Climate Psychology 101


Climate change is a systemic, global phenomenon so enormous and complex that mental health experts are just beginning to synthesize supporting data on the prevalence, severity, and nature of its mental health impacts. [i] [ii] [iii] [iv] 

What research shows so far:

Exposure to climate change can be direct (the impact of acute climate disasters, e.g., PTSD after a flood, wildfire, superstorm) or indirect (secondary effects of climate not associated with acute disaster, such as the downstream impacts of drought, sea level rise, migration, displacement, etc.). [v]

  • Extreme Weather and Acute Disaster: Storms, fires, etc.

    Researchers have found connections between extreme weather and increases in PTSD, depression, anxiety, substance use, and risk of suicide—especially if such weather is recurring. [vi] [vii]

  • Prolonged Disasters: Sea-level rise, droughts, food insecurity, etc.

    Drought has been tied to farmer suicides; Food insecurity and thirst are tied to increased distress. [viii] [ix]

  • Temperature Effects:

    Researchers have demonstrated correlations between higher temperatures (especially heat waves) and, among other findings, (1) increased suicide rates; (2) increased hospitalization and mortality for those with diagnosed mental health conditions; (3) increased conflict and violence; and (4) lower sleep quality leading to cognitive and emotional changes. [x] [xi] [xii]

  • Environmental Pollution Effects: Air, water, toxicants, etc.

    Air pollution has significant impacts on mental functioning. Air pollution can have direct impacts on the brain, with aggravation of neurodegenerative disorders across the life span. Air pollution has been shown to correlate with increased depression, anxiety, psychosis, and incidence of bipolar, schizophrenia, and suicide. [xiii] [xiv] [xv] [xvi] [xvii] [xviii]

Psychological responses can be anticipatory (pre-traumatic stress arising from exposure to climate-associated difficulties, e.g., an IPCC report, media, general awareness); ongoing (e.g., chronic stress, experiencing prolonged slow disasters, witnessing endangered species disappear); or late onset (where symptoms can emerge in a delayed timeframe). [xix] [xx] [xxi]

Climate change’s mental health impacts are additive, multipliers of existing difficulties. [xxvii]

  • Those with preexisting mental health issues, substance abuse histories, and medical disabilities will be more at risk of experiencing further development of mental health conditions. [xxviii]

Vulnerable populations carry a greater burden of risk—including low-income; BIPOC; houseless; pregnant; those with refugee status; women; those with co-occurring medical conditions, including the mentally ill; elderly; and impoverished populations, both domestically and internationally. [xxix] [xxx] [xxxi] [xxxii] [xxxiii]

  • Heightened Exposure Risk: Poverty; landlessness; food insecurity; discrimination; and lack of access to power and resources all increase exposure to climate-change distress. [xxxiv] [xxxv]

  • Intersections with Racism: As an example, Zhang et al., 2021 reports on recent research showing that, after Hurricane Katrina, “Black New Orleanians faced greater stress than their White counterparts, even after adjustment for demographics, parental status, evacuation timing, home damage and job status; income had no clear effect.” [xxxvi] [xxxvii]

  • Unequal Infrastructure Access: Resources for prevention, response, and recovery to climate related disasters, along with needed mental health support infrastructures, are currently unequally distributed, with current distribution strongly favoring wealthier nations and populations.

  • Impacts of Displacement and Migration: Research shows that by 2050 climate-related hardship in poorer parts of the globe is projected to lead to as many as 200 million refugees; Meanwhile, migration is correlated with an increase in depression, anxiety, and PTSD. [xxxviii]

  • Suspending Damage: A Letter to Communities, Eve Tuck challenges “damage-centered” research portraying groups of people and populations as “broken” “depleted and hopeless”, Harvard Educational Review, Fall 2009

Youth are especially hard-hit by the climate crisis’s mental health impacts. [xxxix]

  • Some reasons include: (1) today’s children will be alive for the worst consequences, (2) developmental traumatic stress is even more damaging than traumatic stress incurred in adulthood, leading to more long-term cascading consequences, (3) children suffer from indirect consequences such as the domestic abuse that occurs when families are in crisis, and (4) children are dependent on adults for providing a foundation of safety for secure psychological, emotional, intellectual and physical growth and development. [xl]

  • A 2021 global survey of 10,000 youth from ages 16-25 shows that more that 56% feel that “humanity is doomed.” [xli]

Taking action, both individually and collectively, can help mitigate negative mental health outcomes. [xlii] [xliii]

  • Individual action has been shown to increase subjective well-being. [xliv]

  • Political and social action to reduce climate change’s physical impacts, everything from planting trees to enacting government legislation to restrict emissions, will also support better mental health outcomes. Collective, engaged interactions are more powerful than individual, separate actions, because they contribute to societal tipping points that lead to essential changes. [xlv]

  • Mental health professionals can collaborate with a variety of partners to manage the impacts of climate change and to prepare other people to manage climate change–mental health impacts.

Mental health professionals have a vital role to play in addressing the climate crisis.


References:

[i]  Berry, H.L., Waite, T.D., Dear, K.B.G., Capon, A., & Murray, V. (2018). The case for systems thinking about climate change and mental health. Nature Climate Change. 8, 282–290. DOI: 10.1038/s41558-018-0102-4

[ii] Mental Health and our Changing Climate: Impacts, Inequities, Responses, report from the American Psychological Association (APA) and ecoAmerica, 2021.

[iii] Lawrance, E., Thompson, R., Fontana, G., & Jennings, N. (2021). The impact of climate change on mental health and emotional wellbeing: current evidence and implications for policy and practice. Briefing Paper No 36, Grantham Institute, Imperial College London. Link here.

[iv] Hayes, K., Blashki, G., Wiseman, J., Burke, S., & Reifels, L. (2018). Climate change and mental health: risks, impacts and priority actions. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 12 (28). DOI: 10.1186/s13033-018-0210-6

[v] Hayes et al., 2018. Link here. (see [iv] for full citation)

[vi] Natural Disasters, Climate Psychiatry Alliance.

[vii] Lawrance et al., 2021. Link here. (see [iii] for full citation)

[viii]  When Disaster Creep, Climate Psychiatry Alliance.

[ix] Lawrance et al., 2021. Link here. (see [iii] for full citation)

[x] Extreme Heat, Climate Psychiatry Alliance.

[xi] Suicide and Heat, Climate Psychiatry Alliance.

[xii] Lawrance et al., 2021. Link here. (see [iii] for full citation)

[xiii] Air Pollution, Climate Psychiatry Alliance.

[xiv] Toxicant Exposure, Climate Psychiatry Alliance.

[xv] Hahad, O., Lelieveld, J., Birklein, F., Lieb, K., Daiber, A., & Münzel, T. (2020). Ambient air pollution increases the risk of cerebrovascular and neuropsychiatric disorders through induction of inflammation and oxidative stress. International journal of molecular sciences, 21(12), 4306. DOI: 10.3390/ijms21124306

[xvi] Buoli, M., Grassi, S., Caldiroli, A., Carnevali, G. S., Mucci, F., Iodice, S., ... & Bollati, V. (2018). Is there a link between air pollution and mental disorders?. Environment international, 118, 154-168. DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2018.05.044

[xvii] Calderón-Garcidueñas, L., Calderón-Garcidueñas, A., Torres-Jardón, R., Avila-Ramírez, J., Kulesza, R. J., & Angiulli, A. D. (2015). Air pollution and your brain: what do you need to know right now. Primary health care research & development, 16(4), 329-345. DOI: 10.1289/EHP192

[xviii] Lawrance et al., 2021. Link here. (see [iii] for full citation)

[xix]  How Climate Change Affects Your Mental Health, TED Talk with Britt Wray

[xx] Dodds, J. (2021, May). The psychology of climate anxiety. British Journal of Psychiatry, BJ Psych Bulletin. 45 (4), 222-226. DOI: 10.1192/bjb.2021.18

[xxi] Missing Home, Climate Psychiatry Alliance.

[xxii] Psychic Impacts, Climate Psychiatry Alliance.

[xxiii] Psychic Defenses, Climate Psychiatry Alliance.

[xxiv] Lertzman, R. (2015). Environmental Melancholia: Psychoanalytic dimensions of engagement. Routledge.

[xxv] Cunsolo, A., & Ellis, N.R. (2018). Ecological grief as a mental health response to climate change-related loss. Nature Climate Change, 8, 275–281. DOI: 10.1038/s41558-018-0092-2

[xxvi] Have you ever felt solastalgia?, published in BBC Future, by Georgina Kenyon, November 1 2015

[xxvii] Implications for Mentally Ill, Climate Psychiatry Alliance.

[xxviii] Silveira, S., Kornbluh, M., Withers, M., Grennan, G., Ramanthan, V., & Mishra, J. (2021). Chronic Mental Health Sequelae of Climate Change Extremes: A Case Study of the Deadliest Californian Wildfire. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 18 (4), 1487. DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18041487

[xxix] Vulnerable Populations, Climate Psychiatry Alliance.

[xxx] Kidd, S., Hajat, S., Bezgrebelna, M., & McKenzie, K. (2021). The climate change-homelessness nexus. The Lancet. 397 (10286), 1693-1694. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00834-5

[xxxi] Climate Change: Impacts, Vulnerabilities, and Adaptation in Developing Countries, United Nations Framework Convention On Climate Change

[xxxii] Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative Country Index

[xxxiii] Hayes et al., 2018. Link here. (see [iv] for full citation)

[xxxiv] Social Determinants, Climate Psychiatry Alliance.

[xxxv] The storm’s toll highlighted New York City’s shadow world of basement apartments, published in the New York Times, by Mihir Zaveri, Matthew Haag, Adam Playford and Nate Schweber, September 2 2021

[xxxvi] Racism and Climate Change, published in Psychiatric Times, by Robin Cooper, UCSF Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, 2021

[xxxvii] Zhang, S., Braithwaite, I., Bhavsar, V., & Das-Munshi, J. (2021). Unequal effects of climate change and pre-existing inequalities on the mental health of global populations. British Journal of Psychiatry, BJ Psych Bulletin. 45 (4), 230-234. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1192/bjb.2021.26

[xxxviii] Lawrance et al., 2021. Link here. (see [iii] for full citation)

[xxxix] Sanson, A., & Bellemo, M. (2021). Children and youth in the climate crisis. BJPsych Bulletin, 45(4), 205-209. DOI: 10.1192/bjb.2021.16

[xl]  Sanson & Bellamo, 2021. Link here. (see [xxxix] for full citation)

[xli] Marks, E., Hickman, C., and Pihkala, P., Clayton, S., Lewandowski, E., Mayall, E., Wray, B., Mellor, C., and Van Susteren, L. (2021). Young People's Voices on Climate Anxiety, Government Betrayal and Moral Injury: A Global Phenomenon. Preprints with The Lancet. DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.3918955

[xlii] Fear Pathways, Climate Psychiatry Alliance.

[xliii] How To Turn Climate Anxiety Into Action, TED Talk with Renee Lertzman

[xliv] Kaida, N., Kaida, K. (2016). Pro-environmental behavior correlates with present and future subjective well-being. Environ Dev Sustain 18, 111–127. DOI: 10.1007/s10668-015-9629-y

[xlv] Lawrance et al., 2021. Link here. (see [iii] for full citation)

 [xlvi] Are you feeling ‘climate distress’? Here are one therapist’s tips on how to manage, The Seattle Times, April 23, 2022

*Written in collaboration between Rei Takver and psychiatrists at the Climate Psychiatry Alliance.