Often overlooked, the mental part of dealing with extreme weather and other climate impacts is crucial, new report says.
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| The longterm impacts of climate-related events like the flooding in Louisiana in 2016 are important to address, a new report says. Credit: Getty Images |
When a storm driven by climate change
forces a family from its home, the impacts don't necessarily disappear
once the waters recede and the damage is repaired. Though harder to
spot, the impacts on people's mental health can be pervasive and
enduring.
That is the thrust of a report released Wednesday
by the American Psychological Association, Climate for Health, and
ecoAmerica, called "Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impacts,
Implications, and Guidance."
The report builds on previous work and examines the harm caused by the various manifestations of climate change, from extreme weather and wildfires to heat waves and the general "eco-anxiety" that comes from coping with the enormity of the climate crisis.
"We have this strange situation with climate change in our country
that people don't talk about it much, and that means we don't have the
opportunity to get prepared for it," said Susan Clayton, one of the
report's authors. "That makes it scarier. It seems so amorphous."
The
news about climate change can be so frightening, so overwhelming, that
instead of shaking people into awareness, it can drive them toward
denial. One study cited by the report found that people who received
complex information about the threat of climate change felt more
helpless and more likely to want to avoid hearing about it in the
future.
"Talking
about it makes it more manageable and concrete. It can also increase
the political will to do something about it," said Clayton.
Climate
change's potential impact on mental health isn't universal. Some
groups, particularly children and the poor, can be particularly
vulnerable.
The report pointed to the response to heat as an example.
By
the end of the century, the average American will see between four and
eight times as many days above 95 degrees as today, according to
estimates cited in the report. Arizona could go from 116 days above 95
degrees to 205 by 2099.
When
temperature rises, so does aggression, studies have shown. Heat can
also muddle our minds, making it harder to settle disputes without
violence.
"It's
stressful to be hot, and that leads you to act out," said Clayton.
"That has real social justice implications. Who can afford to have air
conditioning, and who can't?"
Children
are more sensitive to temperatures changes because their sweat glands
are not fully developed, making them less able to cool themselves. They
are also more prone to dehydration.
Climate
impacts can also have longterm effects on their development. The report
cited studies that found that children who have experienced a flood or a
drought during key developmental periods are shorter, on average, as
adults. Pregnant women exposed to heatwaves during their second and
third trimesters have a higher chance of going into early labor and tend
to have babies with lower birth weights.
And
long after the events are over, children are more likely than adults to
show severe distress, as well as higher rates of post-traumatic stress
disorder.
Mona Sarfaty, the director
of the Program for Climate and Health in the Center for Climate Change
Communication at George Mason University, who was not a part of the
study, said she has encountered this in her work on health care and
climate change. After the severe flooding in Louisiana last August, when
30 percent of the state flooded and thousands of people were evacuated,
many were fundamentally disoriented, she said. "There were children who
became terrified every time it rained subsequently," she said.
With
storms, drought and wildfires driven at least in part by climate change
spreading to new areas of the country—like the fires in Tennessee and
North Carolina last year—more people are being exposed to immediate
climate hazards.
Sarfaty is the director of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health, a new group
that aims to help the public and policymakers understand how climate
change is impacting health. The group represents more than half of the
physicians in the country and includes 11 of the nation's leading
medical societies.
The consortium recently released a study with similar goals to the mental health study. Both, Sarfaty said, can serve as tools for primary care physicians.
"Every
physician needs to be thinking about the mental health impacts of
climate change and know the vulnerabilities of their own community so
they can help to strengthen people against the impacts," she said.
The mental health report outlined other ways to strengthen people, too.
Encouraging
bicycling or walking, or choosing public transit over a car can help,
according to the report. Physical activity has a direct connection to
mental health, and using public transit fosters a sense of community.
Helping
people find ways to prepare for and combat climate change in their own
lives—like preparing for extreme events or building local
resilience—can also make it easier to cope with the stress that comes
from knowing the world is changing.
"We
like to feel secure in our jobs, our finances, our relationships, our
homes," said Clayton. "Climate change has a real potential to make us
feel insecure in many of those things."
Links
- Climate Change Needs To Be Tackled For Better Health, Medical Groups Urge
- Here's How Climate Change Might Kill You
- Is Global Warming Making us Sick?
- Doctors' Group: Climate Change Threatens Public Health Across the Nation
- Toxic Algae May Thrive as Climate and Oceans Warm, Study Says
- Australian Heat Wave Raises Concern for Country's New, Sizzling Normal
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