Summary:
- A recent paper published in Nature Mental Health examines the mental health consequences of chronic, slow-onset climate change.
- Research priorities include understanding how temperature variability, ecosystem shifts, and changes in precipitation impact mental health, and studying vulnerable populations that are disproportionately affected.
- Studies should move beyond a trauma-based understanding of how climate change affects mental health and consider the cumulative effects of chronic stressors.
- Designing studies that capture lived experiences and integrating mental health, geography, and features of the natural environment can provide insight into the ways climate change affects mental health.
- Researchers plan to use smartphone-based data collection to measure how environmental conditions impact people’s moods and well-being.
Hot Take:
Mental health consequences of climate change extend beyond just acute events like hurricanes and wildfires. Chronic, slow-onset stressors have cumulative effects on mental health that need to be addressed. We must prioritize understanding the mechanisms through which different aspects of climate change impact mental health and study vulnerable populations. By capturing lived experiences and integrating data, we can find population-level solutions to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change on mental health. So keep calm and save the planet, because our mental health depends on it!
Original article:https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/mental-health-chronic-climate-change/