1. IMPACT OF GLOBAL
WARMING ON WELBEING: A
PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW
DR. MD. INTEKHAB-UR-RAHMAN
READER
UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF
PSYCHOLOGY
B. N. MANDAL UNIVERSITY
MADHEPURA-BIHAR
PIN-852113

2. IMPACT OF GLOBAL
WARMING ON WELBEING:
A PSYCHOLOGICAL
REVIEW

3. INTRODUCTION
Climate change is arguably one of the most pressing
issues facing our planet and its inhabitants. In bio
and geophysical terms, climate change is defined
as changes over time in the averages and
variability of surface temperature, precipitation,
and wind as well as associated changes in Earth’s
atmosphere, oceans and natural water supplies,
snow and ice, land surface, ecosystems, and living
organisms.

4. INTRODUCTION
Global climate change is
fundamentally a biophysical
phenomenon. However, the
recent and accelerating
warming of the earth’s climate
is largely attributable to human
activity, and its impacts are
mediated by psychological and
social processes and can be
limited primarily by human
activity.

5. REPORT
OF
American Psychological Association (APA)
This American Psychological Association
(APA) task force report describes how
psychology can help better understand the
causes and consequences of climate change
and can contribute to humanity’s response
to the continuing process of global climate
change.

6. Global warming is associated with
mental health risks:
• Heat waves contribute to more alcohol and
substance abuse.

7. Global warming is associated with
mental health risks:
• Just an increase of 1 degree F (0.5 C) seems
to increase the risk of violent behaviour,
especially in warm climates and the inner
city.

8. Global warming is associated with
mental health risks:
• Food and water shortages threaten our basic
sense of security and therefore are
associated with increases in Posttraumatic
Stress Disorder and other mental health
problems.

9. Global warming is associated with
mental health risks:
• The chronic drought in the outback of
Australia is causing a new and dangerous
variation of grief, solastalgia, which is a
kind of distress about environmental losses
in one’s homeland.

10. Global warming is associated with
mental health risks:
• Perceptions of poor air quality results in
increased anxiety, especially in children,
along with increased family violence.

11. Global warming is associated with
mental health risks:
• Individual panic and group hysteria are
risks of vector-borne or waterborne
diseases.

12. Global warming is associated with
mental health risks:
• People with schizophrenia are of particular
risk health-wise as they tend to ignore
health risks and tend not to take necessary
precautions. One study links increased air
pollution, specifically from motor vehicles,
with an increased risk for schizophrenia. If
duplicated, this would be an important
finding with implications in regard to
climate change.

13. Global warming is associated with
mental health risks:
• When viewed in the totality of its impacts,
global warming creates the potential for
large-scale human conflict, as a result of
displacement from climate-scarred lands
and/or disputes over increasingly scarce
resources.

14. Resources for providing mental
healthcare related to global
warming
• More people are likely to be vulnerable to
the mental health implications of climate
change than physical health impairments.
Yet for general mental healthcare in most
countries, insurance and resources are
inadequate compared with general
healthcare.

15. Resources for providing mental
healthcare related to global
warming
• Disaster Response Teams are prepared for
responding to acute disasters, but not to the
more chronic and slowly developing mental
health problems related to global warming.

16. Resources for providing mental
healthcare related to global
warming
• Even with adequate resources, people with
mental illness often receive inadequate care.

17. CONCLUSION
• It is concluded that Psychology can
improve understanding of the behaviours
that drive climate change by building better
Behavioral models based on empirical
analysis, providing deeper understanding of
individual and household behaviour, and
applying evaluation research methods to
efforts to develop and improve
interventions.