The COVID-19 pandemic & climate change

NCCEH Environmental Health Webinar, February 24, 2022

Title: The COVID-19 pandemic & climate change: two different but equally important crises having major psychosocial impacts
Speaker: Dr. Mélissa Généreux

Almost two years since the start of the pandemic, significant psychosocial impacts are still observed in the Canadian population. The results of various surveys as part of a study carried out by Université of Sherbrooke with the collaboration of international universities have depicted the association between various risk/protective factors and mental health in times of pandemic. The most recent survey was conducted in October 2021 (in Canada, New Zealand and Switzerland) among a large and representative sample of adults. Special attention will be paid to the evolution in anxiety and depression and its associated risk/protective factors, as well as to a newly explored concept called “pandemic fatigue”. In addition to these results, some interesting comparisons between the attitudes, perceptions and responses towards the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change will be made. Lessons in disaster risk management learned over the past two years can indeed be utilized to enhance risk management of other global crises, including climate change. This study allows to increase the understanding of the psychosocial impacts of these two different, but equally important, crises (i.e., the pandemic and climate change).