Nourish mental health by spending time outdoors

Spending time outdoors has so many benefits for us (photo: Adobe)

Green campaigner and consumer expert, Angela Terry, separates climate change facts from fiction and explains how you can take simple, practical steps to help save the planet.

I keep reading about Mental Health Awareness Week – is there any connection between the environment and climate change and our mental health?

The short answer is yes.

Directly, there are subtle ways in which climate change affects mental health – for example, we know warmer weather due to climate change, and pollution from burning oil and gas lead to poor air quality – which studies have found impacts mental health and increases levels of anxiety and depression.

On the more direct links, studies have found that people who live through extreme weather events like hurricanes, wild fires and floods – which are increasing due to climate change – are between 20 and 50 per cent more likely to develop increased anxiety, depression, sleep disruption and even post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The World Health Organisation is urging countries across the globe to include mental health support in their climate change response programmes.

This is further proof that climate change, our environment and the natural world are inextricably linked to our mental health.

Warmer weather also increases aggression.

A study from the US looking at temperatures in Los Angeles found violent crime increased by almost six per cent on days when the mercury went above 29 degrees.