Talking about climate change #8

Climate change and mental health (4 minute read)

There are those that see us,

Hands reaching out,

Fists raising up,

Banners unfurling,

Megaphones booming…

Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner

Welcome to The Turnstone. Here, I help people understand important issues such as Covid-19, climate change and conservation. I send my articles out every Sunday - if you’d like them emailed to you directly, you can sign up to my mailing list.

I’ll admit it – the last article I wrote about climate change left me feeling less hopeful than usual. Explaining the problems with methane and the harm our agriculture is doing gave me a sense of the scale of what we are facing. The problem is huge, and it feels as if any progress we make is painfully slow. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed.

If you do, you are not alone. Climate change is increasing emotional distress, in a number of different ways. Here, I share resources to help you understand why this is, and what you can do about it.

Photo by nikko macaspac on Unsplash

Climate change and mental health overview

This article, published last year in the Guardian, gives a good, brief overview of the ways that climate change can affect mental health. Some of these ways are more obvious, such as fear about the future we face, but others are less so, such as the mental health impacts of heatwaves. (4 minute read)

Climate crisis inflicting huge ‘hidden costs’ on mental health | Climate crisis | The Guardian

Climate anxiety

Fear about the impacts of climate change is sometimes described as “climate anxiety” or “eco-anxiety”. As described by researcher and writer Britt Wray, this is more than just anxiety about the future. There is a range of emotions involved, including the sense of betrayal that young people feel at the inaction of older generations.

We need to be realistic about climate anxiety – it is not irrational worry, but a well-justified fear of a genuinely dangerous situation. Fear, anger, grief and disillusionment are all rational responses to our current crisis. But without healthy ways to deal with these emotions, they can become overwhelming, and that helps nobody. So I have linked to a number of useful resources with strategies to help deal with climate anxiety.

The following link is a great short summary of the kinds of actions you can take (2 minute read).

Climate change - Climate change anxiety - Wellington City Council

Here’s a good article which talks about the role of psychology in fighting climate change. It has useful suggestions on dealing with our emotions about climate change (8 minute read).

How Psychology Can Help Fight Climate Change and Anxiety | Time

Here is a link to an interview with Britt Wray where she talks about what climate anxiety is and outlines some strategies for dealing with it (11 minute read).

Your Crushing Anxiety About the Climate Crisis Is Normal | Science| Smithsonian Magazine

Here’s a link to a TED talk about climate anxiety by psychologist Renée Lertzman. Her talk is well worth listening to – it offers a different approach from the other resources I have seen (14 minute video).

Renée Lertzman: How to turn climate anxiety into action | TED Talk

Trauma from extreme weather events

We tend to think of disasters in terms of the loss of life and destruction of property. However, disasters such as floods and fires can have lasting mental health impacts too. We can help people bear what they have been through by staying connected and responding with empathy and compassion.

Here are two resources to help in dealing with the emotional side of disasters such as extreme weather events.

Fact sheet from the Red Cross on looking after yourself and others after a disaster (3 minute read).

EmotionalHealth.pdf (redcross.org)

Guide to talking with children about disasters and other upsetting events from the American Psychological Association (3 minute read).

How to talk to children about difficult news (apa.org)

Heatwaves and mental health

There’s another mental health impact of climate change, and it is one I wasn’t aware of until I began researching this topic. Extreme heat is not just bad for our bodies, it can be bad for our minds as well. There is growing evidence that extreme heat aggravates existing mental health problems. Heat stress is also linked to increases in suicide, hospitalisation for psychiatric disorders, violence, aggression and poor cognitive function.

It’s not entirely clear why this should be, but one theory is that heatwaves are linked to poor sleep, and poor sleep has a cascade of impacts on our physical and mental health. Hormones may also play a part.

The following two short articles cover slightly different information, and both are worth a read.

Heatwaves worsen mental health conditions (theconversation.com) (3 minute read)

Are heatwaves harmful to mental health? | Mental health | The Guardian (3 minute read)

And here’s something uplifting

Now that we have looked at the ways that climate change is harming mental health, it’s time for something uplifting. In fact, here are two ways to lift your spirits. The first is this month’s poem, by Marshall Island poet and activist, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner. If you think that name is familiar, you are right – I’ve shared her work before. But I couldn’t go past this poem. Here she reads Dear Matafele Peinem, which opened the United Nations climate summit in 2014.

UN Climate Summit Poem "Dear Matafele Peinem" - YouTube

The second uplifting thing is a newsletter from fellow Substack writer Lindsay Nunez. Linsday offers simple suggestions for actions you can take to fight climate change, as well as a selection of positive news stories. Although some of the solutions are more specific to the USA, many are relevant to any country. I can highly recommend adding this lovely newsletter to your inbox.

Save Our Happy Place | Lindsay Nunez | Substack

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