Climate Change & Health Opportunity Grants

The NAM partnered with the Burroughs Wellcome Fund to provide “opportunity grants” to interdisciplinary teams across the National Academies to explore promising ideas at the intersection of climate change and human health. The aim is to stimulate new, interdisciplinary projects across the National Academies, as well as to catalyze broader stakeholder interest and engagement in these issues. The 9 projects below were funded by Climate Change & Human Health Opportunity Grants.

Compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act under a Changing Climate

Trends in precipitation and temperature over the last 10 years have already forced water utilities to consider the regulatory challenges posed by future climate changes. Different regions of the country are likely to experience significantly different effects of climate change, from drought and fire in the west to increased precipitation and storm intensity in the east. A meeting of experts will be convened to discuss how climate change will alter water utilities’ ability to comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act and assess the value of a NASEM effort on this topic.
Lead: Division on Earth and Life Studies
Other Supporting Units: Health and Medicine Division

Mental Health Impacts on Vulnerable Populations due to Climate Change-Induced Displacement

Addressing the mental health impacts of climate change-induced displacement requires a comprehensive strategy by experts from multiple disciplines and societal domains. As such, this activity will leverage the current work of, and partnership between, the Resilient America Program (RAP) and the Gulf Research Program (GRP) to conduct a systematic literature review on the mental health impacts of climate change-induced displacement, with a focus on impacts to vulnerable communities (e.g., adolescents, Indigenous Tribes). The findings of the systematic literature review will inform the agenda for a one-day meeting of experts, potential sponsors, and other stakeholders. In turn, an important outcome of the one-day meeting will be a prospectus for future cooperation on larger-scale projects to advance knowledge related to climate change, mental health, and the displacement of vulnerable populations.
Lead: Policy and Global Affairs, Gulf Research Program
Other Supporting Units: Health and Medicine Division, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education

Supporting Program Development with an Inventory of NASEM Content on Climate and Health 

There is currently no resource that comprehensively outlines the work that the National Academies has produced regarding climate change and human health. In order to develop a comprehensive inventory of this work, staff will mine and distill key messages and recommendations from NASEM consensus studies, workshop proceedings, and other National Academies’ products focused on climate impacts on human health. The result will be a high-level synthesis of NASEM’s work in this area and an important reference for NASEM staff to use in scoping and developing new, related projects at the intersection of climate change and human health. In the future, this inventory may also inform the development of a climate and health module, as part of the Climate Communications Initiative.
Lead: Division on Earth and Life Studies, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
Other Supporting Units: Health and Medicine Division

Planning Meeting on the Impact of Climate Change on Children’s Health and Development

While the impacts of climate change on adult physical and mental health are widely recognized, we do not yet have a complete understanding of how climate-related stressors affect the unique physiologic characteristics of children. As such, a planning meeting will be held on the impact of climate change on children’s health and development. Meeting participants will discuss the evidence base on the direct and indirect health impacts of climate change on children, with a focus on existing research on mechanisms by which prenatal exposure to climate change affects development outcomes across the lifespan; short- and long-term psychological and mental health effects of climate change on children; and ways in which these effects may vary by demographic and contextual factors, such as socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, and geography.
Lead: Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
Other Supporting Units: National Academy of Medicine

Modeling and Forecasting the Impacts of Exteme Events and Variable Temperatures on City Dwellers

Although climate change will have a significant impact on the cities of the future, traditional demographic and health behavioral data and demographic methods are insufficient to fully understand the consequences of these changes for the health and well-being of city dwellers. To explore this further, a planning meeting will be held to identify directions for a larger NASEM activity that would bring together the downscale climate modeling research community, climate and health researchers, demographers, public health practitioners, and policy planners to advance the methodologies through which modelers study future temperature extremes and related-health risks, the urban environment, population vulnerability, and health/mortality outcomes.
Lead: Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education
Other Supporting Units: Health and Medicine Division

Exploring the Impact of Increasing Temperatures and Greenhouse Gases on Nutritional Quality, Safety, and Availability of Foods

Emerging evidence indicates that warming of the environment can alter, both positively and negatively, the nutritional content and quality of some foods. Understanding the impact of availability as well as quality of foods on meeting nutritional needs among populations is an important consideration for ensuring access to safe and healthful foods across regions and countries. The effects of climate change on the productivity, quality, and safety of food and agriculture products and their implications constitute an important variable in planning for future directions in nutrition, food safety, and agriculture. This activity will conduct a planning meeting with potential sponsors and experts from the food and agriculture research community to explore this area.
Lead: Health and Medicine Division
Other Supporting Units: Division on Earth and Life Studies, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education

Exploring the Mental Health Impacts of Wildfires on Residents and Non-Traditional Firefighters

As a follow-up to a 2019 workshop on the public health implications of the California (CA) wildfires, this activity will conduct an environmental scan on published and grey literature regarding the mental health effects of wildfires on two distinct populations: 1) residents who return home to devastated surroundings; and 2) non-traditional firefighters, e.g. residents who “stay to fight,” and inmates, who were involved with some of the fires in CA as temporary, adjunct fire-fighters. These two groups had not chosen firefighting as a career and were not professionally trained in coping with lingering effects of trauma. A virtual planning meeting will be held to discuss the environmental scan and develop options for future work at NASEM
Lead: Health and Medicine Division
Other Supporting Units: Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education

Harnessing Data to Strengthen Community Health in a Changing Climate: A Scoping Meeting

Ensuring the accuracy and efficacy of data collection processes will be critical to developing sustainable and healthy communities in a changing climate. As such, a scoping meeting will be held to explore the most promising areas of focus for future NASEM activities related to harnessing data to strengthen the health of communities in a changing climate. A landscape analysis that will describe the current state of climate change and human health data use and identify key stakeholders across sectors will also be prepared as part of the scoping effort. Possible projects for discussion at the meeting include: an international workshop focused on using data to support the creation of more healthy, vibrant, and equitable communities in the U.S. and internationally; a consensus study that would provide specific recommendations for federal agencies that support data collection and stewardship; and a convening that would bring together relevant stakeholders to work together to reduce barriers to data availability, access, interoperability, and usability.
Lead: Policy and Gobal Affairs
Other Supporting Units: Division on Earth and Life Studies, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences, Health and Medicine Division

Developing Strategies to Reduce the Carbon Footprint of the Health Care Sector

The healthcare industry is a significant source of harmful CO2 emissions, and its carbon footprint is likely to continue to grow in the absence of interventions to reduce greenhouse emissions from this sector. As such, this activity will commission an expert literature review, as well as convene experts in health care and environmental mitigation strategies to consider the ways in which NASEM could advance progress in reducing the carbon footprint of the U.S. health care sector. For example, this work might consider mitigation strategies that would have the greatest impact on carbon emissions from the health care sector and ways to foster adoption and implementation of those strategies, as well as opportunities to educate health care providers and system leaders about the potential benefits (direct and collateral) of improving health care practices and infrastructure.
Lead: Health and Medicine Division
Other Supporting Units: Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences

Questions? Email ClimateandHealth@nas.edu