Climate Change and Health--Extreme Heat

Figure 2.1

Stratus Consulting
David M. Mills

This figure appears in chapter 2 of the The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment report.

This conceptual diagram illustrates the key pathways by which climate change influences human health during an extreme heat event, and potential resulting health outcomes (center boxes). These 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. See Chapter 1: Introduction for more information.

Free to use with credit to the original figure source.

This figure was created on March 05, 2015.