Readers may be familiar with Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Maslow, 1908-1970, was one of the early humanist psychologists who focused on positive rather than negative aspects of personality. He founded the theory that physiological needs form the basis of a pyramid of human needs, with each level a requirement for the subsequent ones above it. The ultimate goal is self-actualization.
“Physiological needs are biological requirements for human survival, e.g., air, food, drink, shelter, clothing, warmth, sex, and sleep,” an explanation on SimplePsychology.org reads.
Does climate change affect our ability to accomplish these life-sustaining requirements?
Let’s start with air. If we do nothing else each day, we must do two things: breathe in and breathe out. How does climate change affect our ability to breathe?
BBC’s Science Focus Magazine reported that breathing out actually produces CO2 emissions.
The Science Focus Magazine article reads:
“In one day, the average person breathes out around 500 litres of the greenhouse gas CO2… But, in reality, the CO2 we’re breathing out is part of a natural cycle, by which our bodies convert carbohydrates from CO2-absorbing plants into energy, plus water and CO2. As such, we’re not adding any extra CO2.”
But the real concern is that with increased climate change, it is becoming more difficult to breathe. Why? National Academies published that with poorer air quality: “in many regions, the warming climate is making air quality worse. Poorer air quality contributes to or may cause breathing problems and respiratory illnesses.”
According to The Government of Canada ’s section on Environmental Indicators: “Temperature is a key indicator of how the climate is changing… Temperature change can influence crops, forests, infrastructure, human health (emphasis mine), the spread of disease, the availability of water and the health of ecosystems.
“In Canada, temperatures have increased more in northern Canada than in southern Canada. Annual mean temperature over northern Canada increased by roughly 3 times the global mean warming rate. The effects of widespread warming are evident in many parts of Canada and are projected to intensify in the future.”
Clearly, the first of Maslow’s basic requirements is under pressure from climate change.
Food and water
Food and water closely follow breathing among the most basic human needs. As with breathing, climate change directly affects these needs.
Many scientific journals, including Nature, support the claim that climate change is: “a serious threat to food production systems that are highly dependent on water resources and ecosystems… Various regions already suffer from water cycle disruptions due to climate change which include intensification of extreme weather events (e.g., droughts, floods) and groundwater depletion.”
In Canada, increased numbers of tornados and hurricanes all affect agriculture and thus food production. Forest fires, too, are increasing not just in numbers but in severity and duration. Each of these weather pattern alterations has direct consequences on the availability of water for growing and distributing food.
Again, the Government of Canada Environment Section comments that the impacts of climate change will not be uniform across the country. Nor will they be uniform across seasons. This is a double-edged sword. While there are likely to be opportunities, in some regions, to grow warmer-weather crops given longer growing seasons, these opportunities will be accompanied by challenges.
The Government also comments that climate change also causes “water stress (flooding or drought), heat stress, wind damage, increased pest and disease pressures, and the impact from these multiple stressors on soil health… can reduce the productivity, profitability and competitiveness of Canadian farmers.” Thus, climate change can cause food insecurity.
Sex and sleep
Interestingly, the link between climate change and sex tends to focus on environmentally-friendly or environmentally-neutral sex habits . Think of using condoms and lubricants made of non petroleum-based products. The reverse effect of climate change on sex is an issue yet to be researched.
The same cannot be said for the effect of climate change on sleep. According to an article in Sleep Med Review, “from disaster related stress causing insomnia, to poor air quality causing sleep related breathing problems, climate change poses a potentially serious threat to human sleep.”
Higher levels of the pyramid
If breathing, eating, and sleep are affected directly by climate change, Maslow might argue that humans cannot proceed up to the next level of the pyramid, which is the need for safety: security, order and stability.
And it is even less possible for humans to achieve the remaining levels, which are love and belonging; esteem; cognition or intellectual development; aesthetics, which are harmony, order and beauty; and the topmost level, which is self-actualization.
This highest level occurs when individuals reach a state of harmony and understanding because they are engaged in achieving their full potential.
Of course, Maslow’s pyramid of needs is only one example of the development of human potential. And not everyone agrees that people cannot climb from one level to the next without having achieved the elements of each preceding level.
Still, reviewing the most basic components of health does show that our lives as they now stand are compromised by climate change. We cannot expect to live healthy lives when even our ability to breathe clean air, to eat sufficient and sufficiently nutritious food, and to sleep long and deeply enough, are compromised. Climate change ultimately reduces the average human lifespan.
Next steps
A major Government of Canada study completed in 2008 emphasized the importance of understanding the effects of climate change and preparing to protect Canadians from its ill-effects. The key findings were:
- Climate variables and climate hazards directly and indirectly impact the health and well-being of Canadians. Climate change will increase risks to health.
- The impacts of climate change can combine with other circumstances to increase health risks or create conditions for a disaster.
- Regional assessments highlighted the vulnerability of specific population groups and confirmed the importance of developing adaptations tailored to local and regional needs.
- Research and knowledge from a broad range of disciplines is required to advance understanding of the effects of climate change on health and to support adaptive measures.
The report concluded that “Future investigation of the effects of climate change on health and the implementation of needed adaptations will benefit from the multidisciplinary collaboration that has begun among many research organizations.”
Some 16 years later, the final recommendation is more important than ever.
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