Climate Crisis Disproportionately Impacts Disabled People

July 17, 2023 10:20 AM

How heat waves, climate change put people with disabilities at risk From Harvard Medical School: Extreme heat: Staying safe if you have health issues Lung conditions, heart disease, diabetes and other factors make your body more vulnerable to heat. From The Lancet: Climate change and the right to health of people with disabilities”Strikingly, the global mortality rate of people with disabilities in natural disasters is up to four times higher than people without disabilities […] Disasters also disrupt access to health-care services, medications, oxygen, haemodialysis, personal care assistance, and medical devices. Heat extremes are linked with elevated emergency room visits, hospital admittance, and mortality for individuals with mental health, cardiorespiratory, and other disabilities; pre-existing psychosocial disabilities triples the risk of death during heatwaves.

High ambient temperatures also negatively affect the health of individuals whose disabilities are affected by temperature sensitivity or thermoregulation, including multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injuries. Likewise, numerous medications, including diuretics and antidepressants, can affect the thermoregulation of people with mental and physical disabilities.3 More broadly, climate change increases the risk of undernutrition, water insecurity, stress-related psychiatric disorders, and alters the geographical distribution of infectious diseases.”

Extreme Heat Contributes to Worsening Mental Health, Especially Among Vulnerable Populations
“Extreme heat has been associated with a range of mental health impacts in research over many years, including increases in irritability and symptoms of depression and with an increase in suicide. It can also affect behavior, contributing to increased aggression, incidence of domestic violence, and increased use of alcohol or other substances to cope with stress.

Research has also linked high temperatures to problems with memory, attention and reaction time. Sleep difficulties associated with extreme heat can contribute to and further exacerbate mental health symptoms.”

From the BBC: Climate change: Why are disabled people so affected by the climate crisis?

posted by Bottlecap (20 comments total)

Lots of meds cause heat intolerance and lower the temperature threshold for heat-related illnesses. Antihistamines are one of them, which are common. And many of the effects are additive. I’m on a few that have this as a known risk, and it took me forever to figure out why I was struggling so much with heat when I hadn’t in the past. And the more medical issues, the more likely you’re going to be on a collection of meds, running head long into this side effect.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 11:06 AM on July 17, 2023 [17 favorites]

One of the things we've learned from Covid is that if you want the average person to pay attention to a crisis, it's best not to call attention to how it affects others first.
posted by ocschwar at 11:10 AM on July 17, 2023 [9 favorites]

Yeah well, I am disabled and posting about how things impact me and the people I love on metafilter, a tiny website where I think most people are better than average and care about people and the world. And might just have enough self interest to read about how heat will impact them.
posted by Bottlecap at 11:39 AM on July 17, 2023 [28 favorites]

Are like all rich older people on those same meds? Almost all senators & oil executives are older people, no?
posted by jeffburdges at 11:54 AM on July 17, 2023 [3 favorites]

With long-covid attached to around 1 in 10 infections, the percentage of disabled people is going to be getting significantly larger over the coming years.
If things don't change dramatically for the better, the 'average person' looks to be chronically disabled pretty soon.

I think we've finally reached a stage where the majority acknowledge climate change is real, just as scientists have been trying to get people to recognise my whole lifetime.

I don't see any other path than everything getting significantly harder for almost everyone over the next 30 years. Climate change / population displacement / financial slavery / novel diseases / CFS / etc.

It feels like shouting into the void, in a tornado of spin to 'don't look up '.

Thank you for posting @Bottlecap
posted by many-things at 11:55 AM on July 17, 2023 [16 favorites]

Climate change has long seemed like it's going to be "devil take the hindmost" and folks with disabilities are the hindmost. (And yes, absolutely, extreme heat is bad with a lot of meds. I'm in this picture and I'm resigned to it until temperatures start dropping in September.)
posted by gentlyepigrams at 12:06 PM on July 17, 2023 [2 favorites]

I really want to thank Bottlecap for these Disability Pride Month posts. I haven't been participating a lot because I don't have anything of value to add, but I've been reading everything and have been learning a lot. I'm going to be a much more empathetic and understanding person about a lot of different issues I'd never considered before. Thank you for your posting work!
posted by hippybear at 12:37 PM on July 17, 2023 [31 favorites]

Almost all senators & oil executives are older people, no?

Fuck you, I got miney air conditioning.
posted by klanawa at 12:38 PM on July 17, 2023 [7 favorites]

Thank you to the people who have been encouraging about these posts. I admit that I have been struggling with the comments like the one above that implies it’s ineffective to talk about disability and how we should just quietly go die, basically. I foolishly looked at reddit where the reception of my posts has been even harsher.

But knowing that there are people who are reading and getting something out of them and that it’s meaningful really puts some wind in my sails to keep making posts because all of us deserve to be in public spaces! I know it’s not MetaFilter Style to talk about the experience of posting, but I think part of having a disability is learning how to take up space again after learning that you should be as small as possible. So the space I’m taking up is - I am a real human and words of encouragement and harshness impact me just like if you were saying them to any other human.
posted by Bottlecap at 12:58 PM on July 17, 2023 [40 favorites]

I love your posts Bottlecap, thank you. I want to add migraine meds to the list that can make you heat sensitive, I didn’t realise antihistamines did too, that explains a lot! (It will be 32c/90f in Paris tomorrow).
posted by ellieBOA at 1:10 PM on July 17, 2023 [6 favorites]

Another thank you, Bottlecap! Agree with your comment about learning to take space; your series of posts this month inspired me to experiment with that space with a post and comments here.
posted by narcissus_and_ambrosia at 1:18 PM on July 17, 2023 [7 favorites]

> if you want the average person to pay attention to a crisis, it's best not to call attention to how it affects others first.

I disagree.. 

We know energy use equates to GDP, so more energy always means more GDP. We've therefore no evidence for, or reason to think that, our nations really can restrict their own fossil fuel usage voluntarily, with the operative word being voluntarily.

We should focus attention upon how climate impacts semi-tropical but powerful nations first, especially India and Pakistan, not so that westerners vote to stop climate change, but so that those other nations view us as in-humane, and become more willing sooner to do anything necessary to stop us and others.

We should likewise occasionally highlight how climate change harms our own disabled, older, southerners, poor, etc too, but again simply because it shows our own in-humanity as a culture, and thus justifies action against us.

It'd be horrific of course, but our being stopped sounds less bad than the alternatives, even for us. In practice, those same developing countries were responsible for 63% of on-going carbon emissions already by 2015, but maybe this all still works aka someone else stops them too.

Anyways, there is broadly value in exposing these problems to help inform whatever crazy path the real world takes thereafter.
posted by jeffburdges at 1:35 PM on July 17, 2023

It was 120F / 48.8C at *midnight* in Death Valley last night - possibly the hottest midnight temperature anywhere in recorded history (not confirmed but still an astonishing temperature).

I have had the need to drive down to Albuquerque a few times recently from Utah - and I think about the little communities you see along the way - especially out in New Mexico - and just how difficult it would be to survive in the heat they are experiencing And to be more vulnerable due to age, disability, poverty, or medical issue.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 3:16 PM on July 17, 2023

The entire state of New Mexico is at a much higher altitude than Death Valley, and as such is less prone to atmosphere-trapped heat than the lower elevations but also is more prone to less atmospheric UV filtering so the sun is more intense.

I mostly think about Phoenix, because I lived in central Phoenix in the early 2000s and even back then, with the urban heat sink of all the pavements and concrete, it would be well above 100 at night. My apartment only had a swamp cooler, so it could be challenging at times.

My house here in eastern WA doesn't have any central air at all. No heating, no cooling. We make due with alternate measures which are effective for us but certainly not to most people's standards. Rooms will be cool or hot depending on the season while the rest of the house is more ambient temperature, just one at a time.

But yeah, I'm sure the pavement-laden area of around 24th and Camelback in Phoenix is not cooling down at night much at all right now.
posted by hippybear at 3:24 PM on July 17, 2023

I think we've finally reached a stage where the majority acknowledge climate change is real, just as scientists have been trying to get people to recognise my whole lifetime.

Yeah, but that same majority is going to get propagandized into believing that the cause of climate change isn't the oligarchy but rather queers and liberals. Just watch.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 5:50 AM on July 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

Thanks Bottlecap I met someone a while back who has multiple sclerosis, they had to move from a hot region as they were dependant on air conditioning (rare in NZ). I've since read a lot on this and heat vulnerable people is a lot of the population. So.many.conditions - and life stages/events affect thermoregulation.

Politicians and deniers talking blithely of 'it's only one degree' (while deliberately ignoring that this 'one degree' is a mid-latitude mean) while spouting their Christian stance are simply evil.

I'd like to see a graph showing near-wet-bulb (and very hot day) events with how many people (with what conditions) are at risk. I've searched a lot and come up dry - science relies too much on the mean while people suffer in the margins (tails).
posted by unearthed at 11:49 AM on July 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

Hey Bottlecap, please keep ‘em coming. I have come close to posting but never thought my stuff worthy. Yours certainly are.

Might be metatalk but I read the other comment as dry humor about how the poorly the majority seems to behave, not aimed at you to discourage your post. Wryness is used as armor for everything on the blue so that’s where my mind went. In any case - believe in the value and effort you put into the post!

EJ needs to be amplified, and I‘ll take all I can get here.
posted by drowsy at 12:01 PM on July 18, 2023

After skimming TFAs, I think these data help to “bring it home” to wealthy areas more quickly than if we do not share these realities. My behavior will change faster the closer the impact is, for good or ill. I am sympathetic and I can still say that reading about 117F days in India is terrifying, but knowing that for some the same suffering is already being felt where I live is motivating.

Hopefully at large, awareness will translate into improvements.
posted by drowsy at 12:19 PM on July 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

Thanks, Bottlecap. Don’t stop fighting to ensure people don’t forget us. Disabled lives are human lives.
posted by vim876 at 1:45 PM on July 18, 2023 [3 favorites]

I guess we should have articles about how climate change negatively affects white Christian conservatives and it's the woke elites evil plan. I just spent 2 weeks with my family, and I swear to God that my sister who lives in AZ was telling me that THEY are controlling the weather. I couldn't even go there. I've spent so long trying to get along my family that I just changed the subject. Both her and I have disabilities affected by climate change, but one of us chooses to believe in nutbaggery.
posted by evilDoug at 3:03 PM on July 18, 2023 [4 favorites]