs live lives of service and spiritual discipline.
While the founder and original members lived in seclusion until the 1950s, since
then, members have retained their commitment to social asceticism, but have
increasingly supported humanitarian service and outreach (Ramsay and Smith 2008;
Ramsay 2009). Consequently, the organization has steadily expanded and today has
spiritual centres in 128 nations and, as noted, affiliation with the UN (BKWSU,
2009a; Walliss, 2002; Walsh, Ramsay, & Smith, 2007). Consistent with this shift
in emphasis, members are increasingly called upon and motivated to provide social
and spiritual responses to traumatic events. And, like many faith-based organiza-
tions, the Brahma Kumaris is faced with challenges related to its role in providing
pastoral care and practical assistance in response to extreme weather events, disaster
and suffering (Cain & Barthelemy, 2008; Jayasinghe, 2007).
The Super Cyclone
In recent work drawing on ethnographic research in New York and Orissa, India,
Ramsay (2009) has examined the role of spiritual practice in shaping BKs’ experi-
ence of traumatic events, and we turn to this now. We identify five interconnected
areas that form the soft boundaries of ‘spirituality:’ reflective practices, knowledge,
a moral code, service to others and good behaviour. These five domains are common
to a number of studies of spirituality (Brome et al., 2000; Bouma, 2003; Chiu et al.,
2004; Cunningham, 2003; Koenig, 2001; Martsolf & Mickley, 1998; Piedmont and
Leach, 2002; Tacey, 2004). Below, we draw on the accounts of BK participants
from Orissa, India, and their experiences of the Super Cyclone, to better elucidate
the meaning of these domains as they apply to resilience, posttraumatic growth and
spirituality. These BKs live either in small ashrams or with families in villages,
abiding by the rules of purity and devotion while undertaking subsistence activities.
Orissa, located on the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal, India, is well known
for its heavy tropical storms, high humidity, chronic drought and regular coastal
flooding. Climate change and the destruction of mangrove forests for industry make
the state especially vulnerable to disasters. Orissa is also one of the poorest states
of India (UNDP, 2008). The majority of the population live at near-subsistence lev-
els, and climate-related disasters cause extreme hardship and, recurrently, loss of
life as well as property. Although BKs living in the state have extended their roles
to outreach and community service, as noted above, such activities are localized,
unorganized, and rarely systematic. Few people in Orissa are aware of or are able
to comprehend the international community and its humanitarian work; rather, their
lives are defined by the everyday hardships of their own environment.
Although cyclones and floods are endemic in Orissa, the Super Cyclone of
October 1999 remains one of the most devastating environmental disasters of the
subcontinent. Two cyclones occurred in rapid succession: the first cyclone, with
winds reaching 200 kph, devastated the Orissa coast on the evening of 17 October;
eleven days later, while communities were still recovering, a second cyclone hit the
same area, with unprecedented winds of 300 kph. These cyclones affected the lives
and livelihoods of almost 16 million people, including BKs living in small villages
throughout the state:
Ten members of our family, we all went to the roof and just a few days earlier my father had
cut the branch of a (sacred and indigenous) banyan tree that was very near to our hut. It was
raining so heavily that we could not see anything outside. We were not even able to see face
to face. Water was also spinning. It was rushing at such a high speed that it was spinning.
The wind and the water took away some of the house, and that banyan branch acted as a
boat for us. We could see animals and people dying in front of us. Lifeless. All our crops
were washed away. Other family members started crying, “What are we going to eat?” My
father said, “Just hold onto that branch of the banyan tree.” Our entire house was washed
away and we were just holding onto that branch. (Aahlaad) (all names are pseudonyms)
At least ten thousand people were killed during these cyclones; millions of
houses were destroyed (Palakudiyil and Todd, 2003). Orissa BKs argue, how-
ever, that the mortality statistics underestimate their impact; many people were
unregistered and so were not included in the official toll:
When we found our grandmother, she was all white. She was white on white and had
become bloated. She still had her arms wrapped around her legs. She was floating along
with so many other things in the water. (Jaishree)
The cyclones damaged almost two million hectares of crops. Ten years on, fami-
lies are still displaced from their villages and are unable to earn a livelihood through
regular cultivation:
Since then, sometimes the seed grows very well but sometimes it won’t grow at all. The
water brought so many things with it that the soil is different now, so we never know if we
are going to be able to eat properly or not. (Ravi)
From our tiny village a total of seven people were dead. And the river water washed away
the entire village. All the houses, all the crops. Everything was gone. There was nothing to
eat. (Urvashi)
Meaning, as noted above and as used by Frankl (1978), refers to the ways
in which people make sense out of, and find significance in, life events. This is
connected with overall life purpose, articulated in cultural terms but shaped by indi-
vidual experiences, capacity and context. BKs made sense of the tragedy through
theology, as we discuss below. In the context of spirituality, meaning may either
reaffirm or challenge a faith in universal principles, a supreme benevolent being,
and/or a big picture perspective that takes the absolute importance out of the here
and now. In determining PTG, it is in the realm of existential, spiritual and religious
matters that the greatest growth may be experienced. For BKs in Orissa, scenes of
devastation witnessed at the time of the Super Cyclone and countless smaller local
disasters as a result of floods, storms, drought, and high winds provide meaning
because the events are affirmed and reflected in their theology.
Whatever is happening will happen. We have learned from our teachings that whatever is
written in destiny will happen for sure anyway. Whatever happens do not worry. Remember
God. It is destined. After these calamitous events everyone will be liberated, so there is
peace ahead for everyone. (Hemlata)
Values lead one to reconsider the ethics and morals that form the foundation of
one’s life, character and relationships (Kleinman, 2006). This relates to the PTG
determinants of ‘changed philosophy of life’ where people have a renewed and
heightened appreciation of the more simple aspects of life, in the face of signif-
icant loss. Placing a value on their elementary spiritual capacities contributed to
BKs’ sense making after the cyclone, as well as feeling constructive at a time when
many feel helpless:
I was feeling that (the job of) my thoughts were to order nature. I was speaking to the water
and saying, “You must stop now. You cannot increase anymore.” And it happened that it
didn’t rise anymore. It stopped. So I was feeling that yes, we are the ones who can work
with nature. (Devi)
While Devi’s practice was to give to the elements, Jagdish’s practice was to
remain beyond their influence. He placed value on his personal spiritual practice:
I felt it was. . . an examination to make our internal stage strong. It gave me the feeling that
even if you don’t get water and food for many days even just with the remembrance of God
you can survive. I felt it very strongly.
Reflective practice refers to establishing and maintaining an inner conversation

with the self on the basis of faith in something of great personal significance.
When determining PTG, the character traits of optimism are significant in growth.
Therefore, reflective practices are generally positive: meditation and prayer may
help the sufferer moving beyond patterns of thinking that have previously brought
experiences of sorrow, limitation and suffering. Reflective practice may also bring
an experience of transcendence through meaningful fulfilment or loving encoun-
ters (Frankl, 1978), such as a relationship with God, a guru or a higher power
experienced through meditation. For BKs, meditation served as a form of personal
transcendence that lifted them out of what they see as a chronic over-identification
with the body and the material world. The power derived through meditation
allowed BKs in Orissa to offer ‘subtle’ (unexpressed) support to others through the
vibrations they create with their mind.
After the cyclone, we helped to distribute relief. We did that, but the most important ser-
vice was to treat everyone with goodwill, good thoughts and have good wishes for all.
As we have been taught, wherever destruction has happened, remain there in spiritual
consciousness and give good vibrations. No other service is beyond that. (Ramesh)
Constantly I was in remembrance of God, got power and peace from God and distributed
it among other people who were there. (Roshan)
Service to others is a form of negotiation in which one establishes and deepens

an alliance of the self, God, others and nature. Helping in the aftermath of disaster
is associated with experiences of well-being, self-esteem and positivity, enhanc-
ing people’s psychological resources (Musick & Wilson, 2003). While acting on
the basis of physical and spiritual forms of humanitarian aid (distributing food and
clothing, and meditating and projecting good wishes respectively), participants used
their teachings to establish a coherent narrative in the context of ‘service’:
(It felt like) everyone was going to die and everything was going to finish, so I thought we
should spread the vibration of peace and happiness. We too had lost everything in water.
But we didn’t have even a little bit of unhappiness . . . I was also feeling that this is a very
tough time when people need to be able to tolerate whatever is happening. They need real
power, so through mental power I was trying to spread the atmosphere that they will have
the power to face, they will have internal happiness and peace. (Devi)
Physically we can do whatever we can for them. And together with that we can spread
the vibration of peace . . . (Manju)
Mental peace. People require mental peace. We can help bring this about through our
practice of meditation. (Nagraj)
Good action involves bringing the results of personal meaning finding and con-
structive reflection into the physical world in a way that reaffirms and anchors
internal change. One then draws understanding from the past into the present, in
order to practically construct one’s future. It must be grounded in daily life through
action and may involve renewal and reconfiguration of attitude:
There was a younger brother I was with who started crying, seeing the situation and then I
said, “You don’t worry. God is with us. (Through spiritual teachings) we have been told in
advance what will happen. So don’t worry, let’s see what happens. (Adesh)
Maintaining a fluid perspective (Halemba, 2008) and being prepared to alter the
way in which life is viewed (Agrimson & Taft, 2009) and enacted are spiritual
methods that assist in the restoration of meaning (Ai et al., 2005):
We saw in front of our eyes what would happen in the future. (Our teachings said) we would
see that. So inside we had even more faith. (Gulab)
Meaning, values, service, reflection and good action, therefore, are part of the
psychological frame for BKs, demonstrating the overlap between spirituality and
psychology – certainly as articulated in logotherapy – in the process of sense mak-
ing contributing to resilience (Levy, Slade, and Ranasinghe, 2009; Leavey, 2008).
Psychologists have called for more specific detail on effective faith factors that sit
between the scholarly disciplines of positive psychology and faith-related research
(Ai et al., 2005). This reconfiguring of outlook captures much of what is at the heart
of re-authoring and the growth that can result.
Re-authoring as an Explanatory Tool
Re-authoring, as suggested by Janoff-Bulman (1992, 2006), is a form of deeper and

more complex reframing, central to posttraumatic growth; it involves writing a new
life narrative rather than just seeing things in a new light. “Self narratives are the
very substance that is disrupted by trauma and loss, and that public and private narra-
tion of tragedy and transition is heavily implicated in posttraumatic resilience, repair
and transcendence” (Neimeyer, 2006, p. 78). Re-authoring begins with the premise
that each person has an interwoven tapestry of memories, thoughts and behaviours
that have been affected by and impact on the lives of others. This tapestry goes
towards creating the person’s assumptive world, forming attitudes that become the
filter through which life is experienced. It is a fluid world open to external influences,
particularly in times of heightened awareness, as occurs with disaster.
Overarching schemas offer a sense of certainty and control and are formed
through a process of action, response and feedback that takes place between individ-
uals and the social worlds they inhabit. Once this assumptive world is challenged
and the old filter through which life was viewed is displaced, a new identity and
perspective must somehow be woven, so that a coherent meaning can be gleaned
from what has occurred (Frank, 2000).
The assumptive filter then acts as a frame of reference through which life is
understood and is considered to be standard and unremarkable, however it may seem
to others. The filter is an osmotic one, with information constantly being revised and
adjusted by new experiences throughout life, either gradually or abruptly. This re-
writing of one’s life narrative in light of new understanding may result in growth.
Re-authoring occurs on a continual basis and reflects the endeavours of individu-
als to find an existential logic and coherent identity to carry forward as they move
through their lives.
In some respects, one could argue that BKs’ theology is a conservative one,
allowing the inevitability of climate change and associated disasters as instantiation
of the confluence age, with no notion of the capacity of adherents to change this
sequence and so avert disaster. The spiritual perspective used by BKs brings their
attention back to the self, but, in doing so, it offers individuals alternative solutions
for resilience in face of personal or environmental disaster. Hence while BKs have
no authority for activism, in this regard, any disaster is a call to serve and, because
it affirms their theology and faith, it can provide spiritual practitioners with a sense
of purpose and framework through which to make sense of the disastrous events.
At the same time, the growing concern with outreach of this organization, and other
faith-based communities, suggests increase in concern among practitioners about
the extent of suffering and the need for action both locally and globally.
Spiritual Practitioners
A central component of spiritual practice is being self-reflective and analytic of

motivation.
The key to intervening in the unfolding events of the biological system is to create a change
in the inner system of thought. First, we must make thought aware of its role in creating
the world – or to put it another way – we must make the thinkers of thoughts aware that
we are not neutral observers of a sequence of events: our inner beliefs affect our process of
observing and the choices we make as a result, affecting the very world we are observing.
(BKWSU, 2009b, p. 3)
BKs purposely view this assumptive filter and reflect on it daily; worldwide most
BKs attend daily morning services with readings (murli) (Ramsay, 2009). Spiritual
practitioners adapt their behaviour and thinking accordingly, aiming to remain
authentic to daily demands and responsibilities while repeatedly and continually
endeavouring to transcend materialistic attitudes, consciousness and limitations of
the physical world. Because of the existential and questioning nature of spiritual
paths, spiritual practitioners frequently explore and seek to explain the reason for
suffering and the nature of change, including global environmental change. To
understand, accept and manage the mind is deemed the key to enlightenment, and
so the mastery of one’s own mind is the tool to release the self from suffering.
The method of release from suffering for BKs is systematic, with a strong focus
on internal reflective practice and private ruminations, reinforced by virtuous action
and disciplined rituals designed to promote and sustain strong spiritual awareness.
Although this type of positive rumination is not exclusive to spiritual practition-
ers, it is a more purposeful part of their existence as all forms of theology call
their adherents to engage in self-reflection to a substantial degree, mostly on a daily
basis. Spiritual practitioners are often encouraged to deal with suffering and diffi-
culties mindfully, managing necessary change and associated tensions thoughtfully
and peacefully. Furthermore, they may often hold beliefs contradictory with those
of others in the communities in which they reside, moving them to rewrite a new
identity on a regular basis in order to live authentic spiritual lives within their home
community. This daily rewriting may contribute to their resilience in the occasion of
a calamitous event. As noted above, this suggests the role of members of faith-based
communities in ministration at times of disaster, rather than providing them with a
mandate to support action to head off disaster.
Ministering to those who are suffering cannot be underestimated, however.
Spirituality provides important elements to the process of re-authoring: understand-
ing universal laws and tenets of good living, a feeling of connection with others
and with nature, and a sense of meaning, all contribute to purposeful suffering that
plays a part in the process of moving through the experience and re-authoring one’s
life narrative, key to PTG. The dying of old ways of being pushes individuals into
negotiating a new relationship with the self and the external world. It helps people
manage, and not resolve, grief.
In many cases, according to Calhoun and Tedeschi (2006b), people who have
lived through disaster report personal growth as the relationship of the self with the
external world is reconfigured. Depending on the form of the disaster, this arbitration
may create further levels of peeling away and rebuilding. With spiritual practition-
ers who are Buddhists, BKs or Jains, this occurs through reaffirming identity as
a spiritual being (Cousins, 1997), performing daily meditation (Whaling, 1995),
and shaping their understanding through spiritual philosophy to acknowledge the
connection between human consciousness and the physical world (Vallely, 2002).
By providing a practical way to restructure individual, physical and social worlds,
re-authoring can become a powerful method of recovery and healing (Todeschini,
2001). Faith-based reasoning and the spiritual technology of meditation may sup-
port and offer additional tools for the re-authoring process. Including spirituality in
discussions about the way in which we care for others during disasters broadens the
places that we look for ways that we may help people to manage their experience
of suffering. Humanitarian agencies, governments and non-governmental agencies
must all become increasingly aware of and sensitive to the diverse systems of belief
that are important to different populations.
Concluding Thoughts
In Orissa, BKs indicated three forms of understanding that contributed to their abil-
ity to moderate their experience of the Super Cyclone: a belief that they have a
capacity to serve themselves and others through the mind; a capacity to find purpose
and meaning in life’s difficulties through their theology; and the practice of medita-
tion that offers a sense of transcendence that can lift them out of the tragedy of the
moment. Just as one stockpiles utensils and food, and rehearses behaviour appro-
priate to safety and physical resilience in disaster, BKs stockpile the practice of
meditation and positive thinking, coupled with thoughtful good action, as a method
to develop inner resilience using local resources.
In tandem with growing political pressure to avoid catastrophe, developing
awareness of and concern about climate change has provoked individual concern
about responsibility and call to action. The call is to engage positively with the chal-
lenge of climate change by considering the ways in which people think, feel, believe
and behave, rather than looking solely to physical answers. As the responses of BKs
to extreme weather events in Orissa illustrate, spiritual community understandings
and practices enrich our understanding of social and cultural dimensions of disaster,
the role that spirituality has in the interplay between the lived experience of people
and the vulnerable environment around them, and in meaning making.
Conversations about climate change and its medium- to long-term impact have
favored objective information over subjective experience, and the scientific, ratio-
nal and logical, over the spiritual, intuitive and complex. In this context, religious
leaders and spiritual practitioners have little say in policy, but increasingly, their
voices are important as people’s social and psycho-religious needs post-disaster are
left to the community (Doughty, 1999). The increases in relative poverty, disasters,
political unrest and mass suffering caused by climate change have revealed the priv-
ilege of particular scientific standpoints to be problematic. Policy science allows
little room for indigenous understandings of disaster and local faith-based forms
of resilience, but in doing so, it hampers international efforts to respond appro-
priately to current environmental crises, and the long-term threats and effects of
climate change. One way to integrate these better is to include spiritual advisors in
high-level international discussions that contribute to policy, as well as adhering to
international standards of human rights and consulting with local spiritual leaders
in the aftermath of environmental disasters. Our approach to climate change must
be multipronged, otherwise repeated calls by those most affected by climate change
may remain ineffective.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has emphasized the need for greater psy-
chosocial care post-disaster (Gist, 1999; Roberts and Ashley, 2008). In Australia,
spiritually sensitive social care is now being integrated in the curriculum of high-
level disaster training (Gray, 2008; Spencer and Archer, 2008) and forms part of
the government’s response to disaster (EMA, 2002). The IASC guidelines and the
Sphere handbook, the humanitarian charter that documents minimum standards in
disaster response, both call for consideration of religious and spiritual factors, in
creating resilient communities, and in proper care in the relief and recovery stages
of disaster. Yet in general, there has been limited use by governments of formal
and informal networks with the capacity to aid in social reconstruction after disaster
(Aguirre, 2006, see also Fjord and Manderson, 2009).
Studies that centralize the discussion of spirituality and its potential to contribute
to our understanding of and management of climate change, we suggest, work as
a bridge between scientific policy and social need, based on local understanding,
capacity and resources. To adequately equip people to respond to disaster, we must
broaden our understanding of the ways in which people, individually and collec-
tively, manage and respond to traumatic circumstances and social suffering. While
acknowledging all forms of faith and non-faith, religion and secularism, there may
be inherent capacities in faith-based organizations that are, as yet, under-utilized
in the disaster context. Suffering is manifold; so too are its solutions. The experi-
ences of disasters of BKs, and certain other spiritual communities, may enrich the
methods people use to bring solace to those who are suffering, in ways that may be
practical, non-proselytizing and cost-effective. We need to explore more deeply the
relationship between the human spirit and the physical world if we are to maintain
the well-being of both.
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Chapter 10
Climate Change, Resilience
and Transformation: Challenges
and Opportunities for Local Communities
Taegen Edwards and John Wiseman
While climate change is clearly a global emergency requiring global solutions, there
is also increasing understanding of the diverse challenges and opportunities that
local communities face in strengthening resilience to the impacts and implications
of climate change. Evidence is also growing about the crucial contribution that local
actions and networks can make in strengthening community resilience – and in driv-
ing the broader social and political transformations needed to prevent catastrophic
climate change in ways that are ecologically healthy, just and democratic.
This chapter therefore has two aims. The first aim is to bring together recent evi-
dence and learning about the characteristics that strengthen community resilience to
the threats and challenges of climate change. The second aim is to explore the links
between the theory and practice of resilience and the actions needed for communi-
ties to adapt to climate change already being experienced and enable pathways to
reduce the risks of catastrophic climate change – locally and globally.
The core argument of the chapter can be summarised in the following way.
Community resilience to climate change requires strengthening the overall foun-
dations of resilient communities, augmented by locally relevant, locally tailored
actions to improve local climate change adaptation capabilities and outcomes.
However, given that the capacity of any local community to adapt to climate
change is limited, strengthening community resilience to climate change will also
require transformative action leading to the rapid and equitable reduction of car-
bon emissions and the drawing down of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This
crucial journey from paralysis and fear to hope and transformation requires a well-
informed understanding of the perilous path we are on; compelling visions of an
alternative, desirable future; a shared belief that transformation is possible; and
J. Wiseman (B)
Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia
e-mail: jwiseman@unimelb.edu.au


186 T. Edwards and J. Wiseman
clear plans and pathways – all critical components of truly resilient communities
and societies.
Understanding Resilience
The concept of resilience has become increasingly important to theorists, policy

makers and activists from a wide range of disciplines and perspectives (Cork,
Walker and Buckley, 2008; Norris et al., 2008). Here we briefly review the vari-
ety of ways in which the concept is understood before turning to the more specific
goal of building ‘resilient communities’.
The common starting point for diverse understandings of resilience is the capac-
ity of a system to ‘bounce back’ and maintain its essential functions in the face of
stress and disturbance. From an engineering perspective, resilience is understood
as the length of time required for a system to return to a steady state equilib-
rium (Holling, 1996). Ecologists conceptualise resilience slightly differently as the
‘capacity of a system to absorb disturbance and reorganize while undergoing change
so as to still retain essentially the same function, structure, identity, and feedbacks’
(Walker et al., 2004, p. 5). A resilient ecosystem is therefore one which can with-
stand shocks, reinvent and rebuild itself when necessary. Key characteristics of
resilient eco-systems include diversity, openness and modularity (Olsson and Folke,
2004).
The capacity of human beings to anticipate and plan for the future adds a sec-
ond, important dimension to the concept of resilience. For psychologists, resilience
involves the capacity of individuals to successfully adapt and cope well with neg-
ative experiences and unfamiliar situations, especially highly stressful or traumatic
events (Bonnano, 2005). Key characteristics of psychological resilience include a
strong sense of personal capacity and efficacy, well-informed awareness of changing
conditions, strong problem-solving skills and strong social connections and support
systems (Luthar, Cicchetti, & Becker, 2000). There is also increasing evidence that
individual capacity to deal well with challenging events is significantly affected not
only by the speed and flexibility of the response but also by the ability of individuals
to anticipate and shape the pathways on which they are travelling.
The business and management literature on resilience extends this analysis to an
organizational level by highlighting the ability of organisations to anticipate crises
and dynamically reinvent business models and strategies as circumstances change
(Hamel and Valikangas, 2003). From this point of view, resilience is as much about
organizational innovation and transformation as it is about adjustment and adapta-
tion. Key properties of resilient organizations include a high capacity to be aware
of and predict changing threats and opportunities combined with an organizational
culture that rewards and promotes learning, flexibility, creativity and innovation
(Lengnick-Hall and Beck, 2005).
Although interpreted differently across different disciplines, there is broad con-
sensus that resilience is better conceptualized as a process rather than an outcome
and as evolution rather than stability (Norris et al., 2008).
10 Climate Change, Resilience and Transformation: Challenges and . . . 187
Community Resilience
An increasing body of research and learning is focussing attention on the charac-
teristics that build resilience in diverse communities of place, people and interest
(Norris et al., 2008, Maguire and Cartwright, 2008). An important starting point
for this work is the need to recognise the context-specific dynamics of resilience
and vulnerability within diverse societies, cultures and communities. (Adger and
Brown, 2009).
Norris et al. (2008) draw on the experience of community responses to natu-
ral disasters to conceptualise community resilience as ‘a process linking a network
of adaptive capacities (resources with dynamic attributes) to adaptation after a
disturbance or adversity’ (Norris et al., 2008, pp. 127–128).
Building on the experiences of resource-dependent, rural communities facing
more gradual challenges caused by exposure to a range of political, economic and
environmental stressors, the Canadian Centre for Community Enterprise proposes
the following definition: ‘A resilient community is one that takes intentional action
to enhance the personal and collective capacity of its citizens and institutions to
respond to and influence the course of change’ (Community Resilience Project
Team, 1999, p. 11). The importance of proactive or intentional action is also empha-
sised by Maguire and Cartwright (2008, p. 5) who define a resilient community as
one that is ‘able to use the experience of change to continually develop and to reach a
higher state of functioning’. Rather than simply surviving or coping with stress and
change, a resilient community ‘may respond in creative ways that fundamentally
transform the basis of the community.’ (ibid)
Defined in this way, community resilience encompasses both the capacity of
communities to ‘bounce back’ as well as their capacity to proactively and intention-
ally transform themselves in order to address or reduce the impacts of forthcoming
shocks. This proactive, transformational quality is likely to be particularly important
in understanding and building community resilience to climate change, given that
the capacity of human beings to adapt to climate variability is not unlimited.
Before turning to consider the specific characteristics of community resilience to
climate change it is also important to take stock of the varied ways in which climate
change impacts on the sources and determinants of community well-being.
Climate Change and Community Well-Being

Climate change is an all encompassing threat, directly affecting the environment, the econ-
omy, health and safety. Many communities face multiple stresses with serious social,
political and security implications, both domestically and abroad. Millions of people are
uprooted or permanently on the move as a result. Many more millions will follow.
Kofi Annan, Global Humanitarian Forum (2009, p. 5)
The term ‘community well-being’ encompasses the broad range of economic,

social, environmental, cultural and governance goals and priorities identified as of
greatest importance by a particular community, population group or society (Brasher
& Wiseman, 2008). Implicit in this definition is a recognition that ‘community well-
being’ priorities will vary across cultures and societies.
As documented elsewhere in this book, the rapidly evolving impacts of cli-
mate change are already generating an unprecedented, diverse and complex range
of environmental, social and economic threats and challenges to the well-being
and sustainability of communities, regions and societies. Table 10.1 summarises
a range of these impacts on key indicators and determinants of community health
and well-being.
Table 10.1 Impacts of climate change on community health and well-being. Adapted from
Edwards, Fritze and Wiseman (2009, pp. 83–85)
Determinants of community
well-being Impacts of climate change
Physical health Key health impacts of climate change include injury or death as a
(see Costello et al., 2009; result of extreme weather events such as heatwaves, wind,
McMichael et al., 2003) storms, floods and fires; exposure to waterborne disease and
toxins due to affected or unreliable water sources; malnutrition
arising from food insecurity; exposure to food poisoning due
to warmer temperatures; higher respiratory disease incidence
linked to pollutants and increased rates of asthma and hay
fever due to increased aeroallergens; increased exposure to
vector-borne and other infectious diseases; increased exposure
to ultraviolet radiation.
Mental health Implications of climate change for mental health include direct
(Bourke, Blashki, Fritze and mental health impacts due to extreme weather events (e.g.
Wiseman, 2008) floods or bushfires), longer-term changes to the land (e.g.
persistent drought or coastal inundation) and forced migration;
impacts on key determinants of mental health such as social
exclusion, economic insecurity, violence and discrimination;
and emotional distress arising from awareness of climate
change as a global environmental threat, which casts
substantial uncertainty over the future.
Social and health inequalities ‘Climate change will have its greatest effect on those who have
the least access to the world’s resources and who have
contributed least to its cause. Without mitigation and
adaptation, it will increase health inequity especially through
negative effects on the social determinants of health in the
poorest communities’. (Costello et al., 2009, p. 1694)
Work and unemployment Industries such as agriculture and tourism are particularly
vulnerable to climate change impacts. Carbon emission
reduction policies will also affect employment prospects in the
energy, transport, mining and heavy manufacturing sectors. On
the other hand, the transition to a low-carbon economy also
has the potential to create new ‘green’ economy industries and
employment opportunities.
Access to insurance Risks arising from climate change impacts (e.g. more frequent
and intense extreme weather events) are already affecting the
availability and affordability of insurance.
Table 10.1 (continued)
Determinants of community
well-being Impacts of climate change
Food Increased droughts and extreme weather events are impacting

on local and imported food supply leading to price rises and
scarcity. Increased food prices and food insecurity are a
particular concern for people on low incomes.
Water Climate change is reducing the quality and certainty of the
water supply available for domestic, agricultural and
industrial purposes. Infrastructure investment to increase
water supply is raising water costs.
Energy Extreme weather events can damage crucial energy system
infrastructure and disrupt transmission, causing power
shortages and blackouts. Climate change and climate change
policy responses are impacting on the price of energy-related
services such as transport, heating, cooling and cooking.
Transport More extreme weather poses a risk to transport infrastructure.
Higher costs of petrol and public transport due to increasing
electricity costs and policies to reduce emissions are making
mobility more expensive.
Housing As the climate changes, housing design and construction will
need to be altered to provide adequate protection from heat
and extreme weather events. In some areas, building or
maintaining existing houses may not be viable, leading to the
need for people, and potentially, whole communities to
relocate.
Social cohesion and sense Climate change is likely to lead to temporary or permanent
of home and belonging displacement of communities affected by extreme weather
events, coastal erosion, sea level rise or loss of economic
viability, which disrupts deep human connections and ties to
‘place’ – including location, relationships and traditions
(Hess et al., 2008, p. 468). Rising temperatures and lack of
water are also affecting a wide range of social and
community infrastructure such as parks, recreational and
sporting facilities.
Health, community and The range of impacts outlined above is placing increasing
emergency services demands on emergency, health and community services.
Extreme weather events, in particular, have the capacity to
disrupt access to essential health and community services.
Vulnerable Places and Populations

Vulnerability to the health and well-being impacts of climate change between geo-
graphical locations and population groups varies greatly. The IPCC (2007, p. 21)
defines climate vulnerability as ‘the degree to which a system is susceptible to, and
unable to cope with, adverse effects of climate change, including climate variability
and extremes. Vulnerability is a function of the character, magnitude, and rate of
climate change and variation to which a system is exposed, its sensitivity, and its
Fig. 10.1 Vulnerability and

its components
adaptive capacity’ (see also Fusel, 2007 for a useful analysis of the strengths and
limitations of the IPCC definition of climate change vulnerability).
Vulnerability to climate change consists of several components (Fig. 10.1)
including the exposure of a given system or community to climate change impacts,
the sensitivity, or extent to which changes will affect it in its current form, and the
adaptive capacity¸ or capacity to change in a way that makes it better equipped to
deal with external impacts (Allen Consulting Group, 2005, p. ix).
Community vulnerability to climate change risks can therefore be defined in
terms of a specific community’s susceptibility to, or inability to cope with, the
adverse impacts of climate change. Whilst a community’s exposure to climate
change is determined by local variability of changes in the physical environment,
sensitivity and adaptive capacity reflect the variable attributes and capacities of
specific local communities and populations.
As Edwards et al. (2009) note, place-based communities likely to be particularly
vulnerable to climate change include the following:
• Rural, drought-affected communities

• Communities reliant on water from snow melt and glaciers
• Coastal communities likely to be affected by sea level rise
• Flood-prone areas
• Bushfire-prone areas
• Communities with a high dependence on fossil-fuel, mining and other heavy
industries
• Isolated or remote communities with poor access to transport
• Inner urban areas (with low capacity for food production)
Population groups likely to be particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts

include the following:
• People living in poverty and on low incomes (e.g. unemployed people, single
parents)
• People already experiencing significant challenges in accessing transport , health

and community services (e.g. older people, people with physical and mental
disabilities)
• Indigenous communities (Green et al., 2009)
• Recently arrived migrants and refugees (Edwards et al., 2009)
As the 2009 Global Humanitarian Forum Report (p. 13) on the social impacts of
climate change also notes, it is communities and societies in developing countries
that face by far the greatest risks.
It is a grave global justice concern that those who suffer most from climate change have
done the least to cause it. Developing countries bear over nine-tenths of the climate change
burden: 98% of the seriously affected and 99% of all deaths from weather-related disas-
ters, along with over 90% of the total economic losses. The 50 Least Developed Countries
contribute less than 1% of global carbon emissions.
While all three elements of vulnerability (exposure, sensitivity and adaptive

capacity) are important foundations for understanding the extent of challenges fac-
ing diverse communities, resilience provides a broader and more all-encompassing
conceptual framework in that it gives greater emphasis to the capacity of commu-
nities to identify emerging vulnerabilities and take action to prevent or reduce the
impacts of these trends. (Adger & Brown, 2009).
Strengthening Community Resilience to Climate Change

The resilience of communities to the impacts and implications of climate change
will depend on actions that strengthen both general and specific resilience.
A society’s general resilience comes from a range of factors, including the trust and coop-
eration among its people, their ability to ‘pull together’ through tough times, the capacity
of the people and the social institutions to generate and use knowledge to find solutions to
new challenges and to learn from experience, and the extent to which natural ecosystems
are able to continue to support economic and social welfare while absorbing the influence
of human activities on them. In addition, specific challenges will require specific resilience
that can only be built if society is able to imagine what those challenges might be. (Cork
et al., 2008, p. 1)
An extensive body of research has led to the identification of a range of general

features of resilient communities (Canadian Centre for Community Renewal, 2008).
Norris et al. (2008) have helpfully organised these characteristics into the following
four primary sets of networked resources, which together provide an overarching
picture of resilient communities.
• Economic development, including diverse, sustainable sources of economic pros-

perity, high-quality economic infrastructure, secure livelihoods and employment
opportunities, and the equitable distribution of income and assets.
• Social capital, including broad and deep social networks within and beyond the
community, experienced and widely respected community leadership, a strong
sense of community pride and optimism, and high levels of citizen engagement.
• Information and communications, including rapid access to accurate, relevant
information and responsive, accessible and reliable communications infrastruc-
ture.
• Community competence, including a tradition of self-reliance combined with
the capacity to identify and secure external resources; the capacity to collab-
orate effectively in identifying and achieving shared visions for the future; a
diversity of well-resourced, well-linked community organizations; governance
systems that enable and facilitate rapid, flexible decisions and responses; and
strong education and innovation systems.
Action to strengthen these general characteristics of community resilience

will help ensure communities are better equipped to respond to climate change.
However, it is clearly critical that actions to strengthen the general characteristics
of resilience are augmented by the actions necessary to address the specific chal-
lenges that climate change brings to different communities. This has led to a rapidly
growing literature exploring, testing and documenting strategies likely to be most
helpful in assisting communities adapt to climate change (Adger, Lorenzoni and
O’Brien, 2009). Table 10.2 provides an indicative overview of the range of strate-
gies being employed to address the diverse health and well-being challenges arising
from climate change.
Actions to strengthen both general community resilience and to address more
specific climate change challenges need to be informed by local knowledge and be
tailored to reflect and address the vulnerabilities and strengths of specific societies
and cultures. As Adger et al. (2009) note, views and values about the most effective
and appropriate responses to climate change vary greatly between diverse communi-
ties and cultures. This reinforces the case for significant investment in deliberative
decision making processes, which can maximise the possibility of well-informed,
respectful and creative strategies for improving the general and specific resilience
of specific communities (see McKinney & Harmon, 2007).
While a comprehensive overview of the rapidly expanding array of community
level climate change resilience strategies is well beyond the scope of this chap-
ter, the following initiatives provide some illustrations of the diverse approaches to
community climate change resilience emerging from differing political and cultural
contexts.
The ‘Transition Towns Movement’

Originating from the work of permaculture teacher Rob Hopkins in the Northern
Ireland community of Kinsale in 2005, the ‘Transition Towns Movement’ encour-
ages and promotes community-driven responses to the combined challenges of
Table 10.2 Overview of adaptation strategies designed to address health and well-being impacts
of climate change at the community level
Climate change
vulnerabilities Adaptation strategies and responses
Extreme weather Improved prediction and early warning systems

eventss Relocation of households and communities away from areas of danger
(e.g. areas prone to sea level rise, tidal surges, cyclones or bushfires)
Coastal barriers and dykes; bushfire prevention measures
Refuges designed to improve protection from extreme weather events
such as storms, cyclones and bushfires
Physical health Improved capacity to prevent and treat heatwaves, infectious diseases,
insect-borne diseases
Mental health Improved capacity to respond to and treat mental health impacts of
natural disasters and extreme weather events and to protect and
provide care for people with pre-existing mental illness
Discrimination, social inclusion and economic participation
Social and health Social inclusion and redistribution strategies including improving
inequalities access to income, employment, housing and essential services
Work and Local and regional industry and employment development initiatives
unemployment Labour market and structural adjustment programs
Access to insurance Underwriting of household, community, local government and
business insurance
Food Improving food security
Supporting local food production and distribution
Water Building new dams and pipelines
Investing in decentralised water collection and distribution systems at
multiple scales including urban water harvesting, grey water
recycling and tanks
Water conservation
Water desalination plants
Energy Investing in diversified energy production systems
Improving energy distribution systems (e.g. through smart grids)
Transport Improving public transport networks and infrastructure
Reducing distances between residential, work, community service,
educational and recreational centres and activities
Housing Retrofitting of existing housing stock to improve energy efficiency and
provide greater protection from extreme weather events
Sustainable housing and urban design
Social cohesion and Community development strategies; strategies designed to strengthen
sense of home and social networks and build trust across cultural differences
belonging Investing in community infrastructure (e.g. meeting places, cultural,
recreational and sporting facilities)
Refugee resettlement policies’ programs designed to preserve and
strengthen cultural identity in displaced and refugee populations
climate change and peak oil (Transition Network WIKI, 2010). ‘Transition Town’
initiatives’, arise when members of a local community get together, ask themselves
what aspects of life are essential to sustaining and thriving as a community, and
begin to work on strategies to increase local resilience.
Hopkins (2008, 134) has outlined the following four key assumptions of the
Transition Towns movement:
1. Life with a dramatically lower energy consumption is inevitable, and it is better

to plan for it than to be taken by surprise
2. Our settlements and communities presently lack the resilience to enable them to
weather the severe energy shocks that will accompany peak oil.
3. We have to act collectively, and we have to act now
4. By unleashing the collective genius of those around us to creatively and proac-
tively plan for our energy descent, we can build ways of living that are more
connected and more enriching and that recognise the biological limits of our
planet.
There are now several hundred Transition Town initiatives, primarily located in
developed countries. The following overview of projects currently under way in the
UK Transition Town of Totnes (summarised in Table 10.3) provides an indication
of the range of strategies and initiatives being explored.
The Transition Towns movement is creating a valuable testing ground for new
approaches to social, technological and ecological resilience, innovation and trans-
formation. However, as Haxeltine and Seyfang (2009) point out, the movement’s
emphasis on the synergies between localisation, transition and resilience also runs
Table 10.3 Transition Town Totnes: local community resilience projects (Transition Towns 2010)
Name Short description
Business resource exchange One company’s waste/spare resources used as input for another
(Swapshop)
Totnes healthy futures Creating a Community Food and Well-being Garden within easy
(Community garden) walking distance of Totnes
Energy descent pathways Create vision of Totnes in 2030, and then define pathways to take
(EDP) us there
Garden share Matching unused garden space with garden-less growers
Green energy for business Helping businesses to switch to renewable energy tariffs
Local food guide Promotion of local produce and independent outlets
Measuring transition How will we know we are making progress towards our goals?
Solar thermal challenge Bulk purchase and promotion of solar thermal kit for hot water
on 50 homes
The great re-skilling Practical training programme to re-establish the skills we have
lost
Totnes food hub An ‘online’ farmer’s market: local food ordered direct over the
Internet
Totnes pound Our own local currency, now accepted in over 70 shops in the
town
Transition library Wide selection of transition-related books and films available for
free in Totnes
Transition tales Storytelling the future to educate and inspire
Transition together Small social-based groups that take on their own practical-based
transition agenda, based on a workbook
the risk of underestimating and neglecting the need to address broader, larger-scale
relationships of political and economic power.
‘People-Centred Resilience’: Working with Vulnerable Farming

Communities
As a result of its work with small-scale farmers living on marginal rural lands
highly vulnerable to climate change Oxfam International (2009, p. 2) has noted the
importance of ‘building up the resilience of vulnerable farmers by developing their
skills, expertise and voice, while supporting their use of agro-ecological farming
practices’. The following five core principles have been identified as central to the
achievement of the goal of ‘people-centred resilience’:
1. Restored and diversified natural resources for sustainability.

2. Responsive institutions grounded in local context.
3. Expanded and improved sustainable livelihood options.
4. Sound gender dynamics and gender equality.
5. Farmer-driven decisions.
A wide range of illustrative examples are provided.

The Oxfam report on ‘People Centred Resilience’ (2009) points to a growing
range of initiatives exploring these principles in a variety of settings. In Beni, in
northeast Bolivia, where climate change–related droughts and flooding have become
both more frequent and more intense, the revival of indigenous knowledge about
the ancient ‘camellones’ farming systems has assisted local farming communities
to protect crops from flooding while capturing and storing water through raised
seedbeds surrounded by water channels. The multiple benefits associated with this
system include the empowerment of local women and enhanced food security.
In Khatlon Province, Tajikistan, the collective organic farms established by
local women’s groups have helped drought-affected households and communities
improve their incomes and avoid the cost of expensive chemical inputs. At the same
time organic methods also help farmers withstand climate change by fostering more
fertile soil with better water retention and by enabling the cultivation of more diverse
crops with differing climate sensitivities.
In Yasothorn Province, Thailand Oxfam is working with farmers to foster organic rice
production, which copes better with erratic rains. Project activities include training farm-
ers, small-scale water management; diversifying farm production; examining risks to and
burdens on women; and farmer-to-farmer learning. Outcomes have been impressive, with
participating farmers maintaining their rice yields – compared with 40% falls elsewhere –
while also earning income from fruit and vegetables. (Oxfam International, 2009, p. 10)
Again it is important to note that, ‘while local-level success is possible using sim-
ple measures. . .scaling up such work will require major new investments’ (Oxfam
International p. 10).
Limits to the Adaptive Capacity of Local Communities

to Climate Change
Large-scale investment in innovative actions to strengthen the adaptive capacity of

communities is clearly crucial, as is the ongoing task of strengthening the general
resilience of communities. However the uncomfortable – and inconvenient – reality
of climate change is that there are finite limits to the capacity of human societies
and communities to adapt. Adger and Barnett (2009, p. 2804) have summarised a
number of reasons for believing that adaptation to climate change is unlikely to be
as ‘smooth, cheap and easy to implement’ as some have suggested.
They begin by noting that the challenges of adapting to global mean warming
of 2 degrees or more are significant. Some ecosystems (such as coral reefs) and
some human societies (such as low-lying island nations) will be unlikely to survive
mean warming of 2 degrees in anything resembling their current state. There are
also very real risks that 2 degrees of warming may trigger a range of climate change
‘tipping points’ such as the melting of the polar ice caps, which may in turn reduce
the solar radiation reflected back into space, further accelerating global warming
trends. Combined with the fact that current emissions reduction paths provide little
confidence that global temperature rises can be kept to under 2 degrees, this leads to
the real possibility of crossing the threshold to a ‘four degree’ world in which rapid
and unpredictable changes to ecological and human systems are highly likely.
The track record of government decision making and action so far also raises
important questions about the extent to which adaptive capacity will necessarily
translate into sustainable action at the speed and scale required to prevent runaway
climate change. The example of the reactions of the citizens of low-lying Pacific
Island communities provides a powerful example of the final dilemma highlighted
by Adger and Barnett. If adaptation means leaving the land on which these com-
munities and all their ancestors have been born and raised and on which their entire
culture and society have evolved – then adaptation alone may not be a sufficient or
acceptable response.
For all these reasons, it is becoming increasingly clear that resilient commu-
nities and societies will need to augment adaptation with ‘transformability’: the
capacity to create a fundamentally new system when ecological, economic or social
(including political) conditions make the existing system untenable (Walker et al.,
2004).
Community Resilience as Adaptation and Transformation

Nelson, Adger and Brown, (2007, p. 402) ‘distinguish between transformation
as a directed, desirable process and transformation associated with the effects of
inadvertently crossing thresholds. The former is a planned, deliberate process,
whereas the latter is an uncontrolled process, which results from insufficient sys-
tem resilience’. Attributes required for transformability include novelty, diversity,
and organization in human capital; diversity in educational models, expertise, and
occupations; trust, strengths, and variety in institutions; and speeds and kinds of
cross-scale communication (Walker et al., 2009).
While full awareness of the potentially catastrophic implications of runaway
climate change is an essential foundation for transformative action, warnings of
impending calamity are just as likely to create paralysis as they are to trigger creativ-
ity and action (Moser & Dilling, 2007). Looking to the lessons from great historical
transformations such as the abolition of slavery, the end of apartheid or the fall of
the Berlin Wall, we can see that the journey from fear and despair to hope and action
requires a sense of an alternative and desirable alternative future; a shared belief that
change is both essential and possible; and a working map of the pathways needed to
achieve the change required.
We need to begin this journey with a broadly shared understanding of the precon-
ditions for a future in which the risks of runaway climate change are significantly
reduced. While the political debate about what is ‘economically and political feasi-
ble’ drags on, the scientific evidence increasingly points to the need for emergency
action leading to the return of atmospheric carbon to pre-industrial levels as soon as
possible. As Professor Hans Joachim Schellnhuber (2008), director of the Potsdam
Institute for Climate Impact Research, notes, ‘nobody can say for sure that 330 ppm
is safe. Perhaps it will not matter whether we have 270 ppm or 320 ppm, but oper-
ating well outside the [historic] realm of carbon dioxide concentrations is risky as
long as we have not fully understood the relevant feedback mechanisms’.
The key components of the pathways and strategies needed to prevent catas-
trophic climate change are now broadly understood (see, e.g. Gore 2009, Dunlop
et al., 2009). The first task is to significantly reduce net carbon emissions generated
by human activity by designing and implementing carbon neutral technologies and
ways of living. This will require dramatically improved energy efficiency; a rapid
transition from fossil fuel to renewable and low-carbon emission energy produc-
tion and the construction of an extensive network of smart grid energy distribution
systems. The second key task is to draw down carbon now in the atmosphere with
the aim of returning atmospheric carbon as rapidly as possible to pre-industrial lev-
els. The means of achieving this include reforestation and new land management
strategies designed to store carbon in vegetation and soils as well as the processing
of some forms of biomass such as biochar into more stable forms of ground-based
carbon for storage.
Ensuring that the transition to a sustainable, low-carbon future is accomplished
without social or ecological collapse will require extensive innovation and invest-
ment in the wide array of climate adaptation initiatives summarised above along
with a comprehensive program of income and wealth redistribution to ensure the
process is managed equitably.
While the implementation of a comprehensive, emergency speed, low-carbon
transition plan will clearly require a vast array of new technological innovations,
the greatest challenges are likely to be cultural, political and organisational. How
will the political support be generated and harnessed to drive this historically
unprecedented program of social and economic transformation? How will the nec-
essary renaissance in creativity and innovation be fostered and sustained? What
kinds of new institutional and governance arrangements will be required? How will
trust and co-operation be maintained and strengthened across diverse cultures and
communities as ecological, social and economic stresses intensify?
As the outcomes of the Copenhagen UN Climate Change Conference, COP15,
demonstrated, reliance on international- and national-level governance institutions
is unlikely to provide a sufficient basis for meeting these challenges. The creativity
and energy of a vast array of local community projects, organisations and networks
will also play crucial rules in exploring and testing new directions, sharing learning
and setting examples.
Climate Change, Resilience and Transformation: Challenges

and Opportunities for Local Communities
This chapter has argued that resilience to the impacts of climate change is an essen-
tial precondition for the well-being of individuals, households and communities.
This will require a wide range of actions to strengthen the overall foundations
of resilient communities, augmented by locally relevant, locally tailored climate
change adaptation strategies. Exploring and testing the effectiveness of such local
actions and strategies will therefore form a crucial part of future community well-
being research and policy development agendas. However, we have also argued that,
in the end, the resilience of local communities to climate change will depend on the
capacity of communities, societies and governments to invent, envisage and build
pathways to an ecologically healthy, just and democratic, low-carbon future. This
will require a transformational program of applied research, policy development and
political mobiliisation at all levels of local, national and international governance.
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Chapter 11
Conclusions: Implications for Practice, Policy,
and Further Research
Inka Weissbecker
Climate change is increasing the severity of disasters and adverse weather condi-
tions worldwide, with particularly devastating effects on developing countries and
on individuals with lower resources. The purpose of the book has been to outline and
discuss the potential impact of climate change on psychosocial well-being and men-
tal health from various interdisciplinary perspectives. Possible effects range from
anxiety related to the perceived threat of climate change, and the sadness and dis-
tress related to gradual environmental changes of one’s home environment, to the
devastating effects of natural disasters and humanitarian emergencies, and the poten-
tial relationship with violent conflict. Considerations for special populations such
as women and climate change refugees have been explored, in addition to ways
in which communities and individuals make sense of and respond to disaster and
climate change.
As elaborated in this volume, mental health and psychosocial well-being are
likely to be impacted via multiple direct and indirect pathways, exacerbating exist-
ing social and economic disparities, while also creating new challenges. However,
the advent of climate change also presents us with new opportunities and an
urgent imperative for action to join other disciplines in addressing climate change
with the goal of improving mental health and psychosocial well-being among
individuals and communities who are at risk for or already affected by climate
change.
The diverse effects that climate change is expected to have on mental health
and psychosocial well-being also call for comprehensive solutions at every level
of prevention, preparedness, and response. Reducing carbon emissions is one of
the obvious and most upstream solutions, while providing interventions for men-
tal health problems is one of the most downstream solutions, yet several potential
entry ways for intervention lie in between. The various pathways connecting cli-
mate change and mental health also serve as another reminder that psychologists
carry out their work within a larger environmental social, political, and cultural
I. Weissbecker (B)
Washington, DC
e-mail: inka.weissbecker@gmail.com


202 I. Weissbecker
framework. This requires an interdisciplinary and public health approach, which

takes complex relationships between various factors into account and goes beyond
the traditional confines of academic work by reaching out to various stakeholders
and disciplines. This chapter outlines some of the lessons learned and cross-cutting
implications that can be gained from the different perspectives presented in this
volume. The following recommendations can serve as a starting point for psycholo-
gists and others who want to advance practice, research and policy in this emerging
field.
Focus on Vulnerable Regions and Groups
Climate change, which is largely the product of industrialized nations, is projected

to magnify existing inequalities and to impact the most vulnerable, including those
with low resources, individuals living in developing countries, and specific popu-
lations such as women, children, and those with preexisting mental and physical
disabilities. Climate change is expected to magnify already-existing problems and
inequalities, with the likelihood of further reducing health and well-being among
vulnerable populations. The advent of climate change should provide a new incen-
tive to address long-standing problems of inequalities, low resources, and limited
opportunities in many parts of the world. As outlined in previous chapters, it is not
only absolute deprivation but also relative deprivation of some groups compared to
others that contributes to vulnerability. Such relative deprivation may also play a
role in triggering the risk for other adverse outcomes such as violent conflict (see
Chapter 6).
It is therefore especially important to focus attention and resources on devel-
oping countries and vulnerable populations, who are much less responsible for
climate change yet expected to be most affected and least equipped to mitigate
the effects. The goal of such supporting activities should be to facilitate adaptation
within the framework of self-sustainability and empowerment rather than continued
dependency.
Strengthen Community Adaptation, and Preparedness

As noted previously, the adverse effects of climate change are the result of both
the severity of climate-related events and underlying vulnerabilities (e.g. natu-
ral, human, social, economic, physical) and adaptive capacities (e.g. individual,
community, national). Ways of reducing vulnerability while increasing adaptive
capacity and resilience have been recurring themes throughout this volume, with
various possible solutions in building local capacity, addressing social and economic
inequalities, and developing best practice models and research to engender change
and inform policy makers. The active involvement of local communities in these
processes is critical.
11 Conclusions: Implications for Practice, Policy, and Further Research 203
Although the scientific evidence for potentially severe climate change scenarios
is accumulating, it remains a challenge to engage industrialized countries in taking
serious steps for reducing carbon emissions. While the issue of aiding adaptation to
climate change in resource poor regions is being discussed, it appears unlikely that
global and national actors will be able to mobilize sufficient resources to meet this
challenge (e.g. see Page & Howard, 2010). The role of communities and networks in
mobilizing resources, setting examples, and sharing local knowledge will be crucial
in reducing vulnerability and aiding adaptation.
Different cultural groups are likely to have knowledge and insights about their
natural environment and potential ways of adapting to climate change, which
can inform and guide support from national and international actors. Community
adaptation and preparedness activities should therefore be implemented from a
multicultural and multiethnic perspective that is sensitive to specific contexts and
makes the best use of local and traditional knowledge. Strengths of specific social
groups as well as talents and skills within the community should be identified
and utilized as well. Assessments of vulnerable communities to guide adaptation
efforts should explore both strengths and weaknesses, building capacity and fill-
ing gaps in knowledge, which can help community members prepare. Addressing
identified risks and weaknesses should involve active partnerships and buy in from
affected communities and engage key agents of change such as women or commu-
nity leaders can aid adaptation efforts (see Chapters 4, 5, 7, 9, and 10). Furthermore,
community-based training and support in areas such as disaster response, physi-
cal and psychological first aid, and search and rescue have already been conducted
in various contexts and could be scaled up (e.g. see Chapter 4 on disaster in this
volume).
Promoting adaptation and preparedness at the local level also have the poten-
tial of reducing psychological distress and anxiety resulting from experiencing a
lack of control and uncertainty due to the threat of climate change or already-
occurring adverse events (see Chapter 2). Actively involving communities and
making use of their knowledge and resources for adaptation can contribute to
empowerment and a sense of agency among potentially affected populations. It
has also been suggested that engaging communities in adaptation activities could
facilitate community cooperation and cohesion (e.g. Chapters 6 and 10). Indeed,
Berry (2009) has suggested that climate change could provide an important oppor-
tunity for mental health promotion and community support. Such an approach
would involve partnering with vulnerable and disadvantages communities, assess-
ing their own priorities and coping strategies, and providing support with the
aim of self-sufficiency and sustainability (Berry, 2009). In this way, resources
could be mobilized for adaptation and mitigation, while at the same time foster-
ing community dialogue, common action, cooperation, and sense of agency. Such
an approach may also be relevant for engaging different opposing groups that are
in conflict over natural resources. Creating win-win situations around common
goals over the preservation of renewable resources has been suggested to reduce
the risk for violent conflict and increase cooperative behavior, as elaborated in
Chapter 6.
204 I. Weissbecker
Involve Affected Communities in the Response to Adverse

Environmental Events
It has been suggested in this volume and elsewhere that affected communities should
be actively involved in responding to adverse environmental events such as natu-
ral disasters (Inter-Agency Standing Committee, 2007). Special attention should be
paid to rebuilding key community institutions and structures such as schools, places
of worship, and community centers and to engaging the community in structured
purposeful activities that aid in various aspects of community recovery.
Those recommendations are especially relevant in the context of mental health
and well-being. Communities affected by adverse environmental events such as
disaster or slow-onset events such as droughts often experience a lack of con-
trol and predictability, which can contribute to fear, anxiety, and distress (see
Chapter 2). If those communities are merely receiving handouts from organi-
zations while strangers take on the task of making decisions on priorities and
providing relief and recovery efforts, this sense of loss of control will likely be
reinforced and contribute to enduring feelings of helplessness and victimization.
Therefore, it has been recommended that communities should, to the extent pos-
sible, be involved in all aspects of emergency response (e.g. IASC, 2007). This
also encompasses asking various community members about their own priorities.
Semrau and others (e.g. see King’s College London, 2009) have recently developed
the Humanitarian Emergency Settings PERceived Needs (HESPER) Scale, which
assesses the perceived physical, social, and psychological needs and priorities of
populations affected by disaster or conflict in low-resource settings. Such partici-
patory methods and community recovery activities may also confer mental health
and well-being benefits. Berry (2009) suggests that interventions and services in the
context of adverse environmental events related to climate change should not focus
“directly” on mental health problems, but facilitate community cooperation toward
a common good which is chosen according to priorities of the community. Indeed,
research has shown that individuals who are able to function, contribute to commu-
nity recovery, and maintain their role during stress often cope better and experience
less mental health problems following a stressful event (Caplan, 1975 and Chapters
4, 5, and 10). Furthermore, community and family (rather than individual) inter-
ventions, have resulted in improved mental health in rural Australian communities
affected by drought (Stehlik, 2003; Berry, 2009).
Address Resource Loss and Promote Resource Gain
As elaborated throughout this book, adverse environmental events due to climate

change are likely to result in multiple and large-scale losses among affected popu-
lations. Potential losses include the loss of sense of place and connection with the
homeland, loss of traditional ways of life, loss of homes and communities, loss of
livelihoods and employment opportunities, loss of cultural and religious heritage,
loss of access to education and health care, and loss of certainty, identity, and social
support and connectedness (e.g. see Chapters 4, 5, and 10). Consistent with the
Conservation of Resources theory described in Chapter 8 on climate refugees, the
perceived and actual loss of resources has shown to be a key predictor of psycho-
logical distress, which can in turn lead to impairment in functioning and in further
resource loss. Supporting individuals and communities in maintaining resources,
restoring previous resources, or obtaining new resources should therefore be an
important part of assisting populations affected by climate change.
Increase Community Cohesion and Social Capital
As elaborated in this volume, environmental stressors and resulting effects such as

loss of life, economic hardship, displacement, and relocation are likely to adversely
affect community cohesion and social networks. Yet, positive relationships and
social support are key protective factors that lower the risk for developing mental
health problems among adults as well as children (e.g. see Chapters 4, 5, 9, and 10).
It is therefore important to find ways of keeping families and communities together
in the face of environmental threats and stressors. Strategies should include facilitat-
ing community activities and events such as safe play spaces for children and youth,
support groups (e.g. mother and baby groups), and opportunities for recreation and
cultural events (e.g. singing, drama) and sports (IASC, 207). Such activities can
also aid in building trust and promote common social identities among groups with
different background or engaged in conflict (see Chapter 6).
Promote Access to Green Spaces and Connectedness
It has been argued in this volume and elsewhere that being emotionally disconnected
from other people, communities, and the environment is another risk factor for men-
tal health problems and a potential consequence resulting from gradual and sudden
environmental changes, urbanization, and displacement (Nurse, Basher, Bone, &
Bird, 2010 and Chapters 3 and 8). Interventions that connect people with each other
and with the broader environment such as improving access to green spaces and
outside recreational activities and events may be promising in this regard. Indeed,
contact with the natural environment has been shown to reduce physiological stress
reactions and improve well-being. It has been suggested that creating green spaces
and providing access to such spaces have the potential to have both human and envi-
ronmental (e.g. temperature control, absorption in flooding) benefits (Nurse, Basher,
Bone, & Bird, 2010).
Support Individual and Community Coping Mechanisms

Ways of making sense of climate change and related events are deeply affected by
cultural and historical contexts and can be individual (e.g. re-authoring or refram-
ing events) and social (e.g. social construction religious meanings) as described in
206 I. Weissbecker
several chapters (e.g. Chapters 2 and 9). This also applies to individual ways of cop-
ing (e.g. problem solving, seeking information, seeking social support) as well as
social and cultural processes following adverse environmental events (e.g. religious
ceremonies, mourning rituals in case of mass casualties, volunteering and helping
the community). Populations affected by such events may not share Western con-
ceptualizations of causes and effects and may instead have their own interpretations
and strategies of coping. When attempting to assist those affected by crises, it is
important to attempt to understand and respect such different meanings and strate-
gies when designing and implementing relief and development activities. Indeed, it
has been recommended that ways in which communities are already helping them-
selves should be supported as much as possible (IASC, 2007). Such efforts can also
promote mental health and well-being by increasing sense of agency, enhance social
support, and contribute to a sense of group identity (see Chapters 2, 4, 5, and 10).
Strengthen Local Capacity for Mental Health and Psychosocial

Well-Being Interventions
While significant segments of the population may suffer from psychological distress
and reduced well-being as a direct or indirect result of climate change, a smaller
percentage is likely to develop more chronic and severe mental health problems,
especially in the context of disaster or humanitarian emergencies. It has been rec-
ommended that affected populations should have access to quality psychosocial and
mental health services, which must be scaled up especially in low-resource settings
(World Health Organization, 2008). However, it is important to invest in mental
health and community support systems rather than engage in short-term relief work.
Mental health services should be integrated with primary care and other community
health services, which make them more accessible, less stigmatizing, and more sus-
tainable (Prince et al., 2007). Since most groups suffering from distress respond
better to people from within their own community, community support services
should be given particular attention (see Chapters 4, on disasters, and 10, on com-
munity resilience in this volume). Interventions should be empirically based and
culturally sensitive, address the whole range of environment-induced as well as
chronic and preexisting mental health problems (Inter-Agency Standing Committee,
2007, Page & Howard, 2010), involve training and capacity building of local staff
(rather than solely rely on direct service provision by outsiders), consider local cul-
turally specific expression of distress including those related to ecological factors
(termed psychoterratic by Albrecht in Chapter 2, this volume), and follow recently
developed IASC guidelines (Inter-Agency Standing Committee, 2007).
Attend to Populations at Risk

Special attention must be paid to populations at risk for the psychological effects
of climate change. These include children, women, the elderly, the disabled, those
with less access to resources, and those with preexisting mental health or substance
use problems (Lancet Global Mental Health Group, 2007). Providing aid to at-risk
populations through social inclusion, training, advocacy, and community mobiliza-

tion is essential (see Chapters 4 and 10). At the same time, it is important to note
that groups at risk have unique strengths and capacities, which should be enhanced
and supported rather than undermined. Children and youth have shown considerable
resilience and creativity in the aftermath of disasters and involving them in meaning-
ful activities, age-appropriate decision making, and community efforts is important.
Furthermore, women can play a key role in disaster mitigation and response as
elaborated by Wenden in Chapter 7 of this volume.
Conduct Research and Document Outcomes
National governments have a responsibility, under the UN’s Framework Convention

on Climate Change (1992), to carry out formal assessments of the risk to their pop-
ulation’s health posed by global climate change. This should include mental health
issues. Current projections of climate change outcomes have mostly focused on
direct weather-related effects on the environment. Together with other disciplines,
psychologists can contribute to monitoring and documenting climate-related effects
on more complex issues, including direct and indirect effects on mental health and
well-being. Specifically, more research is needed to examine individual and soci-
etal responses to climate change, to investigate how individuals and communities
prepare for and respond to climate change related environmental events, and how
affected populations adapt, cope, and recover. Psychologists have a unique contri-
bution to make in documenting mental health and quality of life outcomes, which
are an important but neglected aspect of social and economic development (e.g. see
Marsella, Levi & Ekblad, 1997).
However, it has been pointed out that it is not enough to invest in research and
generate more publications and reports and to focus on problems without having an
impact on them (Kazdin, 2009). Research findings should drive the design of inter-
ventions and policies that are informed by local knowledge and culture and that have
the potential of protecting at-risk or already-affected populations. The impacts of
climate change are likely to be context and culture dependent, with various complex
and interrelated factors (American Psychological Association, 2009). Therefore, it
is crucial to get out of the laboratory and to evaluate interventions and outcomes in
the field, especially in low-resource settings. Such outcomes should be shared with
various stakeholders and inform scale-up where possible. At the same time, it is
important to conduct such research in an ethical way that ensures participation and
consent of affected communities as well as the prospect of tangible benefits (Allden
et al., 2009).
Promote Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Inclusive

Partnerships
Meeting the multiple challenges arising in the context of climate change requires the
expertise and collaboration of various disciplines including psychology, political
science, medicine, ecology, anthropology, economy, law, and others. Such collab-
oration should be facilitated by organizing interdisciplinary conferences, working
208 I. Weissbecker
groups, and forums, which ensure a broad range of participants including those liv-
ing in low-resource countries. Collaboration between disciplines would not only
promote finding synergistic and creative solutions but would also accelerate the
dissemination of information, foster the development of a common language, and
increase visibility and credibility of psychologists working in this field.
Coordinated efforts and partnership building must also take place among dif-
ferent groups and stakeholders such as scientists, practitioners, local and interna-
tional NGOs, governmental and international agencies, donors, affected community
groups, and civil society at large (Miller, 2007). Such collaborations should specif-
ically pay attention to the divide among low-, middle-, and high-income countries
and ensure participation of those with low resources as well as marginalized and
vulnerable communities.
Engage in Advocacy with Key Stakeholders and Policy Makers

Psychologists and others in the field should also make active efforts to engage policy
makers, which some have already started, while others have strongly advocated for it
(e.g. Vlek, 2000 in Gifford, 2008). Those already engaged in such efforts will often
find that politicians and legislators want and need input and information that is evi-
dence based and relevant for decision making, from various groups and disciplines.
This requires taking the first step by reaching out, contacting key persons, and being
prepared with talking points and a one- to two-page policy brief describing the prob-
lem and possible solutions that are feasible and relevant for this particular person’s
work. There appears to be renewed interest in making policies “evidence based”
(e.g., Davies, Nutley, & Smith, 2000), which is a strength of psychology with its
strong base in research and methodology (Gifford, 2008).
A shift is also needed in educating the next generation of young psychologists
and in preparing them to tackle issues of global significance such as climate change.
The curriculum at academic institutions should reflect such new challenges. Topics
such as cross-cultural psychology should be included and take a more global and
inclusive approach that goes beyond covering different ethnic groups within the aca-
demic institutions’ home country. It is important to include the work of international
organizations such as the UN and WHO, issues of social justice and low-income
countries, as well as challenges and controversies of international relief and devel-
opment efforts (e.g. see Miller, 2007; Marsella, 2006). Global considerations can be
explored with readings from different disciplines, followed by discussions on how
psychology as science and practice can contribute to addressing such issues.
For changes to occur that can have a real impact on the ground, we need more
than gloomy predictions of the impacts of climate change; we need positive visions
of what could be achieved in the face of adversity, how people and communi-
ties could help themselves, and how people of different disciplines, nations, and
ways of life work can together toward common goals. Psychologists now have the
opportunity in helping to shape such a vision, which can protect and promote the
mental health and psychosocial well-being in the context of a changing climate.
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Index
A report on psychology and climate change, 8

Absolute deprivation, 105 Taskforce on psychology and climate
Acute weather disasters, 84 change, 25
Adaptation and climate change Antarctic landmass, 46
failure of Anti-Tamil riots, 139–140
alienation, 146–147 Anxiety, 27–28
demoralization, 146–147 Asian Tsunami, 24, 46
pre- and post-displacement impact, 151 The Atlantic Monthly, 99
psychiatric disorders, 147–148 Attachment and Loss, 137
psychobiology and long-term health Australia and climate change, 4, 10
consequences, 150–151 continent, nature and global location, 30
psychosocial problems, 149–150 drought circumstances, 31
solastalgia, 146–147 economy and agricultural, societal changes,
somatic symptoms, 148–149 31–32
Sri Lanka, needs assessment, 149 mental health impact issue, 30–31
global responsibilities in survey results, 36–37
challenge in, 151–152 Australian psychological society
primary and secondary prevention, (APS), 32
152–153 Australian Spring of 2009, 46
tertiary prevention, 153–155
resistance and resilience B
chronic distress, 145 Barnett, J., 196
consensus, 144–145 Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA), 125
external protective factors, 145 Berry, H., 204
internal resiliency, 145 Biopsychosocial homeostasis, 139
resilience-as-outcome constructs, Biopsychosocial model, 138–139
144–145 Black Saturday bushfires, 24
symptom trajectories, 145 Bosnian refugees in USA, 146
traumatic experiences, 144–145 Bourque, L. B., 69
See also Refugees Bowlby, J., 137–138, 143
Adger, W., 196 Brahma Kumaris (BKs), 172–173
Africa, 47 philosophy, 169–170
Aguilar, L., 127 psychological frame for, 176
Aid organizations and researchers, 87 reflective practice, 175
Albrecht, G., 29, 43–54, 147 spirituality, 173
Amazon basin, 135 values, 174–175
American psychological association (APA), 2 Briggs, C. M., 97–111
9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, role in, 32 British national survey, 36
psychological benefits, 129 Brody, A., 130

and Cultural Psychology, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-9742-5,

212 Index
Brown, K., 196 interdisciplinary collaboration and

Buddhists, 170 inclusive partnerships, 207–208
population at risk, attention, 206–207
C precipitation, 4
California, 4 projected impact of
Cambodian refugees, 87 heat stress, 6
‘Camellones’ farming systems, 195 human health, 6, 9
Cardiff University’s Understanding Risk natural resources, 5
Centre, 36 rainfall patterns, 6
Cartwright, S., 187 social and economic, 5
Center for Research on Epidemiology of psychologists and mental health
Disasters (CRED), 58 professionals, contributions of,
Central American disaster prevention 8–11, 206
agency, 127 research and document outcomes, 207
Chawla, L., 143 resource loss and gain, 204–205
Children and elderly disaster victims, 69–70 sea levels, 3–4
social justice and responsibility, 7–8
China, 4
stakeholders and policy makers, advocacy
Chronic environmental change
in, 208
ecoanxiety, see Ecoanxiety
surface temperatures, 3
econostalgia, see Econostalgia
tropical storms, 4
ecoparalysis, 50
vulnerable regions and groups, 202
human beings, climate stress on,
women’s human rights, 126
see Human beings, climate stress on
Climate-related food insecurity, 105
non-human beings, climate stress on,
Cold War, 98
see Non-human beings, climate
Community resilience, 63–64, 187
stress on
adaptation and transformation
psychoterratic and somaterratic syndromes,
attributes, 196–197
48–49
catastrophic climate change, 197
regularity loss
COP15, 198
biological and ecological responses, 44
institute for climate impact research,
humans, origin and adaptation, 43–44 197
phenology, 44 strengthening
pre-existing pattern, 43–44 adaptation strategies, 193
solastalgia, see Solastalgia community competence, 192
Chronic stress-related HPA activation, 67–68 economic development, 191
Climate change information and communications, 192
APA Taskforce report, 2 social capital, 192
biosphere, 4 Conflict
community climate change, connection between, 97
adaptation and preparedness, 202–203 government, dissatisfaction
cohesion and social capital, 205 environmental and political factors, 107
comprehensive solutions, 201 failures, 107
defined, 1 ‘human security’, 98
by IPCC, 2 migration
disasters, 7 climate change and violent conflict, 101
environmental events, 204 difficulties of, 102
ethical issues, 8 food and water availability, 101
greenhouse effect, 3 forced displacement, 101
green spaces and connectedness, 205 historical process, 101
and human activity, 1 instability, 101–102
individual and community coping ‘national security’, 98
mechanisms, 205–206 poverty
Index 213
absolute deprivation, 105 Disasters

relative deprivation, 105–106 agents and aspects, 60–61
previous approaches and analyses Brahma Kumaris (BKs), 172–173
climate changes, 103–104 and climate change
climate security, 102 adaptation efforts elements, 111
environmental, 103 ENVSEC, 111
politically charged situation, 102 peace agreement, 111
proxy issues idea, 102–103 CRED definition, 58
rational actions, 103 demand-capability ratio, 58
traditional security definitions, 103 faith-based response
resolution mechanisms and techniques, 110 Brahma Kumaris (BKs), 167
resource scarcity ECOSOC and DPI, 167
climate-induced environmental IASC, 168
change, 100 movements, 166–168
realistic group conflict theory, 100 NVOAD and NGOs, 167
US Department of Defense report, religious organization, 166–167
99–100 service, 166–167
violence outbreak, 98–100 UNICEF, 167
seven areas, security threats, 98 family relationships and, 65
social division and fragmentation individuals, 65–68
stress and economic, communities, mental health services, 69
106–107 natural and technological, 58–59
vulnerable network topologies, 106 posttraumatic growth, 171–172
weak network connections, 106 re-authoring, 176–177
vulnerability and risk factors related stress, 64
aims and assessments, 104 resilience, 168–171
climate change, social impacts, spiritual practitioners, 177–178
104–105 super cyclone, 173–176
cross-disciplinary research, 104 vulnerable population, 68–70
linear cause–effect, assumptions, 104 weather-related, 64
violent conflict causes, 104–105
Conservation of resources (COR) theory, 137 E
Cooperation and collaboration Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, 19–20
benefit-sharing factors, 110 Ecoanxiety, 10
characterization of, 110 eco-information as source, 49
resource-based conflict, 110–111 features, 49
warfare, 110 research and articles, 49–50
zero-sum fashion, 110 Econostalgia
See also Risk mitigation and peace building biophysical location, 54
Copenhagen UN Climate Change Conference ‘nostalgia’, 54
(COP15), 198 Ecoparalysis, 50
Corruption and cronyism, 110 Ecosystems, 196
Cross-cultural psychology, 208 Edwards, T., 185–198
Cupples, J., 129 Ellul, M., 19–37
Czincz, J., 79–92 Enarson, E., 128
Engel, G., 138–139
D Engel’s biopsychosocial model, 138–139
Darfur, 107 Environmental refugees, see Refugees
The Day After, 23–24 Environment and security initiative
The Day After Tomorrow, 23–24 (ENVSEC), 111
Deepwater Horizon oil spill, 59 Epstein, L. G., 28
Demoralization, 146–147 Ethnicity and disaster victims, 69
Developing country and disaster, 70 Europe, 3
214 Index
“Evidence based” policies, 208 G

Extreme weather events, impacts on Gap Action Programme, 90–91
differential effects Gender-based violence, 150
characteristics, 60–61 German Advisory Council on Global
disaster agents and aspects, 60–61 Change, 103
disaster Gheytanchi, A., 68–69
CRED definition, 58 Global climate change
demand-capability ratio, 58 and disaster, 59–60
natural and technological, 58–59 global impacts, 59
effect and scope, 58 natural disasters, 59
families technological disasters, 59
disaster-related stress, 64 Global disaster, 59–60
relationships, 64–65 Global Energy and Environmental Strategic
global climate change, see Global climate Ecosystem (GlobalEESE), 108
change Global Environment Facility, 111
individuals Global Humanitarian Forum Report
flooding, 65–66 2009, 191
physical and mental health, 66–67 Global Platform for Disaster Risk
psychological distress, 67–68 Reduction, 63
Global surface temperatures, 3
severe outcomes, risks for, 65
Greece, bushfire crises in, 46
mental health, 57–58
Greenhouse effect, 3
physical and community systems
Greenland, 3–4
infrastructure, 61–62
resilience, 63–64
social systems, 62–63 H
practice recommendations Hazards and vulnerabilities, 80–82
in developing countries, 73 Health and mental health
anxiety disorders, 27–28
individual and family support, 73–74
anxious individuals, 29
preparedness, community-based
articles and research reviews, 26–27
models, 72–73
avoidance-oriented coping, 28
research recommendations
future-oriented proactive coping
models/procedures and measurement,
strategies, 28
71
impacts on
policy and practice, 71–72
human environments, 25–26
vulnerable populations
natural environmental changes, 27
children and elderly disaster victims,
individual experience, research on, 27
69–70
nuclear threat, 28
in developing nations, 70
psychological responses, 27
ethnicity, disaster victims, 69
psychology science-based literatures, 26
low-income disaster victims, 68–69 Hicks, M. H. R., 148
Hobbs, F., 69
F Hobfoll, S. E., 135–155, 145
Fall of Berlin Wall, 103 Hollifield, M., 135–155
Famine and malnutrition, prenatal exposure, 84 Holmes, J., 6
Fazel, M., 148 “Horizontal inequality”, 105–106
Federated States of Micronesia, drought Human beings, climate stress on
in, 127 and bushfire crises in Greece, 46
First World War, 98 Eastern Australia, water shortages, 46
Fossil fuel–generated wave, 47 geologically stable parts, changes
Frankl, V. E., 165, 169–170, 174 in, 46
Free Aceh Movement, 111 mass migration, 46–47
Fullilove, M. T., 135–155 mental health impact, 47
Index 215
place-based distress, 47–48 J

territorial relationship, 45 Jains, 170
transformation, 45–47 Japan, resilient communities in, 72–73
‘uggianaqtuq’, 47
Western European heatwave, 46 K
Humanitarian crises Kane, C. F., 146
challenges and cross-cultural Kaplan, R., 99
considerations Kazdin, A., 2
assessment and intervention, 86–89 Kennan, G., 99
assistance, 85–86 Keyes, E. F., 146
emergencies, 79–80 Kobe and Northridge earthquakes, 66
hazards and vulnerabilities Kyoto Protocol Adaptation Fund, 91
armed conflict risk, 80–81
climate change, 80 L
community and individual levels, 81–82 Lancet Global Mental Health Group, 206–207
harmful consequences, 80 Lertzman, R., 29
regions at risk, 80–81 Lewes in Southern England, severe river
“risk hot spots,” 80–81 flooding, 65–66
mental health and psychosocial well-being Local communities and climate change
as consequence, 83–85 adaptive capacity limits
as vulnerability, 82–83 global mean warming, 196
psychologists and mental health transformability, 196
professionals aims, 185
local capacity building, 90–91 community well-being
research directions, expanding, 91–92 determinants, 187–188
responding, 89–90 impacts, 188–189
temperatures rise, 79 ‘Transition Towns Movement,’ 192–195
Humanitarian Emergency Settings Perceived assumptions, 194
Needs (HESPER) Scale, 204 resilience projects, 194
vulnerable places and populations
Human spirit, 170
components, 190
Human vulnerability indicators, 84–85
elements of vulnerability, 191
Hunter Valley, 51–52
IPCC, 189–190
Hurricane Katrina, 21, 24
local variability, 190
Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA), 63–64
place-based communities, 190
population groups, 190–191
I working with, 195
An Inconvenient Truth, 23–24 Logotherapy, 168–169
India, 4 Low-carbon transition plan, 197
forced displacement, 101 Lowder, D., 66
ISDR publication, 73 Low-income disaster victims, 68–69
Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC),
83–84, 89 M
guidelines, 168 Maguire, B., 187
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Manderson, L., 165–179
(IPCC), 19 Manila Declaration for Global Action on
Assessment Report, 2 Gender, Climate Change and
climate change definition, 2 Disaster, 119–120
predictions, 5 Man’s Search for Meaning, 169
International Federation of Red Cross Red Manyena, S. B., 63
Crescent Societies, 6 Mental health
Inuit of Arctic Circle, 47 community-based services, 87
Irish immigrants to USA, 102 as consequence of humanitarian crises
216 Index
Mental health (cont.) North Korean invasion of South Korea, 103

acute weather disasters, 84 Nuclear Tipping Point, 23–24
children and youth, 83–84
climate change, 85 O
famine and malnutrition, prenatal O’Brien, L. T., 120–121
exposure, 84 Office for Coordination of Humanitarian
human vulnerability indicators, 84–85 Affairs (OCHA), 79
severe and interrelated stressors, Olsson, C. A., 144
83–84 Orissa illustrate, extreme weather events
services and WHO recommendations, 206 in, 179
and vulnerability
associated factors, 82–83 P
developing countries and, 82–83 Pacific Northwest, 4
narrow focus, 82 Pakistan, severe earthquake in, 111
psychiatrists, number of, 82–83 Palestinians, forced removal from Gaza, 143
severe mental disorders, individuals Pan-American Health Organization, 63–64
with, 82 Peduzzi, P., 60
Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in People-centred resilience
Emergency Settings, 89 camellones, 195
Micronesian women, 128 Oxfam report, 195
Morrissey, S. A., 19–37 principles, 195
Mountain pygmy possum, 44 Peraliya area, 140
Murray-Darling River basin in Eastern Peru, ISDR publication, 73
Australia, 46 Phenology, 44
Philopatridomania, 147
N Piana, G., 130
National Adaptation Programs of Action Plümper, T., 123–124, 130
(NAPA), 91 Postcoloniality and the Aftermath of
National Institute of Mental Health for all Revolution among Vietnamese
terrorism-related research after Refugees, 141–142
September 11, 2001, 152 Post-Katrina context in 2006, 150
National Voluntary Organizations Active in Post-migration stressors, 151
Disaster (NVOAD), 167 Post-traumatic growth inventory (PTGI), 171
Natural disasters, 64 Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 52–53,
See also Disasters 59, 65–67, 69–70, 82, 84, 91, 124,
Nelson, D., 196 140–141, 147–148, 150–151, 153
Netherlands, sea water flooding, 101 Poverty
Neumayer, E., 123–124, 130 absolute deprivation, 105
New Mexico Refugee Project, 145 relative deprivation
New Mexico Refugee Symptom Checklist–121 affluent and poorest sections, gap
(NMRSCL-121), 148–149 between, 105
New Orleans, 67 climate-related food insecurity, 105
Non-human beings, climate stress on “horizontal inequality,” 105–106
climatic and weather change, 44 resources, unequal distribution, 106
disease patterns, 45 societal polarization, conflict, 105–106
mountain pygmy possum in Australia, 44 Pre-Colombian Andean people with risk of
predator–prey relationships, 45 earthquakes, 168
temperature change and, 44–45 Psychological distress, 66
territorial issues and animal survival, 45 Psychological resilience, 186
Norris, F. H., 149 See also Resilience
North America, 4, 6, 11 Psychoterratic syndromes
North Atlantic, 4 climate change and people, 48
Northern Europe, 6 illness domain, 49
Index 217
mental health problems, 49 health outcomes, 138

physical and psychological responses, 48 social relationships, internal working
PTSD, see Post-traumatic stress disorder model, 137–138
(PTSD) screening, 153–154
Relative deprivation
Q climate-related food insecurity, 105
Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), 97 “horizontal inequality”, 105–106
Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development most affluent and poorest sections, gap
Review (QDDR), 97 between, 105
Quarentelli, 58 resources, unequal distribution, 106
societal polarization, 105–106
R Report of the Office of the United Nations High
Ramsay, T., 165–179 Commissioner for Human
Randall, D., 99 Rights, 125
Realistic group conflict theory, 100 Reser, J. P., 19–37
Re-authoring as explanatory tool, 176–177 Resilience
Red Cross eco-systems, 186
in Australia, 32 engineering perspective of, 186
definition of disaster, 149 organizational level, 186
environmental disasters, 6 psychological resilience, 186
Refugees resilient ecosystem, 186
Adaptation, see Adaptation and climate Risk and concerns
change evaluation and sense making, 22–23
climate change, effects of, 135–136 perception, 22
definition, 136 psychological response, 22
environment and psychology-based risk research, 22–23
stressors types, 135 social representation, 23
tsunami, 143–144 Risk mitigation and peace building
world, betrayal by, 143–144 community adaptation and resources
global temperatures, 135 environmental wars, 108
helping host communities, 155 financial and resource access, 109
identity and belonging disruptions traditional societies, 109
alienation problem, 142–143 trust and administration, 108–109
confusion and conflict, 142 violent incidents and crime, 108–109
dual response, 141 cooperation and collaboration
mental health effects, 141–142 benefit-sharing factors, 110
mental health services, 153 characterization of, 110
place disruptions resource-based conflict, 110–111
biopsychosocial homeostasis, 139 warfare, 110
dimensions of, 139 zero-sum fashion, 110
poor mental health, predictor of, disasters and climate change
140–141 adaptation efforts elements, 111
in Sri Lanka, 139–140 ENVSEC, 111
resource conservation and loss peace agreement, 111
COR theory, 137 governance
individual and collective adaptive conflict resolution mechanisms and
capacity, 136 techniques, 110
“loss spiral”, 136–137 corruption and cronyism, 110
stressful events types, 137 inequalities
well-being dependence, 136–137 standard development economics, 109
resources in and around self structural peace building, 109
adaptive attachment behaviors, 137–138 The Road, 23–24
biopsychosocial model, 138–139 Rwanda, genocide in, 103
218 Index
S Sephton, S. E., 57–75

Samoa, ISDR publication, 73 Severe and interrelated stressors, 83–84
Schellnhuber, H. J., 197 Severe mental disorders, individuals with, 82
Schwartz, P., 99 Sheehan global disability scale, 150
Security Simpson, D. M., 57–75
climate change, connection between, 97 Sino-Vietnamese civilization, 141
government, dissatisfaction Sinsibere project, 128
environmental and political Six Degrees, 23–24
factors, 107 Small Pacific island nations, 101
failures, 107 Social relationships, internal working model,
‘human security’, 98 137–138
migration Solastalgia, 10, 29
climate change and violent conflict, 101 in Australia, 51–52
difficulties of, 102 biophysical environment, chronic
food and water availability, 101 desolation, 53
forced displacement, 101 concept, 50–51
historical process, 101 ‘desolation,’ origin, 51
instability, 101–102 global warming, anthropogenically
‘national security’, 98 induced, 53
poverty home environment, 50
absolute deprivation, 105 iconic trees, 53
relative deprivation, 105–106 mining-induced chronic environmental
previous approaches and analyses change, 52
climate changes, 103–104 natural change agents, 52–53
climate security, 102 New Orleans, place-based stress, 52–53
environmental, 103 nostalgia and, 51
politically charged situation, 102 PTSD, 52–53
proxy issues idea, 102–103 Somali adolescents displaced to USA, 143
rational actions, 103 Somaterratic syndromes
traditional security definitions, 103 climate change and people, 48
resource scarcity illness domain, 49
climate-induced environmental mental health problems, 49
change, 100 physical and psychological responses, 48
realistic group conflict theory, 100 Somatic symptoms, 148
US Department of Defense report, South Africa, ISDR publication, 73
99–100 Southern Europe, 4
violence outbreak, 98–100 Soviet coup, 103
seven areas, security threats, 98 Sphere Handbook, 89
social division and fragmentation Sphere Project, 168
stress and economic division, Spiritual practitioners, 177–178
communities, 106–107 Sri Lanka
vulnerable network topologies, 106 after tsunami
weak network connections, 106 psychosocial problems, 150
vulnerability and risk factors range of harms and subsequent needs
aims and assessments, 104 in, 149
climate change, social impacts, resettlement and rebuilding within, 140
104–105 Statement of the CEDAW Committee on
cross-disciplinary research, 104 Gender and Climate Change, 125
linear cause–effect, assumptions, 104 State of the Planet, 23–24
violent conflict causes, 104–105 Stoops N., 69
See also Conflict Super cyclone
Self-sufficiency and sustainability, 203 Brahma Kumaris (BKs), role in, 174
Sen, A., 105 good action, 176
Index 219
in Orissa, 173–174 ‘Tipping points’, 196

reflective practice, 175 “Tragic optimism”, 169
service to others, 175 Transformability, 196
‘Transition Towns Movement’, 192–195
T Typhoon in East Pakistan, 107
Ta, L., 148–149
Tamil Nadu, global warming in, 128 U
Technological disasters, 59 United Nations Environment Program
Tet Offensive in Vietnam, 103 (UNEP), 2
Thailand tsunami, 66–67 United Nations framework convention on
The 11th Hour, 23–24 climate change (UNFCCC), 19–20
Threat of climate change United Nations Security Council, debate on
and Australia climate change, 97
continent, nature and global United States, 7
location, 30 UN’s Framework Convention on Climate
drought circumstances, 31 Change, 207
economy and agricultural, societal
changes, 31–32 V
mental health impact issue, 30–31 Vietnam
survey results, 36–37 ISDR publication, 73
available resources and trauma and displacement, 141–143
APA and APS, 32 Vulnerability, 187
government and nongovernment and climate change, 190
agencies, 32 components, 190
psychological advice, 32–33 Global Humanitarian Forum Report, 191
environmental impacts and mental health
community relocations and forced associated factors, 82–83
migration, 29–30 developing countries and, 82–83
feelings and sentiments, 29–30 narrow focus, 82
literatures, 29 psychiatrists, number of, 82–83
global weather pattern changes, 20 severe mental disorders, individuals
health and mental health perspectives, see with, 82
Health and mental health and risk factors
media, nature and role, 23–24 aims and assessments, 104
perceived threats and climate change, social impacts,
areas impacted, 20–21 104–105
chronic environmental stressor, 20–21 cross-disciplinary research, 104
environmental and societal risk, 20–21 linear cause–effect, assumptions, 104
risk domains nature, 20–21 violent conflict causes, 104–105
physical environmental impacts vulnerable populations and
indirect and virtual experience, 21 children and elderly disaster victims,
media-based risk representations and 69–70
communications, 21–22 in developing nations, 70
‘social amplification of risk’, 21–22 ethnicity, disaster victims, 69
psychological responses and adaptations low-income disaster victims, 68–69
APA Taskforce on, 25
cognitive adaptation, 24 W
psychological adaptation, 24 Weather-related disasters, 64
stress and coping perspectives, 25 Weissbecker, I., 1–11, 57–75, 79–92, 97–111,
risk and concerns, see Risk and concerns 201–208
well-being and psychological impacts, Well-being and psychological impacts
see Well-being and psychological analyses and discussions, 33–34
impacts confused societal and policy focus, 34–35
220 Index
Well-being and psychological (cont.) Western mental health professionals, 86

cultural beliefs and values, 35 Wiseman, J., 185–198
ignoring reasons, 33 Wong, P. T. P., 170–171
social psychological and risk World Health Organization, 6, 9, 82–84,
perspectives, 35 103, 179
survey research evidence, 34
World Meteorological Organization (WMO), 2
traditionally oriented communities, 35
Wenden, A. L., 119–131
Western Europe, 7, 11 Y
Western European heatwave of 2003, 46 Years Lived with Disability (YLDs), 49

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International and Cultural Psychology

For further volumes:

Climate Change and Human

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011931515

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011

Printed on acid-free paper

Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)

Environmental Security at the US Air Force. He is also a senior associate at Adelphi

posttraumatic growth, and spirituality, which have increasingly been recognized

1 Introduction: Climate Change and Human Well-Being . . . . . . . 1

Part I The Impact of Climate Change

Part II Specific Populations

Part III Guidance and Recommendations

10 Climate Change, Resilience and Transformation:

Glenn Albrecht Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy (ISTP),

Tamasin Ramsay Social Sciences and Health Research Unit, Faculty

I. Weissbecker (ed.), Climate Change and Human Well-Being, International 1

What is Climate Change?

Climate Change Predictions

Projected manifestations of climate change include wide-ranging changes in

The Greenhouse Effect

Sea Level Rise

The Projected Impact of Climate Change

Who Will Be Affected by Climate Change?

Social Justice Considerations

Potential Contributions of Psychologists and Mental Health

Psychologists and mental health professionals can make important contributions

of changing attitudes, leading to more environmentally friendly behavior. This has

Chapter 9, this volume). Furthermore, concepts such as individual and community

American Psychological Association. (2002). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of

Joseph P. Reser, Shirley A. Morrissey, and Michelle Ellul

What Is Encompassed by ‘Climate Change’?

In the wording of the original United Nations Framework Convention on Climate

J.P. Reser (B)

I. Weissbecker (ed.), Climate Change and Human Well-Being, International 19

climate which is attributable directly or indirectly to human activity” (in Kolbert,

Is ‘Climate Change’ Different from Other Perceived Threats?

Threat Representations as Distinct from Physical Environmental

Risk and Concerns: Risk-as-Analysis and Risk-as-Feelings

There are multiple psychological literatures relevant to the psychological response

Social Constructions, Social Representations, and the Nature

migrations, resultant international conflict, devastating biodiversity loss, and so on.

Psychological Responses, Adaptations, and Impacts

The language, constructs, and underlying processes involved in addressing the

It is not surprising that psychological adaptation in the context of climate

Health and Mental Health Perspectives

While the impacts of a changing climate taking place in biophysical envi-

According to Lertzman, lessons can be learned from the psychoanalytic per-

Climate Change and Place Meaning, Connection, and Identity

environmental changes on weather patterns in Australia, substantial concerns with

The circumstances of drought provide a useful window on the psychosocial

Current Available Resources and Advice

Psychology has much to offer in developing evidence-informed resources and

• Direct people to appropriate resources to become more informed about prob-

The information provided should be appropriately optimistic about the future

Postscript: Australian Survey Results

(r = 0.84), risk perception (r = 0.73), and psychological adaptation (r = 0.78),

Bohm, G. (2003). Emotional reactions to environmental risks: Consequentialist versus ethical

Taylor, S. E. (1983). Adjustment to threatening events: A theory of cognitive adaptation. American

The Loss of Regularity

I. Weissbecker (ed.), Climate Change and Human Well-Being, International 43

Climate Stress on Non-human Beings

As a result of these long-term climatic and immediate weather changes, ecosys-