Climate anxiety: Psychological responses to climate change

Climate change is happening. We are already seeing the effects in terms of heatwaves, hurricanes, flooding, wildfire, and drought. Less visible but ultimately even more important, because of their potential to affect more people, are the slower changes in average temperature, sea level, and patterns of precipitation that will characterize our climate in the decades to come. Although climate change has sometimes been conceptualized as a problem primarily affecting polar bears (Born, 2019), it is increasingly apparent that human wellbeing is implicated. Physical health will be threatened by heat, the increased spread of water-borne and vector-borne diseases, and malnutrition in addition to the acute impacts of natural disasters and the socially-mediated impacts of forced migration and conflict (Watts et al., 2019). Some groups are particularly vulnerable due to greater exposure, to lack of political or economic power or to physiological factors: indigenous people, the elderly, children, and in some cases people with pre-existing health problems (Clayton, Manning, & Krygsman, 2017).

The link between mental health and climate change is less obvious. And yet there is substantial evidence for it. Climate change is associated with increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events, and the impacts of discrete events such as natural disasters on mental health has been demonstrated through decades of research showing increased levels of PTSD, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and even domestic violence following the experience of storms (e.g., Morganstein & Ursano, 2020). Effects tend to be greater for people who have experienced greater harm, and they are moderated by sources of social support and resilience (Clayton et al., 2017; (Manning & Clayton, 2018). Natural disasters also have indirect effects on physical and social infrastructure, disrupting educational, medical, economic, and transportation systems. This adds to the stress burden of individuals and threatens the mental health of those who are vulnerable.

The more gradual changes associated with a changing climate are likely to increase both migration and conflict. People may want, or be forced, to leave their homes due to a range of factors such as rising sea levels, thawing permafrost, melting glaciers, or desertification, all of which make it impossible or undesirable to remain. But migration can be highly stressful, especially when it involves crossing borders. The journey itself is uncertain and the process of adjusting to a new home is difficult, especially when people are not welcomed by the existing residents. Migration is frequently accompanied by economic challenges. This helps to explain why there is a high level of mental illness among involuntary migrants (Mindlis & Boffetta, 2017). Simply losing one’s home, as an important source of support and resilience, can threaten mental health (Tapsell & Tunstall, 2008). Relatedly, competition over scarce environmental resources – such as fertile land, clean and sufficient water, or merely enough space to build a dwelling – can increase social conflict, another threat to mental health (Miller & Rasmussen, 2017).

Slow, gradual environmental changes also have significant effects. Heat, in particular, has been consistently associated with aggression and conflict (Miles-Novelo & Anderson, 2019), and more recently has been found to correlate with increased rates of suicide and of hospitalization for mental illness (Carleton, 2017; Obradovich, Migliorini, Paulus, & Rahwan, 2018). It is difficult to definitively link heat waves to mental health consequences, but decades of research in both lab and field settings can give increased confidence that there is a detrimental causal impact of heat on mental state. More speculatively, there is growing evidence that poor air quality may have both short and long-term impacts on mental health (Buoli et al., 2018). Climate change is likely to be accompanied by greater levels of air pollution, as the burning of fossil fuels tends to produce pollutants such as particulate matter, ozone, and carbon. Warmer air also tends to retain higher levels of these pollutants. Several systematic reviews have found an association between the level of fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) and cognitive impairment in the elderly, or behavioral problems (related to impulsivity and attention problems) in children (Yorifuji, Kashima, Higa Diez, Kado, & Sanada, 2016; Younan et al., 2018; Zhao, Markevych, Romanos, Nowak, & Heinrich, 2018).

Children may experience the strongest effects. Children are already more vulnerable to effects of the direct experience of climate change. On average they have stronger responses to extreme weather events, such as PTSD, depression, sleep disorders, etc., partly due to their greater dependence on adult family members and social support networks that might be disrupted by the event (Bartlett, 2008). They are also more vulnerable to heat due to their bodies’ incompletely developed ability to thermoregulate (Zivin & Shrader, 2016). Of particular concern is the possibility for long-term and/or permanent effects of early experiences of trauma, which can impair children’s ability to regulate their own emotions and can lead to learning or behavioral problems. Early stress can also increase the risk of mental health problems later in life (Burke, Sanson, & van Hoorn, 2018).

Climate anxiety

All of this evidence suggests a link between geophysical climate change and detrimental effects on mental health. Recently, however, there is increasing attention to the possibility of a more indirect effect: anxiety associated with perceptions about climate change, even among people who have not personally experienced any direct impacts. Popular media are full of stories about climate anxiety, eco-anxiety, and climate grief, to the extent that Grist magazine called climate anxiety the “biggest

Evidence for climate anxiety

Albrecht’s greatest contribution was arguably drawing attention to the possibility for the perception of environmental change to have negative impacts on mental health. A growing body of empirical evidence attests to these impacts. For example of a specific environmental change, Higginbotham, Connor, Albrecht, Freeman, and Agho (2006) utilized an environmental distress scale (EDS) and found that the environmental damage associated with mining in the Hunter Valley in Australia was associated

Climate anxiety as a threat to mental health

Is climate anxiety pathological? Anxiety itself does not indicate a problem with mental health. In fact, anxiety can serve an adaptive function, as a future-oriented stance that can signal the approach of a threat and motivate people to prepare appropriately (Barlow, Durand, & Hofmann, 2019). It is important to avoid pathologizing the emotional response to climate change. A focus on mental health can imply that the emotional response is inappropriate, as well as directing attention toward

Who experiences climate anxiety?

Climate anxiety is not evenly distributed; not surprisingly, it is more common among those who care more about environmental issues (Clayton & Karazsia, 2020; Searle & Gow, 2010) or who have experienced some impacts of climate change (Reser et al., 2012). Susceptibility to climate anxiety will also vary according to personality. Research shows that the personality trait of neuroticism is associated with vulnerability to psychiatric disorders, suggesting that there are stable brain mechanisms

Climate anxiety and behavior

In addition to the association between anxiety and mental health, It is also important to understand the possible relation to behavior. One might speculate that climate anxiety could serve as a source of motivation to encourage behavioral engagement with the issue of climate change. Alternatively, climate anxiety could serve as a source of (to use Albrecht's, 2011 term) eco-paralysis: inhibiting people from taking effective action. Some data exist that help to address this question. In Reser et

Responding to climate anxiety

Among the important remaining research questions is an examination of what is to be done about climate anxiety. Two potential goals can be identified: individual wellbeing, and engagement in efforts to mitigate climate change in an attempt to promote societal wellbeing.

At the level of individual wellbeing, coping with the threat of climate change implies a focus on how effectively people manage their own emotional responses, but the idea of coping can include behavioral as well as cognitive and

Conclusion

Climate change is not just an environmental, but also a psychological problem. Although psychologists have been involved in addressing implications of climate change for decades, most of that work has focused on risk perception, ways to communicate about climate change, attitudes about climate change, and interventions to promote mitigation through more sustainable behavior. There has been relatively little acknowledgement of the mental health implications of climate change, although the last