Sheather Julian, Littler Katherine, Singh Jerome A, Wright Katharine
Medecins Sans Frontieres Operational Centre Amsterdam, Amsterdam, North Holland, The Netherlands.
World Health Organization, Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
Wellcome Open Res. 2023 Aug 14;8:343. doi: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.19490.1. eCollection 2023.
Anthropogenic climate change is unequivocal, and many of its physical health impacts have been identified, although further research is required into the mental health and wellbeing effects of climate change. There is a lack of understanding of the importance of ethics in policy-responses to health and climate change which is also linked to the lack of specific action-guiding ethical resources for researchers and practitioners. There is a marked paucity of ethically-informed health input into economic policy-responses to climate change-an area of important future work. The interaction between health, climate change and ethics is technically and theoretically complex and work in this area is fragmentary, unfocussed, and underdeveloped. Research and reflection on climate and health is fragmented and plagued by disciplinary silos and exponentially increasing literature means that the field cannot be synthesised using conventional methods. Reviewing the literature in these fields is therefore methodologically challenging. Although many of the normative challenges in responding to climate change have been identified, available theoretical approaches are insufficiently robust, and this may be linked to the lack of action-guiding support for practitioners. There is a lack of ethical reflection on research into climate change responses. Low-HDI (Human Development Index) countries are under-represented in research and publication both in the health-impacts of climate change, and normative reflection on health and climate change policy. There is a noticeable lack of ethical commentary on a range of key topics in the environmental health literature including population, pollution, transport, energy, food, and water use. Serious work is required to synthesise the principles governing policy responses to health and climate change, particularly in relation to value conflicts between the human and non-human world and the challenges presented by questions of intergenerational justice.
人为气候变化是确凿无疑的,其对身体健康的诸多影响已被确认,不过仍需进一步研究气候变化对心理健康和幸福的影响。人们对伦理在应对健康与气候变化政策中的重要性缺乏理解,这也与研究人员和从业者缺乏具体的行动指导伦理资源有关。在应对气候变化的经济政策中,基于伦理的健康投入明显匮乏——这是未来重要的工作领域。健康、气候变化与伦理之间的相互作用在技术和理论上都很复杂,该领域的工作零散、缺乏重点且发展不足。关于气候与健康的研究和思考零散,受到学科壁垒的困扰,文献数量呈指数级增长意味着无法用传统方法进行综合。因此,对这些领域的文献进行综述在方法上具有挑战性。尽管应对气候变化中的许多规范性挑战已被识别,但现有的理论方法不够有力,这可能与缺乏对从业者的行动指导支持有关。对气候变化应对研究缺乏伦理反思。在气候变化对健康影响以及对健康与气候变化政策的规范性反思的研究和出版物中,低人类发展指数(HDI)国家的代表性不足。在环境卫生文献中,包括人口、污染、交通、能源、食品和用水等一系列关键主题明显缺乏伦理评论。需要认真开展工作,综合指导应对健康与气候变化政策的原则,特别是涉及人类与非人类世界之间的价值冲突以及代际正义问题带来的挑战。