Study Claims ‘Climate Change’ Negatively Affects Mental Health

A Harvard study published in the journal Nature claims that “climate change” negatively affects mental health.

The study used participant testimonials for data, assessing “how people are struggling with worries about their future, and the impact of specific ecosystems on communities that rely very intimately on those ecosystems.”

According to the study, negative emotions such as worry, grief, and frustration emerge when considering long-term climate change.

The Harvard Crimson explained that previous research has “focused on the impact of short-term disasters such as hurricanes,” whereas the new study addressed mental health outcomes associated with “slower moving climate change.”

Christy A. Denckla, an assistant professor at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a co-author of the study, said that testimonials from indigenous populations are a hallmark of the research.

The individual narratives point to “how people are struggling with worries about their future, and the impact of specific ecosystems on communities that rely very intimately on those ecosystems,” she stated.

Denckla added that she believes “mitigating disparities public health,” as The Harvard Crimson wrote, will be “one of the most important interventions and factors for consideration in addressing the association between mental health and climate change.”

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), “extreme weather events” and “critical change to the earth systems” are the two greatest long-term global threats.

“An unstable global order characterized by polarizing narratives and insecurity, the worsening impacts of extreme weather and economic uncertainty are causing accelerating risks – including misinformation and disinformation – to propagate,” the WEF’s Managing Director Saadia Zahidi said. “World leaders must come together to address short-term crises as well as lay the groundwork for a more resilient, sustainable, inclusive future.”

Meanwhile, an MIT scientist told EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” in December that so-called climate change is not a danger to human life.

Richard Lindzen, professor emeritus of atmospheric sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said, “If all other things are kept constant, and you double CO2, you would get a little under one degree of warming.”

Describing the supposed “existential” threat of the earth’s temperature, Lindzen said, “The thought that this is existential and requires massive changes is unreasonable. It’s absurd. In a way, CO2 is the dream of a regulator. If you control CO2, you control breathing. If you control breathing, you control everything. This always is one temptation.”