Climate and aging. Selected aspects from the psychological perspective

• Main Author: Henryk Olszewski
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2020-10-01
• Series: Oceanologia
• Subjects: Climate change; Psychology of aging; Climate anxiety
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0078323420300348

Summary: The main focus of my research lies within the psychology of human development, especially in late adulthood. There are many reasons why psychologists are interested in climate change. One of the fathers of modern medicine, Hippocrates, proclaimed that the climate affects the mood (liquids) existing in the human body. I wrote an article about climate change and its relationship to the psychological functioning of people in old age. As we enter adulthood, the new generation will severely experience increasingly extreme weather events. Already this phenomenon is more frequent than several decades ago and takes a deadly toll. Heat waves will be more frequent and so the children and older people will be often exposed to that phenomenon. It may have a detrimental effect on those in the declining period of their lives. In my opinion, an important question is to what extent modern living should (in a moral sense) limit the current consumption of many goods because of the duty to care for the standard of living and its quality and the interests of people who will live in the future.