Climate change and its 'Tertiary' effects

Abstract

This chapter reviews several classifcations of the health effects associated with climate change, arguing that one of the oldest forms ('primary', 'secondary' and 'tertiary' effects) is not only the simplest, but the most powerful, as it recognizes a hierarchy of scale, in terms of both the resultant burden of disease and complexity of causal pathways. The chapter insists that such effects interact with a range of environmental and social ('eco-social') determinants, withstanding simplistic criticisms of 'environmental determinism'. Potentially, climate change is catastrophic to humanity. Show more