We need to talk about Women’s Mental Health and Climate Change

By Ruth Hollands, Researcher at EmpoderaClima

We need to talk about mental health. As the world continues to adapt and attempt to mitigate the consequences of the climate crisis, climate change effects on mental health are becoming more and more prevalent. The COVID-19 pandemic, the continuing rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and other effects of climate change have given rise to eco-anxiety, a mental health condition in which a person may feel stress, grief, helplessness and fear of uncertainty associated with a negative outlook for the future of the our planet. The climate crisis negatively affects mental health, thus escalating the vulnerabilities of marginalized communities, including women, who already face disproportionate consequences to climate change.

According to Dr. Joshua Morganstein, Assistant Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University, after a disaster, the most common psychological responses are distress, reactions, such as insomnia, scapegoating, irritability, risky behaviors, and losing interest in normal activities. Thus, eco-anxiety can exacerbate existing mental health issues. The American Psychological Association (APA) established eco-anxiety’s official definition and describes it as a chronic fear of environmental doom. Eco-anxiety stress can cause depression, anxiety, and feelings of a loss in autonomy or personal identity. In short, mental health issues are rising due to the negative effects of climate change.

Women continue to be among the most affected when it comes to the impacts of climate change, as you might already know from reading our other original EmpoderaClima articles. Women, young people, and people with low socioeconomic status have shown to be more vulnerable to anxiety and mood disorders related to disasters. For example, during floods, women, especially those who are part of an ethnic minority or have a lower level of schooling, become especially susceptible to mental illness. 

Research from 28 studies by the Carbon Brief suggests that women are much more likely to suffer from climate-driven mental illness. More specific regional studies show women face a greater risk than men of suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following tropical cyclones in the US, Australia, and Myanmar. Further, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) women are the largest single group of people to be affected by PTSD, and this is linked to a high prevalence of sexual violence worldwide. Linked to that, studies show sexual violence against women can rise during and after extreme weather events. Besides PTSD, women also tend to face higher risk of depression and emotional distress following extreme weather events. 

Rising temperatures as a result of climate change also threaten mental health. During the 2005 floods in Pakistan, 80% of people displaced by the climate events were women. With 90% of West Africa’s Lake Chad gone, women in the regions of Chad, Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon have to walk farther for water every year. Regarding rising temperatures, the negative effects of temperatures greater than 30°C on the probability of mental health difficulties is largest for women. While women do not develop different disorders from men, their vulnerabilities socially put them at a higher risk, thus increasing their susceptibility to climate change-related illnesses. 

According to the study The Impact of Climate Change on Mental Health from Frontier in Psychiatry, women with low socioeconomic status, in poverty, with scarce economic and social resources, reduction of social support, and mental health problems existing before climate disasters, are part of vulnerable groups that tend to develop new mental disorders or see their previous problems worsen, after facing a traumatic event due to climate change. Further, because women are already marginalized in decision-making spaces at all levels, their needs continue to be ignored or misrepresented, exacerbating climate change-related vulnerabilities. 

Extreme climate events have risen in the past decade and will continue to do so. To adapt and mitigate the consequences of climate change, gender and climate justice in key spaces is crucial. As a vulnerable group to the climate crisis, women worldwide are still struggling to have their voices heard and their needs met. New studies in mental health shine light on the seriousness of global public health, but as mental health recognition and understanding increases, especially in a post-Covid world, decision-makers and the global community must focus on further communicating and educating people of these risks. 

We need to talk about mental health. Education and recognition are imperative to help treat and prevent mental health issues related to the climate crisis. Dr. Susan Clayton, Psychology Department Chair at the College of Wooster and a lead author on the 6th assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, urges everyone to “get informed… find out what the actual effects of climate change are likely to be in [the] area. This can be depressing, but sometimes people are catastrophizing about the end of the world and accurate information can be a relief – at least it reduces uncertainty (which contributes to climate anxiety).” Understanding eco-anxiety can put people at ease, however, these kinds of global health risks will not be mitigated if vulnerable communities continue to be marginalized in climate leadership spaces. . 

The correlation between the climate crisis and mental health, especially when it comes to gender inequalities, is recent. Since available data is so new, and therefore limited, more research needs to be done to study how specific climate-related events and disasters affect mental health, especially of those in vulnerable communities, including black and indigenous women. However, it is no secret that globally, populations are living through extreme natural disasters and events every day, which puts public health at greater risk at a rapid pace. 

Socially and culturally, mental health is still stigmatized in many parts of the world, exacerbating mental health issues related to the climate crisis, as climate disasters increase and the temperature continues to rise. Women face many obstacles as a result of climate change, and the only way these obstacles will be reduced, and eventually eliminated, is if women finally have equitable opportunities and rights in climate decision-making spaces at the local, global and national levels. 

Eco-anxiety is real, and if we truly want to empower women to lead the charge for climate action, we must tackle mental health in the climate crisis. As the global temperature and oceans rise, so do the women of the Earth.