“The incidences of mental and social disorders will rise steeply. These will include depressive and anxiety disorders, post traumatic stress disorders, substance abuse, suicides, and widespread outbreaks of violence. Children, the poor, the elderly, and those with existing mental health disorders are especially vulnerable and will be hardest hit.”
As our world begins to unravel, the American people are becoming increasingly alarmed as more overwhelming evidence linking our use of fossil fuels to climate change disasters becomes obvious. Almost daily, we read news stories and watch video of horrific worldwide weather events that have been fueled by climate change (for some inexplicable reason the press will not mention the word climate change anymore then my Governor Rick Scott does). Greenhouses gases, have already provided us 14 of the 15 hottest years since 2000. For comparison purposes the last time we set a global record cold temperature for the year was in 1911. Severe drought, catastrophic melt in the arctic, forest fires, tundra fires, flooding rains, dying tropical rainforests, bleaching of our corals, heat waves, disease, pestilence, stronger and stronger storms and elevated storm surge is what we have witnessed with our own two eyes. And let’s not forget that winter is here. President Obama nails it: "We're the first generation to feel the impact of climate change and the last generation that can do something about it." "There is such a thing as being too late when it comes to climate change."
We have every reason to be alarmed because natural disasters and extreme weather events will strike many places that are densely populated. "50 per cent of our population live in coastal regions exposed to storms and sea level rise, 70 per cent of Americans live in cities prone to heat waves; major inland cities lie along rivers that will swell to record heights, and the fastest growing part of the nation is the increasingly arid West.” We can expect the following mental disorders to follow extreme weather events.
Violence: “Research from Iowa State shows that, as the temperature rises, so does the incidence of violence.” This could be exacerbated as communities and cultures are split up, relocated and potentially find themselves in conflict with their hosts. Witness the violence in Houston in the years following Hurricane Katrina; displaced families from NOLA were sent to Texas.
Displacement Stress: The report emphasises the effects immediate and sometimes long-term displacement can have on people following flooding.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: Major disasters and witnessing the death of loved ones as a result can lead to PTSD.
Despair: “The unrelenting day by day despair of watching and waiting for water that doesn’t come will have a singularly damaging impact on the psyche of the people who have depended on Mother Nature’s rainfall for their livelihood.”
Anxiety: “Persistent psychological stress is common, with anxiety reactions recurring from unavoidable re-exposure to the odours, smoke and ash [of wildfires].”
Fear: “Higher temperatures favour the formation of ozone which triggers asthma attacks. Anyone who has asthma and parents of children with asthma are familiar with the fears this illness engenders. People die from untreated asthma. Many other fears linked to disease are harder to nail down. As malaria and dengue fever and other infectious diseases march northward due to warmer temperatures, inchoate fears of threat and vulnerability drift into people’s consciousness. This will be compounded by a growing number of sensational media reports tied to disease outbreaks and public health warnings.”
Anger: “With increasing media coverage educating people about the causes of climate change and the ensuing extreme weather events and other disasters, we can expect more powerful and troubling responses to human-caused climate disasters than when disasters were previously experienced as natural or acts of God.”
The above conditions are highlighted in a study titled, The Psychological Effects of Global Warming on the United States: And Why the U.S. Mental Health Care System Is Not Adequately Prepared, published by the World Wildlife Foundation. It warns that the majority of Americans, as well as the rest of the world, will suffer from mental health problems due to impacts from climate change. The report concludes that our health system is incapable of dealing with the emotional and mental stress that we will endure.
Summer heat waves: the physical distress arising from prolonged heat waves is well known. What is not widely known is the psychological distress that is caused by higher temperatures, and, in particular, the relationship between rising temperature and aggression. Research from Iowa State shows that, as the temperature rises, so does the incidence of violence. (DeLisi 2010)
• Coastal and river flooding: the direct adverse effects of flooding are obvious, but these weather and climate related events are especially likely to lead to psychic injury from the stress of displacement, loss of possessions (including pets), and uncertainty about interim and future housing and employment.
• High impact and more intense storms: the far-reaching consequences of destructive weather saw its prototype in Hurricane Katrina. The Hurricane scattered residents of New Orleans all across the U.S. It shattered a culture, broke up families, spiked outbursts of outrage and blame at a government that was slow to respond, and lead to a jump in violence in at least one city that took them in (Houston). Six years later New Orleans has yet to fully recover, and many of the victims have experienced post-incident stress and post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD). Their shaken confidence in institutions and government is less quantifiable but also potentially damaging especially as a cumulative effect over time.
• Severe drought and reduced snow pack: the unrelenting day by day despair of watching and waiting for water that doesn’t come will have a singularly damaging impact on the psyche of the people who have depended on Mother Nature’s rainfall for their livelihood. Already underway is a 21st century dust bowl in Australia that has spawned a growing population of desperate migrants. Texas has recently experienced a drought (with accompanying wildfires) the likes of which has not been seen in more than 50 years.
• Increased large-scale wildfires: raging wildfires are incredibly dangerous and have a particularly savage effect on our psyches by devastating landscapes, wiping out homes and possessions, incinerating wildlife and clogging the air with pollutants that sicken people locally and can travel hundreds of miles to sicken people at a distance. Persistent psychological stress is common, with anxiety reactions recurring from unavoidable re-exposure to the odors, smoke and ash.