Global warming is a mental health issue: An editorial

Emerging research has highlighted the positive effects of urban green spaces (i.e., open-space areas reserved for parks, plant life, and other kinds of natural environment) on mental and physical health (e.g., Reece et al., 2021; Sillman et al., 2022). More recently, researchers have focused on the specific impact of blue spaces (i.e., source or body of water used for recreational or esthetic purposes) on mental health. This issue of the International Journal of Mental Health features a scoping review of blue spaces’ effects on mental health (Hermanski et al., 2022). Results from this review suggest that views and visits to natural blue spaces, including oceans, seas, beaches, lakes, and rivers may improve mental health, with a greater effect found when actually visiting a blue space as opposed to only viewing it. While effective treatments for mental health disorders exists at the individual level, improving our environment, including increasing access to green and blue spaces in urban areas, may have broader effects at the population level, with significant positive impact on public health (and related health care costs). Further, providing and protecting green and blue spaces especially in urban areas is all the more important as our environment is quickly changing with the ongoing global warming.

With green spaces disappearing at a fast pace around the globe, and blue spaces rapidly changing their distribution (e.g., rivers drying up in some areas, and sea levels raising in others), the consequences of global warming on our habitat legitimately raise concerns about what they entail for populations’ wellbeing. This apprehension and stress related to the anticipation of threats to the ecosystem and our species, have been recently coined under the term of eco-anxiety. Eco-anxiety, and the associated eco-grief (i.e., the feeling of loss when experiencing or learning about environmental destruction) have been most prevalent in developed countries (American Psychological Association & ecoAmerica, 2017; Hayes & Poland, 2018).

However, global warming has also been destroying living habitats in developing countries, forcing millions to flee their home, exposing them to all the violence and traumatic experiences that can accompany such displacements, and competition over resources getting scarcer and scarcer (Augustinavicius et al., 2021). Recent data suggest that climate change hazards are associated with a range of psychiatric conditions (Burke et al., 2018; Cunsolo et al., 2020; Obradovich et al., 2018).

As global warming and its consequences has been consistently affecting mental health, it is critical that we, as clinicians and researchers in the field of mental health, change our own behaviors, both at the individual, and group level (Roberts & Godlee, 2007). Recent studies estimate that each individual contribute to 1.2–1.8 tons of CO₂ each they attend a scientific conference (Bousema et al., 2020; Wortzel et al., 2021), about half the CO₂ emissions from energy combustion per inhabitant in mainland France in 2020. Hosting a virtual conference may reduce emissions by up to 99.97% compared to an in-person one (Burtscher et al., 2020) and reducing conference travels would thus make an impact. However, despite strategies to improving the experience of virtual conferences (Hoffman et al., 2021), these conferences come with challenges including limited networking opportunities. Further, going from one model (exclusively in-person meetings) to the extreme opposite (exclusively virtual meetings) is rarely the solution. There is thus a critical need to invent a new model of “slow conferencing.” The options for such model might include: decreasing the frequency of in-person meetings, decentralizing global/national conferences into a network of local/regional conferences occurring simultaneously and connected by video, and even hosting conferences in the metaverse.

Finally, as Frank Herbert put in the mouth of his character Kynes from the 1965 novel Dune: “The highest function of ecology is the understanding of consequences.” A better understanding of the effects of green and blue spaces on humans, has the potential to promote mental health by supporting public policies focused on preserving nature. Highlighting this public health concern may also lead to heighten awareness of larger fringes of the population, including in the fields of politics or economics. With challenges come opportunities, and the current changes in our habitat across the globe could be an opportunity to strengthen communities, acknowledging the role played by nature and biodiversity on mental health. Global warming is forcing us to rethink our way of living, work all together, alongside policy makers, scientists, architects, urban planners, to strengthen our capacity to adapt to a rapidly changing world. Climate change has already increased global inequalities, and it is urgent to create a healthy environment accessible to all, and reducing social disparity of green and blue spaces distribution in cities is critical.