Climate Change, Aging, and Well-being: How Residential Setting Matters

Abstract

How do older people’s living environments influence their vulnerabilities to climate change? Much has been written about the physiological consequences of climate change for older individuals, particularly the dangers of increased incidence of severe heat. Less is known about how older people’s residential settings moderate their exposure to climate stressors, their particular sensitivities to the effects of climate change, or their capacities to respond to extreme events or adapt to long-term environmental changes. Drawing on literature in English, with a focus on work relevant to the United States, we examine how the housing, neighborhood, and urban or rural contexts in which older people live shape their experiences of climate change, moderating their exposure to risks related to climate change, sensitivity to those events and trends, and their capacities to adapt and recover. Older people face multiple life changes, making prioritizing climate readiness more challenging. They are also diverse, with different vulnerabilities and perceptions of risks and the ability to manage them. This paper lays out an agenda where additional research can inform policy and planning efforts aimed at reducing older individuals’ risk and building the capacity to adapt to climate change. The agenda includes understanding specific vulnerabilities and how older people and their housing providers are already responding.

Keywords:

• Climate change
• planning
• housing
• seniors
• older adults
• well-being

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Center for Green Buildings and Cities for funding this research. We also thank Kyle Miller and Caroline Ko for their research assistance and Bailey Hu, Yingying Lyu, Carlos Martin, Samara Scheckler, the Editor, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Center for Green Buildings at Harvard University.

Notes on contributors

Jennifer Molinsky

Jennifer Molinsky is the project director of the Housing and Aging Society Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University and a Lecturer in Urban Planning and Design. Jennifer manages the Center’s research on housing for older adults and was the lead author of several publications, including The State of the Nation’s Housing for Older Adults 2018 and 2019; Older Households 2015–2035: Projections and Implications for Housing a Growing Population (2016); and Housing America’s Older Adults: Meeting the Needs of an Aging Population (2014).

Ann Forsyth

Ann Forsyth trained in planning and architecture works mainly on the social aspects of physical planning and urban development. The big issue behind her research and practice is how to make more sustainable and healthy cities. Forsyth’s current research focuses on developing healthier places in a suburbanizing world, with overlapping emphases on aging and planned communities. She is the Ruth and Frank Stanton Professor of Urban Planning at Harvard University.