Climate change is already a health crisis — through heat stress, worsened air quality, expansion of infectious disease vectors, disruption of food systems, and the psychological burden of ecological loss. The most severe health impacts fall disproportionately on those with the least contribution to the underlying emissions and the least resources to adapt. Understanding the pathways through which a changing climate affects health — and making choices, individually and collectively, that reduce both contribution and vulnerability — is increasingly a dimension of comprehensive health literacy.
Each step builds on the last.