Health and Climate Change Webinar Series

Health and Climate Change Webinar Series

AIMA is delighted to bring you a fascinating new webinar series exploring the topic of Health and Climate Change.

With the recently released Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report confirming the widespread, rapid, and intensifying threat of climate change, we’ll ask a range of highly acclaimed and knowledgable professionals to take a look at the impacts related to health.

The first webinar in our series will focus on Climate Anxiety and Lifestyle Medicine presented by Dr Wendy McLean from Vital.ly.

When: Thursday 28th October 2021, 6:00-7:00 pm AEST or 8:00-9:00pm NZST

Tickets: $15 AIMA Members, $25 Non-members, Students – with ID $10. Click here for tickets.

Climate change is recognised as the greatest health threat of the 21st century and has significant impacts on physical and mental health and psychosocial wellbeing. However, while we are beginning to acknowledge the physical effects of climate change, such as illness and injury related to floods, droughts or bushfires; pollution; spread of disease and food insecurity; mental health is often overlooked.

Recent surveys indicate that Australians are three times more worried about climate change than COVID-191 and that four in five Australian adolescents are anxious about climate change2. Climate change’s current and future impact may elevate people’s experiences of fear, distress, and climate anxiety. Climate anxiety, also known as eco-anxiety, is the constant worry about climate change and can manifest in many ways. Long term, these elevated and sustained levels of stress and anxiety can translate into an increase in mental illness rates and severity and can impair immune system function and our overall resilience to climate change.

In this webinar, we will explore the impacts of climate change on mental health, particularly climate anxiety, and the potential impacts on immune resilience. In addition, it will address nutritional and lifestyle factors that can help an individual mitigate and adapt to the risks of climate change while also strengthening individual mental health and immune resilience.

Patrick, R., Garad, R., Snell, T., Enticott, J., & Meadows, G. Australians report climate change as a bigger concern than COVID-19. The Journal of Climate Change and Health. 2021; 3, 100032.
Australian Psychological Society. Young People’s voices in the climate crisis [Internet]. The Australian Psychological Society Limited 2019 [cited 2021 September 29]. Available from: https://psychweek.org.au/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/19APS-PsychWeek-Summary-Report.pdf