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Climate and mental health: A roadmap to global heat resilience

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Climate change, rising heat and mental healthClimate change has been described by the World Health Organization as 'the single biggest health threat facing humanity' [1].One consequence of human-driven climate change is that extreme heat events are no longer rare occurrences but are becoming more frequent, intense, and prolonged, posing a direct threat to human life and health.Global average temperatures are also increasing across the world.These extreme ambient temperatures are associated with worsened mental health.According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) 2023 report, there is a 'very high confidence that climate change has already negatively impacted mental health globally' [2].The impacts of heat on mental health include, but are not limited to, increased hospital attendance or admissions for mental health problems, increased suicide attempts and an increase in overall mortality [3,4].This is on top of existing contributors to the existing burden of mental health problems globally which are widespread, undertreated and under-resourced [5].It is worth reiterating that without a rapid and just transition away from fossil fuels, our ability to adapt to the effects of heat on mental health will be overtaken.

Source: PLOS mental health.

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmen.0000111