Under Pressure: a historical and cultural geography of meteorosensitivity in times of changing climates

This project spells out how global warming affects people both physiologically and psychologically through a historical and cultural geography of “meteorosensitivity”. Who is sensitive to which meteorological circumstances is a concern for meteorologists and government health officials alike. The increase in intensity and frequency of extreme weather events have put national weather and health services in the UK and Germany under pressure to effectively warn those most vulnerable to changes in weather and climate. Recently (2023), the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the Met Office have begun to jointly issue heat health alerts. But determining who to alert when is not straight forward. Differences in exposure stemming from the intersectional politics of gender, class, and race are obscured through the apparent simplicity of, for instance, colour coded warning systems. By visiting archives, studying documents, interviewing experts, and conducting ethnographic research, “Under Pressure” studies how knowledge around biometeorological models is produced and operationalised in the UK and Germany, how climate change impacts are translated into health impacts. Aside from contributing to research in the Environmental and Medical Humanities on climate change, a podcast accompanying this project and participatory research methods enable a wider public to engage with their own meteorosensitivity.