Extreme climatic events and human biology and health: A primer and opportunities for future research

Abstract

Extreme climatic events are increasing in frequency, leading to hotter temperatures, flooding, droughts, severe storms, and rising oceans. This special issue brings together a collection of seven articles that describe the impacts of extreme climatic events on a diverse set of human biology and health outcomes. The first two articles cover extreme temperatures extending from extreme heat to cold and changes in winter weather and the respective implications for adverse health events, human environmental limits, well‐being, and human adaptability. Next, two articles cover the effects of exposures to extreme storms through an examination of hurricanes and cyclones on stress and birth outcomes. The following two articles describe the effects of extreme flooding events on livelihoods, nutrition, water and food insecurity, diarrheal and respiratory health, and stress. The last article examines the effects of drought on diet and food insecurity. Following a brief review of each extreme climatic event and articles covered in this special issue, I discuss future research opportunities–highlighting domains of climate change and specific research questions that are ripe for biological anthropologists to investigate. I close with a description of interdisciplinary methods to assess climate exposures and human biology outcomes to aid the investigation of the defining question of our time – how climate change will affect human biology and health. Ultimately, climate change is a water, food, and health problem. Human biologists offer a unique perspective for a combination of theoretical, methodological, and applied reasons and thus are in a prime position to contribute to this critical research agenda.

Water Needs, Water Insecurity, and Human Biology

“…Climate change and extreme climatic events intersect with social and livelihood changes to disrupt human water needs, WI, and the coping and hydration strategies used to meet those needs. Extreme climatic events, such as extreme storms, flooding, drought, and heat waves, create shocks that disrupt water and food access, necessitating coping strategies and alteration of hydration strategies (Rosinger 2023). For example, during Hurricane Maria, residents in Puerto Rico had to form water-sharing networks to provide water to neighbors after power and water outages (Roque et al 2021), and this practice may have affected hydration strategies and health.…”

Hypoxia exacerbates heat stress effects on the porcine intestinal epithelium in vitro

“…Heat stress negatively impacts human health, as well as animal agriculture (Pearce et al, 2013b;Ghulam Mohyuddin et al, 2022;Rosinger, 2023). Heatwaves and heat-stroke can kill humans and animals, and there are still no standard treatments available aside from cooling and hydration therapies (Hutchins et al, 2022;Wood et al, 2022).…”

Maternal stress and hair cortisol among pregnant women following hurricane Florence

“…The increasing pressures of climate change have resulted in a heightened intensity and frequency of natural disasters (USGS 2022 ). These extreme climatic events have direct consequences for human biology and health (Rosinger, 2023 ). Stress throughout these events (preceding, during, and following) can have lasting impacts on individual and population health and well‐being.…”