Hello and welcome to a special episode of Speaking of Psychology, a podcast from the American Psychological Association that explores the connections between psychological science and everyday life.

I'm your host, Caitlin Luna. This special episode features a report by APA's Kim Mills, who attended the first ever

international summit on psychology's contributions to global health in Lisbon, Portugal

in November.

The summit, sponsored by APA and the Association of Portuguese Psychologists, brought together

leaders of psychological associations from more than 40 nations

on five continents to explore ways of applying psychological science to the global problem of climate

change. The summit kicked off with several psychologists describing climate change's impact

in their countries. Jean-Yung-Che, Secretary of External Affairs for the Korean Psychological Association,

described how microdust is engulfing the country and noted evidence suggesting a connection

between dementia and exposure to the fine particles.

Ava Thompson, past president of the Bahamas Psychological Association, noted the increasing frequency

and power of hurricanes in the Caribbean.

And Brian Dixon, Director of Scientific Issues for the New Zealand Psychological Society,

described how flooding is devastating his city in surrounding areas.

Well, we're a coastal nation and all of our borders are threatened by climate change

with increasing sea levels, increasing storm events.

But we also have problems with our glaciers, lake snowfall, and those are major tourist attractions for us,

and our food production areas which are subject to drought and flooding more frequently now than they have been in the past.

Our territorial realm covers a lot of the Pacific, which means that a large number of

climate change migrants and refugees are likely to come to our country, which will place a huge

stress on our health systems, our mental health systems, and just our community resources.

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