Climate & Mind In the News

Articles & essays related to Climate & Mental Health

Note: This list is no longer actively updated. Around the Summer of 2019, the number of news articles about climate mental health increased dramatically! This is a good thing, of course, but there were so many new stories coming out that we decided to focus our energies on other parts of this site. If you are looking for examples of more recent examples of climate mental health in the news, we suggest visiting Google News and searching for phrases like, “climate anxiety”, “climate grief”, “solastalgia,” and so on. (Also, new articles that feature Climate & Mind and its developers are highlighted on our News & Updates page)

Categories:

I. Climate & Mental Health (general)

2019

• Henriques, Martha. “Climate Emotions: How Climate Change Affects Mental Health.” BBC. September 11, 2019.

  Grose, Anouchka. “How the climate emergency could lead to a mental health crisis.” The Guardian, August 13, 2019.

• Chen, Rachel (2019). “How Gen-Z Is Dealing With a Looming Climate Apocalypse.” Vice. August 7, 2019.

• Davenport, Leslie (2019). “As a Psychotherapist Treating Eco-Anxiety and Eco-Grief, Mindfulness Helps. Sometimes.” Medium, July 26, 2019.

• Corn, David (2019). "It’s the End of the World as They Know It: The distinct burden of being a climate scientist." Mother Jones. July 8, 2019.

• Green, Melanie (2019). “Depression, anxiety, PTSD: Climate change is taking a toll on our mental health, experts say.” The Star. July 8, 2019.

• Malo, Sebastien (2019). “Mental stress on rise as coastal towns confront surging climate threats.” Reuters, June 21, 2019.

• Carrington, Damian (2019). “Climate crisis seriously damaging human health, report finds. National academies say effects include spread of diseases and worse mental health.” The Guardian. June 3, 2019.

• Nance, Rahkia (2019). “Bearing the Brunt of Climate Change.” Ourselves Black.

• Prijatel, Patricia. “Is Climate Change Our Next Mental Health Crisis?” Psychology Today, May 1, 2019.

• Marks, Andrea (2019). “How the Mental Health Community Is Bracing for the Impact of Climate Change.” Rolling Stone.

• “'Climate change erodes mental health,' says psychiatrist.” CBC Radio. April 28, 2019.

  Peach, Sara (2019). “'How can I prepare my children for climate change?' Four types of skills will be essential in a warming world.” Yale Climate Connections. April 23, 2019

• Kiehl, Jeffrey T. (2019). “The problem with ignoring people's emotions about climate change Many people feel helplessness, hopelessness, anger, and fear when they hear about the topic.” Yale Climate Connections. April 4, 2019

2018

• Shield, Charli (2018). Climate change takes a toll on our minds, too. DW.com. Aug 31, 2018.

• Long, Catherine (2018). “Feeling it: UW Bothell class helps students face emotional impact of a warming planet.” The Seattle Times, March 13, 2018.

• Moran, Greta. (2018) “We’re just beginning to understand the toll climate change takes on mental health.” Grist. Oct 15, 2018.

• Pollack, David A. (2018) “Climate Change and Its Impacts on Mental Health.” Psychiatric Times.

• Singer, Janet (2018). “Climate Change and Mental Health.” PsychCentral.com Blog.

• Javorsky, Nicole (2018). “Climate Change Might Be Bad for Your Mental Health, Too.” City Lab. Oct 12, 2018.

• Budner, Ali (2018) “Fear Of Changing Climate Can Harm Mental Health.” WBUR. November 26, 2018.

2017

• Dettman, Louise (2017). “Climate changes mental health.” Public Health Newswire.

• Miller, Sara G. (2017) “Climate Change Could Have Wide-Ranging Effects on Mental Health.” LiveScience. February 17, 2017

• Mom’s Clean Air Force. (2017) “Interview: Lise Van Susteren Talks about the Mental Health Impacts of Climate Change.” October 13, 2017.

• Myers, Dayna (2017). “Climate Change and Mental Health: Q&A with Lise Van Susteren, MD.” Global Health Now.

2016

• Aldern, Clayton. Grist Climate on the Mind Series (6 in series)

  1. Aldern, Clayton (2016). “Hunting for the neuroscience of heat and violence.” Grist. Feb 17, 2016

  2. Aldern, Clayton (2016). “Mountaintop removal country’s mental health crisis.” Grist. Feb 17, 2016

  3. Aldern, Clayton (2016). “Examination: Heat, carbon dioxide, cognition, and productivity.” Grist. Feb 17, 2016

  4. Aldern, Clayton (2016). “Meet the scientist connecting the dots between air pollution and dementia.” Grist. Feb 17, 2016

  5. Aldern, Clayton (2016). “Can climate change cause wars?” (video) Grist. Feb 17, 2016

  6. Aldern, Clayton (2016). “We might just have something in common.” Grist. Feb 17, 2016

pre-2016

• Randall, Rosemarry. (2012) “The Id and the Eco.” Aeon.

• Union of Concerned Scientists. “Climate Change and Mental Health: Extreme weather takes a toll.” (no author or date).

II. Eco-Anxiety

• Assadourian, Eric. “Why Are We So Anxious?” Resiliance.org, August 5, 2019.

• Budner, Ali (2018). Is The Changing Climate Giving You Anxiety? You're Not Alone. KRCC. October 19, 2018

• Emberly, Jack (2019). “Fear of environmental collapse: eco-anxiety.” BC Local News. Jul. 20, 2019.

• Grant, Liv (2019). “I worked on David Attenborough’s documentary. The grim reality gave me climate anxiety.” The Guardian. April 28, 2019.

• Knight, Victoria (2019). “Feeling Anxious About Climate Change? Therapists Say You’re Not Alone.” July 15, 2019.

• Mandel, Kyla (2018). “Psychologists Explain our Climate Change Anxiety.” Resilience.org. September 21, 2018

• McDonough, Cara (2019). “Talking About Our Eco-Anxiety Is Good. But How Do We Do It?” New England Public Radio. July 11, 2019

• Nickerson, Sam (2019) “Climate Change Is Causing Us ‘Eco-Anxiety’.” EcoWatch. July 9, 2019.

• Hutchins, Liz (2019). “Can the rise in eco-anxiety help save us from climate disaster?” New Statesman, July 26, 2019.

• Reider, Logan (2019). “Climate anxiety: Taking the first step is the hardest.” MinnPost, July 26, 2019.

• Schlanger, Zoë (2017). “We need to talk about ‘ecoanxiety’: Climate change is causing PTSD, anxiety, and depression on a mass scale.” Qartz. April 3, 2017

• Watson, John (2019). “Climate Concern Fuels the Rise of 'Eco-anxiety'“ Medscape. July 8, 2019.

• Weiss, Joseph (2019). “Who Gets to Have Ecoanxiety?” EdgeEffects. April 25, 2019.

III. Ecological / Climate Grief

• Atkinson, Jennifer (2018). “Addressing climate grief makes you a badass, not a snowflake.” High Country News, May 29, 2018.

• Calabrese, Darren (2018) “At the edge of Canada, climate change brings ‘ecological grief’ to Labrador Inuit.” The Globe and Mail. 22 October, 2018.

• Cavanagh, Michaela (2019) “It’s time to talk about ecological grief.” UnDark.

• Cook, Tom (2019). “Coastal Loss, Climate Grief.” Walks with Tom (blog). July 13, 2019.

• Garcia, Patricia (2018). “If Climate Change Is Causing You Anxiety or Even Grief, Experts Say You Are Not Alone.” Vogue.

• Hetherman, Margaret (2016). “Are We Feeling Collective Grief Over Climate Change?” Scientific American Blog.

• Jamail, Dahr (2019). “In Facing Mass Extinction, We Must Allow Ourselves to Grieve.” Truthout.org, January 17, 2019.

• McCue, Duncan. (2018) “Growing 'ecological grief' is the mental health cost of climate change: Rising rates of anxiety, anger and sadness follow extreme weather and global warming.” CBC Radio.

• O'Hagan, Ellie Mae (2019). “'Climate Grief' Is Real and I've Got It Bad.” VIce, Jun 5, 2019.

• Payne, Elizabeth. (2018) “'Ecological grief' among mental health effects of climate change in Canada: report.” Ottowa Citizen.

• Rosenfeld, Jordan (2016). “Facing Down ‘Environmental Grief’: Is a traumatic sense of loss freezing action against climate change?” Scientific American.

• Scher, Avichai (2018). “'Climate grief': The growing emotional toll of climate change.” NBC News, December 28, 2018.

• Seucharan, Cherise. (2018) “‘Eco-grief’ over climate change felt by generations of British Columbians.” StarMetro Vancouver.

• Sharpe, Brianna (2019). “‘We Need This’: Calgarians Work Through Eco-Grief Together: In oil-rich Alberta, it’s complicated.” The Sprawl, July 27, 2019.

• (No author listed) (2018). “Understanding Ecological Grief: Hope and Mourning in the Anthropocene.” Kairos.

• (no author listed) (2018) “Spirited Reflection: Getting past ecological grief.” October 12, 2018.

IV. Trauma & Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder

• Colino, Stacy (2018). “Fearing the Future: Pre-Traumatic Stress Reactions.” U.S. News & World Report.

• Hansen, Ellie (2019). “Our Climate Change Inaction: Is “Climate Trauma” the Missing Link?” Columbia Political Review. May 27, 2019.

• Hopkins, Rob. “Lise van Susteren on Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the imagination.”

• Lipton, Judith (2017). “Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder Living with fear for the future”. Psychology Today.

• Oberhaus, Daniel (2017). “Climate Change Is Giving Us 'Pre-Traumatic Stress'.” Vice. February 4, 2017.

V. Climate Depression

• Hayat, Sara (2019). “Is Climate Change Depressing You Too?” Dawn. July 12, 2019.

• Jenny Shalant (2017) “Banishing the Climate Blues.” National Resource Defense Council.

• Thomas, Madeleine (2014). “Climate depression is for real. Just ask a scientist.” Grist.

VI. Climate Guilt

• Frank, Maurice (2019). “It’s Time to Acknowledge Collective Guilt For the Coming Climate Genocide.” Medium.

• Heglar, Mary Annaise (2019). “I work in the environmental movement. I don’t care if you recycle. Stop obsessing over your environmental ‘sins.’ Fight the oil and gas industry instead.” Vox. Jun 4, 2019.

• Adams, Matthew (2019). “The climate crisis has arrived – so stop feeling guilty and start imagining your future.” February 7, 2019.

VII. Denial

• Grenier, Anya (2016). “Leaving the climate bubble.” Yale Daily News. September 27, 2016.

VIII. Self-Care

• Sharry, John (2019). “My teen daughter has become really anxious about climate change.” Irish Times. May 19, 2019.

• Caldwell, Gillian (2010). “16 Tips for Avoiding Climate Burnout.” Grist. May 14, 2010.

• Lazarovic, S. (2019) “How to Not Be (Completely) Depressed About Climate Change.” Yes Magazine. January 7, 2019.

IX. Hope and Despair

• Allen, James (2019). “Pontoon Archipelago or: How I learned to stop worrying and love collapse.” Medium. May 24, 2019.

• Bendell, Jem (2019). “Don’t Police our Emotions – Climate Despair is Inviting People Back to Life.” Resilience. July 17, 2019.

• Heglar, Mary Annaïse (2019). “But the Greatest of These is Love.” Medium. July 17, 2019.

• Ingram, Catherine (2019). “Facing Extinction.” Catherineingram.com. March 4, 2019.

• Mazur, Laurie (2019). “Despairing about the Climate Crisis? Read This.” Earth Island Journal. July 22, 2019.

• Pearl, Mike (2019). “'Climate Despair' Is Making People Give Up on Life.” Vice. July 11, 2019.

• Porritt, Jonathon (2019). The Climate Emergency Continuum: from Bad to Cataclysmic. www.jonathonporrit.com. May 30, 2019.

• Zak, Dan (2019). “‘Everything is not going to be okay’: How to live with constant reminders that the Earth is in trouble.” Washington Post. Jan 24, 2019.