Presenter(s): Eleanor Estreich − Economics, English
Faculty Mentor(s): Mark Carey
Poster 149
Research Area: Humanities
An emergent literature emphasizing community-based research examines the relationship between climate change and mental health in Inuit communities in Canada, which is driven in part by the fact that Inuit communities are “particularly vulnerable to health-related climate change impacts” (Harper et al. 2015: 1)*. While this academic research has identified approaches toward conceptualizing the link between climate change and mental health, national legislation in Canada about climate and health does not sufficiently reflect the lessons of these community-based efforts. By using methodological, theoretical, and rhetorical criticism, this paper will attempt to provide an answer for how the relationship between climate change and mental health is conceptualized for indigenous Inuit communities in the academic literature, and by comparison, how Canadian national laws dealing with climate change currently address this relationship. This paper will compare academic and legal approaches with the overall aim of judging to what extent national legislation has addressed the important link between climate change and mental health in indigenous Inuit communities. This comparative task is needed, because national climate change legislation shapes priorities and may help determine the extent of the human impacts of climate change in the future. The preliminary research seems to suggest that Canadian legislation primarily focuses on adaptive policies that target the general health of indigenous Inuit peoples as a result of a globally framed climate change issue; as a result, national legislation is currently poorly set-up to incorporate the insights from community-based participatory research. *Harper, S. L., Edge, V. L., Ford, J., Willox, A. C., Wood, M., & McEwen, S. A. (2015). Climate-sensitive health priorities in Nunatsiavut, Canada. BMC Public Health, 1–18. http://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-1874-3