Climate Change and Older Persons

By Alan S. Gutterman

Climate change, simply described as "any change in average weather that lasts for a long period of time", already affects many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe, and there is evidence that observed changes in extremes such as heatwaves, heavy precipitation, droughts, and tropical cyclones and their attribution to human influence has continued to strengthen.  Climate change, and the attendant climate-related events including heat waves and hurricanes, put everyone at risk and threaten universal access to fundamental human rights to clean air, water, adequate food and housing and physical and mental health.  However, many older persons are especially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to complex medical conditions; dependence on caregivers and intact medical delivery systems, which can be fragmented during climate disasters; normal aging processes that limit agility and mobility; cognitive impairments that occur as people age and dependence on medications and life-sustaining equipment that may be unavailable because of a climate-related event.  Older people who are also vulnerable due to economic insecurity and/or living in substandard housing face additional risks when climate events ravage their communities.  In addition, the events associated with climate change also compromise the ability of States to support basic human rights for older persons, such as the rights to safety, security, social protection, care and support.  This book discusses the relationship between climate change and older persons covering not only the risks to realization of their human rights but also the ways in which older persons can contribute to climate action.  Chapters also cover intersectionality, climate change and climate justice; the legal and normative framework for climate action; generational attitudes toward climate change; and systemic actions required to protect older persons from climate change.  The aging of the population can be attributed to impressive improvements in longevity; however, extensive use of non-renewal resources and development have pushed the planet beyond its natural boundaries and enjoying the benefits of longevity can only occur if steps are taken toward a more sustainable world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Older Persons' Rights Project
• Release date: Jan 9, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215903995

Alan S. Gutterman

This book was written by Alan S. Gutterman, whose prolific output of practical guidance for legal and financial professionals, entrepreneurs and investors has made him one of the best-selling individual authors in the global legal publishing marketplace.  His cornerstone work, Business Transactions Solution, is an online-only product available and featured on Thomson Reuters’ Westlaw, the world’s largest legal content platform, which includes almost 200 book-length modules covering the entire lifecycle of a business.  Alan has also authored or edited over 80 books on sustainable entrepreneurship, leadership and management, business transactions, international business and technology management for a number of publishers including Thomson Reuters, Practical Law, Kluwer, Oxford, Quorum, ABA Press, Aspen, Euromoney, Business Expert Press, Harvard Business Publishing and BNA.  Alan has extensive experience as a partner and senior counsel with internationally recognized law firms counseling small and large business enterprises in the areas of general corporate and securities matters, venture capital, mergers and acquisitions, international law and transactions and strategic business alliances, and has also held senior management positions with several technology-based businesses including service as the chief legal officer of a leading international distributor of IT products headquartered in Silicon Valley and as the chief operating officer of an emerging broadband media company.  He has been an adjunct faculty member at several colleges and universities, including Berkeley Law, Santa Clara University and the University of San Francisco, teaching classes on corporate finance, venture capital and law and economic development,  He has also launched and oversees projects relating to sustainable entrepreneurship and ageism.  He received his A.B., M.B.A., and J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, a D.B.A. from Golden Gate University, and a Ph. D. from the University of Cambridge.  For more information about Alan and his activities, please contact him directly at [e-mail], follow him on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alangutterman/) and visit his website at alangutterman.com.

Book preview

1

Introduction

Wang et al. noted that due to concurrent declines in fertility and mortality rates, global life expectancy has more than doubled since the early 1900s and is expected to continue increasing in the coming decades. [1]  They warned, however, that [t]here is no greater risk to the longevity of future generations than climate change and it can be expected that the public health advances that contributed to longer lives during the 20th century will be negatively impacted by the extreme weather events associated with climate change that will affect land use and food production, exacerbate water and air pollution and alter the distribution of disease vectors. [2]  Derek Yach, the founder of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, observed that as more people live longer, the human population uses more resources ... [and] ... [t]his places a greater burden on the Earth’s environment, and contributes to climate change. [3]  He concluded that [a]geing and climate change are unquestionably linked and that extensive use of non-renewable resources and development approaches [had] pushed us beyond many planetary boundaries. [4]  As such, his view was that for the world to enjoy the benefits of continued and increased longevity, steps needed to be taken toward a more sustainable economy.

Children, older people, women and people with preexisting health conditions and disabilities are already more vulnerable to the climate change impacts that occurring today[5], and future generations who almost certainly will experience more extreme weather events and severe climate change impacts than older generations[6] will bear higher burdens because [m]ost adverse impacts due to climate change accumulate over the life course and have significant consequences for health and well-being in later years.[7]  For example, [e]xposure to high levels of air pollutants, beginning in utero, has been linked to risk for an array of diseases and brain impairment ... [and] ... [a]ir pollution appears to accelerate the aging process of the brain and arteries and is associated with higher risks of dementia and cognitive decline.[8]

Climate change has been called out for specific attention in commentaries on risks to health and human rights during emergency situations.  Emergencies caused by climate change-induced drought, famine, rainfall variation and shrinkage of water supplies lead to catastrophic suffering, misery and humanitarian crises and invariably threaten rights to equal protection under international human rights and humanitarian law either as a result of human right violations associated with the emergencies themselves and the associated response or exacerbation of human rights problems that already existed before the emergency situation emerged.[9]  The UN Independent Expert on the Enjoyment of All Human Rights by Older Persons has written that older persons are disproportionately affected in emergency situations and has also given notice of the range of vulnerabilities of older persons in emergency contexts including intrinsic (i.e., poor health, disability or frailty), extrinsic (due to low income, low degree of literacy or the remoteness of the place of residence) or due to systemic factors (i.e., lack of disaggregated data, failure to assess the needs of older persons correctly or failure to monitor the effectiveness of assistance provided).[10]  The US Environmental Protection Agency has noted that climate change threatens human health, and access to clean air, safe drinking water, nutritious food and shelter for everyone, and that older adults are vulnerable to climate change-related health impacts due to normal changes in the body associated with aging that can limit their mobility and the higher likelihood that they will have developed chronic health conditions and/or require assistance with their daily activities.[11]

Smyer noted that while researchers and clinicians have warned of older adults’ vulnerabilities to the impacts of climate change ... [m]any climate scientists, gerontologists, and activists have never thought about aging and climate change and called for taking a more comprehensive view that imagine[d] that older adults are not only victims of climate change but also potential leaders of climate action.[12]  As for older persons themselves, Smyer argued that while all generations are susceptible to climate change anxiety, older adults may have both a special responsibility and opportunity in responding.[13]  According to the American Society on Aging (ASA): Simply put, the field of aging can no longer ignore climate change. Yet, older adults have been blamed for the climate crisis and therefore, they and their advocates have been effectively excluded from consideration as part of the solution. However, environmental injustices, rising temperatures and sea levels, and natural disasters are age-inclusive—it’s time that our policymaking for battling climate change is, too.[14]

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Additional Resources

Climate Change and the Health of Older Adults (Washington DC: US Environmental Protection Agency, May 2016)

Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume II: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States

Report of the Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons A/HRC/42/43 (July 4, 2019)

The link between ageing and climate change, World Economic Forum (February 3, 2015)

G. Haq et al., Greening the Greys: Climate Change and the over 50s (York: Stockholm Environment Institute, 2007)

P. Kaldes, The Climate/Aging Intersection: Why It Matters, Generations Journal, 46(2) (Summer 2022)

M. Smyer, Hey Boomers: After Glasgow It’s Time to Pay It Forward, Growing Greener Blog on Psychology Today, November 9, 2021

C. Wang et al., Combating Climate Change in an Era of Longevity, Generations Journal, 46(2) (Summer 2022)

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2

Causes and Impacts of Climate Change

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Climate change, simply described as any change in average weather that lasts for a long period of time, already affects many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe, and there is evidence that observed changes in extremes such as heatwaves, heavy precipitation, droughts, and tropical cyclones and their attribution to human influence has continued to strengthen.  Climate change has been called out for specific attention in commentaries on risks to health and human rights during emergency situations.  Emergencies caused by climate change-induced drought, famine, rainfall variation and shrinkage of water supplies lead to catastrophic suffering, misery and humanitarian crises and invariably threaten rights to equal protection under international human rights and humanitarian law either as a result of human right violations associated with the emergencies themselves and the associated response or exacerbation of human rights problems that already existed before the emergency situation emerged.  More frequent and intense extreme weather and climate-related events, as well as changes in average climate conditions, are expected to continue to damage infrastructure, ecosystems, and social systems that provide essential benefits to communities.  The weight of scientific evidence points to human activity as the cause of the current warming trend, and future climate change is expected to further disrupt many areas of life, exacerbating existing challenges to prosperity posed by aging and deteriorating infrastructure, stressed ecosystems, and economic inequality. 

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Climate change, simply described as any change in average weather that lasts for a long period of time[15], has been called out for specific attention in commentaries on risks to health and human rights during emergency situations.[16]  Emergencies caused by climate change-induced drought, famine, rainfall variation and shrinkage of water supplies lead to catastrophic suffering, misery and humanitarian crises and invariably threaten rights to equal protection under international human rights and humanitarian law either as a result of human right violations associated with the emergencies themselves and the associated response or exacerbation of human rights problems that already existed before the emergency situation emerged.[17]

A survey of natural disasters compiled by the International Disaster Database identified 335 natural disasters around the world in 2017 that affected more than 95.6 million people globally, killed 9,697 and caused damage estimated at $335 billion.[18]  According to a report by the Red Cross in 2018, the number of weather-related disasters increased between 2007 and 2018, accounting for no less than 53.7 per cent of all crises, a third of which were floods.[19]  The number of displaced persons as of June 2018 was estimated to be 68.5 million worldwide including 20.2 million refugees (approximately 3% of whom were over 60 years of age), 3.2 million asylum seekers and 39.7 million internally displaced persons (84% of whom were in developing regions).[20]  In 2021, the Emergency Event Database (EM-DAT) recorded 432 disastrous events related to natural hazards worldwide, which accounted for 10,492 deaths, affected 101.8 million people and caused approximately 252.1 billion US$ of economic losses (five of the top ten most economically costly disasters in 2021 occurred in the US and resulted in a total economic cost of 112.5 billion US$).[21]

In their contribution to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report (IPCC Sixth Assessment Report) on the physical science basis of climate change, a working group of international experts reported in a summary for policymakers that climate change was affecting many weather and climate extremes in every region across the globe, and that evidence of observed changes in extremes such as heatwaves, heavy precipitation, droughts, and tropical cyclones, and, in particular, their attribution to human influence, has continued to strengthen.[22]  As for the situation in the US, the US Global Change Research Program offered the following summary assessment of the situation in 2018: [t]he impacts of climate change are already being felt in communities across the country. More frequent and intense extreme weather and climate-related events, as well as changes in average climate conditions, are expected to continue to damage infrastructure, ecosystems, and social systems that provide essential benefits to communities.  Future climate change is expected to further disrupt many areas of life, exacerbating existing challenges to prosperity posed by aging and deteriorating infrastructure, stressed ecosystems, and economic inequality.[23]

As for the causes of climate change, Smyer noted that the link to human activity, in particular our use of fossil fuels, and the warming of the planet has been well established, and referred to the following 2022 assessment from NASA: The current warming trend is of particular significance because it is unequivocally the result of human activity since the mid-20th century and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented over millennia.[24]  NASA has also reported that [h]uman activities are driving the global warming trend observed since the mid-20th century and explained that [t]he industrial activities that our modern civilization depends upon have raised atmospheric carbon dioxide levels by nearly 50% since 1750 ... [and that] ... [t]his increase is due to human activities, because scientists can see a distinctive isotopic fingerprint in the atmosphere.[25]  The experts who prepared the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report concluded that it is unequivocal that the increase of CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere over the industrial era is the result of human activities and that human influence is the principal driver of many changes observed across the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere.[26]  Smyer also pointed out that [t]here is a considerable scientific consensus on the causes of climate change ... [with] ... [n]inety-seven percent of climate scientists agree[ing] that it is human-caused.[27]  Among the general public, as of 2021 72% of Americans were acknowledging that climate change was actually happening, and 62% reported that they were worried about it.[28]

There is mounting and extensive evidence regarding the devastating current and future ecological, economic and health impacts of climate change on the planet and all its inhabitants.   For example, in its Fourth National Climate Assessment released in 2018 (USCRP Fourth Assessment), the US Global Change Research Program noted that "[c]limate change creates new risks and exacerbates existing vulnerabilities in communities across the United States, presenting growing challenges to human health and safety, quality of life, and the rate of economic growth and went on to say [t]he quality and quantity of water available for use by people and ecosystems across the country are being affected by climate change, increasing risks and costs to agriculture, energy production, industry, recreation, and the environment, ... [e]cosystems and the benefits they provide to society are being altered by climate change ... some coral reef and sea ice ecosystems are already experiencing such transformational changes, ... [and] ... [r]ising temperatures, extreme heat, drought, wildfire on rangelands, and heavy downpours are expected to increasingly disrupt agricultural productivity in the United States.[29]  According to NASA:  Changes to Earth’s climate driven by increased human emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are already having widespread effects on the environment: glaciers and ice sheets are shrinking, river and lake ice is breaking up earlier, plant and animal geographic ranges are shifting, and plants and trees are blooming sooner."[30]

As for the economic impacts of climate change, the USCRP Fourth Assessment warned that "[w]ithout substantial and sustained global mitigation and regional adaptation efforts, climate change is expected to cause