Climate Change and Health

Figure 1.5

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Allison Crimmins

This figure appears in chapter 1 of the The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment report.

Conceptual diagram illustrating the exposure pathways by which climate change affects human health. Exposure pathways exist within the context of other factors that positively or negatively influence health outcomes (gray side boxes). Key factors that influence vulnerability for individuals are shown in the right box, and include social determinants of health and behavioral choices. Key factors that influence vulnerability at larger scales, such as natural and built environments, governance and management, and institutions, are shown in the left box. All of these influencing factors can affect an individual’s or a community’s vulnerability through changes in exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity and may also be affected by climate change.

Free to use with credit to the original figure source.

This figure was created on October 10, 2014.