Primary Submission Category: Policy
Structural climate threat: state-level climate policy and population health
Authors: Meredith Riley,
Presenting Author: Meredith Riley*
Climate change is an immediate and escalating threat to U.S. population health. Prior work on climate change and health draws on the stress process perspective to theorize an association between acute climate stressors and a variety of health outcomes. However, these studies overlook the social and structural nature of climate change. The actions of nations, states, and corporations unequally distribute the consequences of climate change across populations. I address this gap in the literature by developing and testing a concept of “structural climate threat.” I assess how U.S. states vary in their level of structural climate threat and ask if exposure to higher structural climate threat is associated with worse physical and mental health outcomes among residents of a state. Using health data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and a novel index of structural climate threat that captures state-level policies on emissions, renewable energy, transportation, infrastructure, and climate resilience, I expect to find that higher structural climate threat predicts worse self-rated health, more functional limitations and cardiovascular conditions, and poorer mental health. In an era of escalating climate change, this study broadens our conceptualization of climate threat to include the policy actions of U.S. states and demonstrates the health consequences of the social, political, and natural contexts that we live in.