Climate Change Is Affecting Mental Health

Forced migration, unemployment, decreased sleep—these things are all known to cause depression; they’re also caused by climate change.

A newly released study sheds light on the effects of climate change on the human system. It found three key factors that “undermine the mental well-being of people being forced to experience it.”

Between 2002 and 2012, participants were asked: “For how many days during the past 30 days was your mental health not good?”

Their answers were linked to their location, weather, and mental health status. Here’s what their answers showed researchers.

First, people are affected by “short-term weather exposure.” When daily temperatures reached 86 degrees Fahrenheit or above, “the odds that people would experience poor mental health were one percentage point higher than in months when [average temps reached] 50–59 degrees, and 0.5 percentage points higher than when the average high temperature was between 77–86 degrees,” the article reports.

Data also showed that when average temps increased by 1.8 degrees, “prevalence of mental health problems increased by two points.”

The negative result of high temps was 60 percent greater for low-income people, and twice as high for women as it was for men.

Lastly, the team studied the effects of hurricanes on populations. They found that hurricanes—which are expected to be more frequent and intense—had the biggest effect on mental health (compared to the factors above): “The occurrence of mental health problems was 4 percentage points higher among those who were hit by the hurricane than among those who weren’t.”

The study’s lead author, Nick Obradovich, said that although more research is needed: “Given the vital role that sound mental health plays in personal, social, and economic well-being […] our findings provide added evidence that climatic changes pose substantial risks to human systems.”