Mental Health Forum: Examining Day-to-Day Impacts of Climate

Examining Day-to-Day Impacts of Climate discusses the study of the social impacts of climate, with particular attention paid to the individual mental health-related effects of environmental stressors. Following a brief overview of findings in the literature so far, Dr, Obradovich discusses the empirical methods used to investigate the social impacts of climate. He then details the benefits of employing increasingly high-resolution data to understand and address the health impacts of climate, finally introducing a few outstanding, important questions in the field for discussion.

Nick Obradovich, PhD, is Senior Research Scientist and Principal Investigator at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in the Center for Humans and Machines. He is the Human-Environmental Systems Fellow at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and is a research affiliate at MIT’s Environmental Solutions Initiative. Dr. Obradovich’s research combines his interests in artificial intelligence, climate change, and human behavior with his affinity for data science and computational methods. One line his research explores the intersection of humans and machines. He has investigated the effects that generative algorithms might have on emotions — good and bad — and has examined easing the study of algorithmic output. He has studied algorithmic bias, the detection of manipulated media, and the ways algorithms can enable the study of culture. And he has reviewed the science of machine behavior.

Dr. Obradovich’s climate research explores the human impacts of warming. He has uncovered climatic effects on mental health, mobility, mood, physical activity, and sleep as well as daily governance, democratic turnover, and civil conflict. He has also studied climate-related political behaviors, attitudes, and adaptation of expectations as well as the use of social media data to assess disaster damage and flood incidence. Finally, Dr. Obradovich’s work regularly appears in top academic journals and in major media outlets.