Climate Active: Protecting the planet means a healthier you

It just so happens that going on a hike, gardening, walking through a park, volunteering in a green scraping project, and similar activities, promote your mental health. The benefits of connecting with, and nourishing, nature have been known for decades. The field of ecotherapy—the process of connecting to, communing with, and revitalizing nature to promote wellbeing—has been around since the early 1980s (Jones, 2016). Through a 2016 longitudinal study—tracking 100,000 participants over eight years—researchers found that subjects living in the greenest area had a 12% lower mortality rate (Jones, 2016). Additionally, ecotherapy-centered activities have been associated with higher cognitive functioning, improved mental health, strengthened physical health, and enhanced wellbeing (Kras, 2021). The alternative to climate action can lead to a much different fate. Climate doomers—those who believe that climate change is inevitable and the trend of global warming, or, more accurately, global boiling, cannot be curbed—are likely to suffer poorer mental health. Ogunbode et al. determined that the higher one's climate anxiety, the lower their mental wellbeing (Ogunbode at al., 2022). Furthermore, a 2020 regression analysis of 973 post-secondary students showed that pro-environmental behavior, climate activism, was positively correlated with eudaimonia, a state of mind that can best be described as a satisfying combination of wellbeing, happiness and growth (Ibánez-Rueda, Guillén-Royo, & Guardiola, 2020). Additionally, Schwartz et al. (2023) found that engaging in collective climate action significantly reduced the association between functional impairment, caused by climate change anxiety, and major-depressive-disorder symptoms. Moreover, individual engagement in climate action was linked to lower levels of generalized anxiety disorder (Schwartz et al., 2023). These findings indicate that though climate change is a foreboding obstacle, climate action, getting involved, would grant us the focus, wherewithal, and resilience to confront, and perhaps, even overcome, the challenge.

Though the above results are encouraging, it is worth noting the emotional and psychological effects climate change can inflict. As climate change most adversely affects lower-income populations (Ogunbode et al., 2022) that are historically the most vulnerable—through job loss, displacement, respiratory illness, and other consequences (American Psychiatric Association, 2023)—damage to our environment often breeds trauma. Victims of climate change are more likely to experience stress, anxiety, depression, and anger. (American Psychiatric Association, 2023) Moreover, because of the reduced opportunities and costs left in climate change's aftermath (prolonged drought, hurricanes, floods and other disasters), climate change may lead to violence and crime. However, the aforementioned impacts are hardly inevitable. In shifting our focus from climate change to climate action, the consequences of global boiling will be decisively minimized.