climate change

By viewing eco-anxiety through a trauma lens, explore how experiencing or witnessing environ

Climate change is a crisis – an urgent political, social, economic, environmental, and existential issue. Youth wellbeing is uniquely impacted by this crisis, as young people have limited access to institutional power to intervene and are set to inherit the worst of its effects as they age.

There is more to mental health than diagnosable mental illnesses. We’re pleased to release, on behalf of Thrive Toronto, the city’s first multi-sector mental health plan focused on improving mental wellness and psychological health.

The #ThriveTO Mental Health Plan outlines 5 key actions it will undertake to improve mental wellness:

What you need to know

Indigenous Peoples are among those experiencing the diverse mental health impacts of climate change first and foremost. Evidence shows that strong emotional responses, suicide, depression and anxiety are linked to repeated and drastic changes in weather events. The emotional and psychological impacts of climate are caused by:

Join us on September 21, 2022 at 12PM ET for a free webinar on climate anxiety and its implications on the mental health of youth and children. Climate change has important implications for the health and futures of children and young people, yet they have little power to limit its harm, making them vulnerable to climate anxiety (Hickman et al., 2021).

EENet's Research Snapshots are brief, clear language summaries of research articles, presented in a user-friendly format.

This Research Snapshot is based on the article, “Perceptions of climate change and climate action among climate-engaged health professionals in Northern Ontario: A qualitative study” published in The Journal of Climate Change and Health in 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joclim.2021.100025

Harvard University's Departments of Environmental Health, Global Health and Population, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, and Nutrition, along with Harvard University Center for the Environment, the Harvard Global Health Institute, Planetary Health Alliance, and the European Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils Network (EEAC) warmly welcome Frederick Stoddard, Caroline Hickman and Ashlee Cunsolo as the fifth speakers of the Planetary Health Colloquium Series. Lise Van Susteren will be the discussant.

What you need to know

The climate crisis is expected to have negative effects on the mental health of people around the world as climate change awareness, extreme weather and large-scale climatic events increase. In this study, researchers examined how negative climate-related emotions (such as psychological distress, anxiety and worry) relate to sleep and mental health using samples of people living in 25 countries as well as a Norwegian nationally representative sample.

What you need to know

There is a lack of empirical evidence on the impacts of climate change to mental health. This may be due to the challenges of directly linking mental health outcomes to climate change consequences. Preliminary evidence shows that the risks and impacts of climate change on mental health are already accelerating, resulting in direct, indirect, and overarching effects that disproportionally affect populations already facing health inequities. To address the mental health consequences of climate change, coordinated and holistic actions are needed.

Have you heard of the term ecological grief? This is a newly dubbed term that describes grief that is felt in response to anticipated ecological loss. These include feelings of depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, post traumatic stress, and feelings of despair and hopelessness.