The Psychological Effects of Climate Change on Children

The Psychological Effects of Climate Change on Children

Experts argue that climate change is one of the most seriousglobal health threats of the twenty-first century [1], overall thegreatest threat to humanity [2], and an existential risk to ourworld. Children and young people are particularly vulnerableto its impacts. The rise in global average temperatures and thechanging climate pose substantial and escalating risks acrossmultiple domains. Climate change involves not only an in-creased frequency and severity of extreme weather events(EWEs) like wildfires, floods, hurricanes, and heatwaves,but also more gradual and insidious changes, including sea-level rises, changed growing seasons, prolonged droughts,changes in land use, and loss of livability in some regions,in turn leading to higher disease prevalence, food insecurity,lessened availability of clean water, the need for people torelocate, increased inter-group conflict, and increased eco-nomic hardship.All of the world’s ten warmest years have occurred since1998. The Earth has not been so warm for 115,000 years [3]. Ifglobal emissions continue to rise on a business-as-usual basis,global temperatures will rise between 3.7 and 4.8 °Celsius (C)above preindustrial levels by 2100, a truly catastrophic tem-perature increase [4]. Even if nations were to meet all the 2015Paris Accord commitments, climate change will continue,with global temperatures increasing by at least 1.5 °C by 2100.Overall, climate change poses increasing risks for individ-ual and community health and mental health, housing, infra-structure, agriculture, and natural ecosystems [4]. In response,numerous professional health and mental health organizationshave issued official position statements and reports on climatechange, informing the professional community of the scale ofthe threat and urging members to act (e.g., [5–9]). Researchinto the impacts of climate change on human health has pro-liferated in the recent years (e.g., [10]). Each year, new reportsdocument the physical and mental health impacts of climate-related extreme weather disasters

In this article, we review the latest research on the psycho-logical effects of climate change on children and young peo-ple, in relation to its direct, gradual, and vicarious impacts, andimportantly, how children are coping psychologically.Knowing how children are affected psychologically by cli-mate change is critically important for several reasons: (a) theywill bear a larger burden of the negative consequences ofclimate change over their lifetimes, and hence, we need toknow how to reduce these impacts and protect them; (b) theyare the next leaders of society and how they are respondingpsychologically now has importance for their current and fu-ture decision-making; and (c) they will need the capacity toadapt, psychologically and physically, to a climate-changedworld, including a rapid transition to a low-carbon economy,and will require particular knowledge, attitudes, and attributesto facilitate this adaptation

The Psychological Effects of Climate Changeon Children

The significant and wide-ranging impacts of climate changeonadults’physical and mental health are now well recognized[11, 13•, 14]. There is a smaller but growing body of literatureon the psychological effects of climate change onchildren.Not all children will be equally affected. Those who live ingeographic locations that are most susceptible to the impactsof climate change, and/or with weaker infrastructure and few-er supports and services, are most vulnerable. Hence, childrenin the developing world (where 85% of children live), andthose in disadvantaged circumstances in the minority (“devel-oped”) world, will be worst affected [15].Here, we look not only at the research on mental health andpsychosocial well-being effects on children who are victims ofEWEs and other direct and flow-on impacts of climatechange, but also examine recent research on how childrenare coping with climate change as an impendingglobalthreat.

 Psychological Effects of the Direct Impacts of ClimateChange

The predicted increase in severe EWEs is expected to be theprimary way in which climate change will affect children’smental health and well-being [16•]. There is a substantial lit-erature documenting the effects of such traumatic events onchildren (e.g., [17, 18]). In particular, children exposed toEWE disasters and the ensuing family stress [19], disruptionsto social support networks [20], and displacement [21]areat

 impede children’s development, especially during the earliestyears [38]. Since 2008, an average of 22.5 million people hasbeen displaced by climate- or weather-related disasters eachyear [39], many of them children. The psychological effects ofdisplacement for children include a range of trauma symptomsand adjustment problems [40]. Some research has examinedthe loss of a sense of place when people are forced to leavetheir homelands, particularly in the case of indigenous com-munities. Hersher [41] reported that in indigenous communi-ties in the Arctic, youth report higher rates of suicidal thinkingand depression because of their loss of place identity, culture,the land, and their customary way of life.The duration and nature of climate change impacts areimportant. Long-term and accumulating risk factors have agreater impact than once-off events [42]. Garcia andSheehan [24••] reviewed research showing that mental healthimpacts of a single traumatic event such as a rapid-onset short-duration EWE (such as flood) tended to be short-lived (mostcommonly short-term PTSD symptoms), whereas the cumu-lative stress brought on by slower-onset but chronic climate-related changes like severe drought or sea-level rise led tomore serious mental health problems including depressionand suicidality. They also noted the more severe and sustainedimpacts resulting from loss of family and friends compared toonly material losses

Psychological Adaptation—How Children AreCoping With Climate Chan

 Besides considering how climate changeimpactspsycholog-ically on children, it is important to examine how they areadaptingpsychologically. Psychological adaptation is the pro-cess of“coming to terms with”climate change, which in-cludes coping with the feelings elicited by it, and how childrenrespond to the problem of climate change, i.e., what theydoabout it. Understanding how children are coping with climatechange has critical importance not just for their personal well-being, but also for their capacity to deal with the challenges ofclimate change, given the critical role that they, as youngpeople and also as the next generation of adults, will play inshaping global responses to it.Very few empirical studies have examined how childrenand young people are coping with climate change as a stressor.An exception is research by Ojala exploring how Swedishchildren and adolescents are coping [51, 55••, 56, 57]. Shedraws upon transactional models of coping that distinguishthe following: problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping, and meaning-focused coping. Table1summarizes Ojala’s findings on how Swedish young peoplecope with climate change. Some strategies are more effectivethan others both personally and in terms of helping to addressthe climate change problem.

 

The social foundations of children’s mental and physicalhealth are threatened by the specter of far-reaching ef-fects of unchecked climate change, including communityand global instability, mass migrations, and increasedconflict. Given this knowledge, failure to take prompt,substantive action would be an act of injustice to allchildren. A paradigm shift in production and consump-tion of energy is both a necessity and an opportunity formajor innovation, job creation, and significant, immedi-ate associated health benefits.”(Extract from theAmerican Academy of Pediatrics 2015 PositionStatement [7]).No human responsibility runs deeper than the charge ofevery generation to care for the generation that follows it.For current and future generations of children, and for us all,the stakes could not be higher (A. Lake, UNICEF ExecutiveDirector [62]).Based on current projections, today’s adults may be thelast generation with the capacity to take the urgent actionsneeded to provide a livable world for the world’schildrenand future generations. Lack of action will result in cata-strophic impacts; even with urgent action, worse climateeffects are now locked in. How has this changed what itmeans to be a responsible adult? How can we, as mentalhealth professionals, help re-conceptualize what it meansto care for children so that the concept of“caring”in-volves taking actions to mitigate further climate changeand developing children’sskillstobeabletocopewitha climate-changed world? This article has highlighted howclimate change acts as a risk amplifier that interacts withnon-climate factors to increase children’s vulnerability innumerous ways, including multiple flow-on economic,community, family, health, and education disruptions thatare likely to result in chronic psychological consequences.As the response to recent EWE’s show, few mental healthsystems currently have the capacity to respond to the levelof need created