The curtain is falling on 2023, its final weeks ushering in collective reflections on time passed. Many of the year’s most significant world events—from conflicts on multiple continents to global temperatures shattering records—left imprints on health. Two stories in this week’s edition of Think Global Health examine what some of those incidents mean for people’s psyches.
Burcin Ikiz, of EcoNeuro, uses the momentum generated by the twenty-eighth Conference of the Parties and its first-ever Health Day to draw attention to the threat climate change poses to brain health. She notes that children and young adults are particularly at risk, with one study revealing that climate change alters brain development more than initially thought.
Sammy Chown and Ayesha Haque, of the University of Toronto, then unpack how watching coverage of crises such as the Israel-Hamas war can be just as harmful to mental health as being at the scene of those calamities. They list strategies to reduce the likelihood of developing that secondary trauma.
The edition wraps with a recap of the successes and challenges that the EU Global Health Strategy (EGHS) has faced in its first year, courtesy of Ilona Kickbusch, of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, and Francisco Pérez-Cañado, of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety. Though the EGHS has demonstrated promise in addressing health threats and fostering collaboration with the World Health Organization, its efficacy hinges on overcoming ongoing geopolitical obstacles to ensure a healthier future in a changing world.
Until next week!—Nsikan Akpan, Managing Editor, and Caroline Kantis, Associate Editor
