Abstract

Global climate change can impact populations rapidly through the increased occurrence of natural disasters and climate extremes, but also through long-term, gradual changes that alter environmental conditions and impair biological processes. Here, I investigate whether ambient temperatures in utero and during the early years of life are associated with reductions in life expectancy. I combine monthly, state-level climatological data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration with high-resolution, individual-level mortality data from the CenSoc Project, which consistsofcleaned and harmonized Social Security Administration death records from 1988-2005. Results indicate that exposure to higher ambient temperatures during gestation and the first four years of life are associated with increased mortality risk in later life for white men from low socio economic status backgrounds, but not other groups. It is likely that the effect of climate variability on later life mortality for non-white men is overshadowed by structural systems of racism that impact health stratification. Overall, the results emphasize how climate change has already begun to imprint itself onto demographic processes