By Nicholas Merl
The great sand dunes national park, south-central Colorado. The park’s unique ecosystem is threatened by climate change. (Nicholas Merl/Radio 1190)
Content Warning: Mentions of mental illness and suicidal ideation.
Unmitigated climate change could cause up to 40,000 suicides in the US and Mexico by 2050. This was the conclusion reached by a team of Stanford researchers in a 2018 study examining how rising temperatures impacted suicide rates. The researchers found that more people were killing themselves as summers became hotter. Furthermore, they found that higher temperatures even corresponded with more depressive language being used on social media.
Over the years, research like this has made it increasingly clear that global warming is causing a serious mental health crisis. A 2021 study published in Environment International found that mental health-related mortality went up 2.2% for every 1oC of warming. Global warming also contributed to increased violent crime, with homicide rates rising up to 19.4% due to heat according to a 2023 paper published in the Journal of Criminal Justice.
Research shows that climate change leads to significant increases in anxiety and depression. Climate anxiety can cause high levels of uncertainty and stress about the future. According to a 2020 paper published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, 51% of Americans reported climate change being a moderate to significant source of stress. Heightened levels of stress typically correlate with increased mental health issues, such as depression or chronic anxiety.
“People are experiencing a range of emotions because of climate change,” Sarah Newman, Founder and Executive Director of the California-based Climate Mental Health Network (CMHN), said. “The phrase climate anxiety has sort of become a catch-all for a range of emotions.”
Young people suffer the most from climate anxiety. Lancet research from 2024 found that 85% of Gen Zers across all 50 states reported moderate to severe concern over global warming, with 42.8% reporting environmental-related mental health issues. Similar findings came from a 2024 study by The Harris Poll, with 58% of Gen Z reporting mental health challenges related to extreme weather events such as wildfires.
“When it comes to young people, I think it’s this inability or kind of feeling like you’re the only person whose responsibility it is to fix climate change,” Rhea Goswami, the CMHN’s Gen Z Coordinator, said. “It’s kind of this paralyzing fear of no matter what I do, the world still won’t get better.”
Climate anxiety poses an even bigger issue because it often exacerbates other mental health challenges.
“Having climate emotions is often not in a vacuum,” Newman said. “Whether it’s experiencing violence or financial insecurity or poverty. Things like that are already creating stressors that are affecting their wellbeing. And then you add climate on top of it and it’s an additional stressor.”
The psychological impacts of global warming are also heavily shaped by socio-economic inequality. According to American Psychological Association’s 2023 “Mental Health and our Changing Climate Youth Report,” Black and Hispanic populations experienced disproportionately higher levels of climate anxiety and related mental health problems. Black children were especially hard-hit, experiencing significantly more climate mental health emergencies than any other demographic.
“ A lot of it is from systems that have already been in place that are very harmful from corporations, for example, from the patriarchy, for example,” Goswami said. “And all of these are intertwined.“
But while climate anxiety often affects the most vulnerable, climate education focuses on building trust and acceptance. Often, the first step for educators is to recognize that there is a problem.
“Talking about emotions can be kind of uncomfortable,” Alicia Christensen, a Climate Researcher at the Center for Education Engagement and Evaluation (CEEE) at the University of Colorado Boulder, said. ”I think honestly one of the first things we can do is just listen and kind of make space.”
Bringing the topic of climate mental health into classrooms often starts with destigmatisation.
“It’s normal to have feelings associated with something as urgent and complex and as scary as climate change,” Newman said.
A key to overcoming climate anxiety, according to both Newman and Christensen, is motivating people to take action. Multiple studies have demonstrated that higher levels of participation in activism correlated with lessened symptoms of anxiety and depression.
”Advocacy is a huge part,” Christensen said. “ Teaching youth about taking action. You know, what are the different ways that we can empower the next generation to take action? And I think we as educators are making shifts.”
Despite its growing relevance to climate discourse, climate anxiety remains an often under-examined facet of global warming. However, Christensen expressed hope that awareness and acceptance of the topic would grow.
“ I have a hope for the future that it will be a normal thing for people to talk about how they feel about climate change,” she said. “And then it’s just gonna be a part of the conversation.”