How Climate Change Affects Our Mental Health, and What We Can Do About It — Anacostia Parks and Community Collaborative

From The Commonwealth Fund:

The physical health impacts of climate change are everywhere: extreme temperatures lead to heat stroke and death, floods spread waterborne disease, and air pollution from wildfires leads to respiratory and cardiovascular illness. But evidence is emerging that climate change can also affect our mental health, putting further pressure on a behavioral health services sector already in crisis.
Living through an extreme weather event such as a hurricane, wildfire, flood, or drought can be traumatizing. The destruction, loss, and displacement people experience can sometimes lead to an array of mental health problems, from anxiety and feelings of helplessness to depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and suicidal thoughts.
People at the epicenter of these events suffer the greatest effects. Sixty-seven percent of individuals with direct exposure to the California Camp Fire of 2018 said they experienced trauma similar to PTSD, compared with 14 percent of those indirectly exposed. These effects can last for years, as reported by those who lived through Hurricane Katrina.