From Climatic Resilience to Vulnerability

Abstract

In the last chapter, the biological limits of human adaptation in the face of climatic conditions outside of our mandated physiological and personal comfort zones were explored—with a major focus on what happens to the heart and cardiovascular system when confronted with cold to hot extremes. It also introduced the concept of non-modifiable versus modifiable factors that modulate the biological impact of climatic provocations to an individual. As an extension of this concept, this chapter now presents a holistic, interdisciplinary framework/model that helps to explain why certain people (with consideration of sex-based differences) are ‘climatically vulnerable’, while others are more ‘climatically resilient’—identifying the key characteristics and attributes that might be altered to prevent climatically provoked cardiac events and premature mortality at the individual level.