With the stress of a never-ending pandemic, rising political tensions, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the 2020s have been off to an unpromising start for mental health. And according to the most comprehensive report to date on how the changing planet is affecting society, the climate crisis is likely to make it even worse.
The report released this week from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, at more than 3,600 pages, provides a sweeping picture of how the world is becoming hotter, sicker, and poorer, putting billions of people in danger. It warns that time is running out not only to address rising emissions, but to adapt to climate change.
“These impacts are happening much faster, much more widespread, and more severe than we had previously thought,” said Sherilee Harper, the lead author of the IPCC report’s chapter on North America and a health professor at the University of Alberta in Canada.
The authors spell out how the effects of climate change are linked to stress, trauma, grief, anxiety, and suicide. U.N. Secretary-General A... Read more
