Climate Change and Its Impacts on Mental Wellbeing (original) (raw)

Climate change has posed unprecedented challenges in many aspects of the biosphere including human life. Global warming and extreme weather events induced by climate change have far-reaching implications on people's physical and mental wellbeing. This review aims to examine the impacts of climate change on people's mental wellbeing which represents a domain that is currently understudied. To achieve the aim, relevant peer-reviewed scholarly articles published between 2000 and 2021 were sourced from journal databases namely Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed and ProQuest. It reveals that climate change could affect mental health in multiple ways including the experience of mild stress, distress, sleep disturbances, depression and anxiety. Extreme weather events posing risks to life could trigger post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, substance abuse and even suicidal thoughts, in addition to disrupting social support and networks. Gradual climate change yields less dramatic impacts on mental wellbeing. Global warming is associated with transient mental disorders, episodic mood disorders and higher inclination towards aggression while rising sea level stirs fears and worries of inundation, safety and food security. Melting ice changes landscape and triggers solastalgia besides loss of individual identity. Climate change calls attention to differentiated vulnerabilities of different segments of the society, to the consequent mental implications and the need to address inequalities in relation to access to resources, services, infrastructure, facilities, employment and education.