When the latest IPCC report (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) was published on Feb 28th, 2022, Antonio Guterres responded with the words: ‘Delay is death’. The report told us that 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming is now extremely difficult to avoid with severe consequences for human health, worsening social inequality and increasingly poor mental health, detailing the impact climate change is having on mental health for the first time. Natural disasters and prolonged drought are increasingly being linked to post traumatic stress disorder, trauma, anxiety, and depression. ‘The facts are undeniable. This abdication of leadership is criminal. The world’s biggest polluters are guilty of arson of our only home’ (Antonio Guterres, Feb 28th, 2022).

This webinar discusses the latest IPCC report, recent research on the mental health impacts of climate change, current legal cases in the European Court of Human Rights arguing that failure to act on climate change constitutes a violation of our human rights and reflect on the emergent mental health crisis of climate anxiety from a global perspective drawing on research from the UK, US, Philippines, Maldives, and Europe.  

About the Speaker

Caroline Hickman is a psychotherapist and lecturer at the University of Bath researching children and young people’s emotional responses to climate change in the UK, Brazil, The Maldives, Nigeria & USA for 10 years examining eco-anxiety & distress, eco-empathy, trauma, moral injury and the impact of climate anxiety on family relationships. She is co-lead researcher & author on a 2021 quantitative global study into children & young people’s emotions & thoughts about climate change published in The Lancet Planetary Health. 

A practicing psychotherapist and board member of the Climate Psychology Alliance she has been developing a range of therapeutic services for ecological distress including a psychological assessment model for eco-anxiety, and delivered workshops in climate psychology, emotional resilience and mental health internationally.