The psychological consequences of distress due to experiencing an environmental disaster.

“Eco-anxiety”

Extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, directly impact human health via forced evacuation/migration, reduced access to basic needs, and life-threatening circumstances. They may also exert indirect effects by increasing health risk behaviors.

Extreme Weather and Health Risk

Environmental health issues can directly affect human health physically (ex. water pollution leads to outbreaks of waterborne diseases), but it can also lead to psychological illness, including anxiety & post-traumatic stress disorder. 

Syracuse University

Cleveland State University

Environmental issues, including food shortages, air pollution, flooding and climate change are beginning to register as human health problems. Environmental health is concerned with human welfare, just as health psychology is dedicated to preventing illness and encouraging well-being, hence the two sub-disciplines of psychology are interconnected, sharing a relational role between human welfare and the health of our surrounding environment. 



Environmental Health & Health Psychology Goals Overlap

Inauen, J., Contzen, N., Frick, V., Kadel, P., Keller, J., Kollmann, J., Mata, J., & van Valkengoed, A. M. (2021). Environmental issues are health issues: Making a case and setting an agenda for environmental health psychology. European Psychologist, 26(3), 219–229. https://doi-org.libezproxy2.syr.edu/10.1027/1016-9040/a000438

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