The Climate Crisis & Suicide
Caroline Dumont, MD
Globally, over 720 000 people die by suicide each year, and suicide is the third leading cause of death in young people. This rate has the potential to climb as the climate crisis worsens. There is increasing evidence that there is a relationship between suicidality and climate change. Psychiatrists recognize the urgent need to prevent climate-driven suicides and cannot be ignored if we are to protect those most at risk in our communities.
The climate crisis can be linked to suicide through direct and indirect impacts on health and well-being. Direct effects of burning fossil fuels include air pollution and higher temperatures and are linked to increasing suicide rates. Indirectly, climate-related suicides may increase when people experience extreme weather such as drought or crop-damaging heat. Mental health may worsen due to climate migration and strains on community well-being.
Beyond direct and indirect impacts, climate change-suicide relationships are interrelated and exacerbated by public policies. For some groups already facing high rates of suicide, the current U.S administration policies may exacerbate socioeconomic and environmental stress. Consider farmers who, as U.S Senator (R) Tommy Tuberville recently highlighted, are more than three more likely to commit suicide than the general population. The short- and longer-term impacts of Trump administration policies including agricultural tariffs on costs, the deportation of undocumented farmworkers, already leading to unharvested crops, while backtracking on climate policies, will likely place even greater strain on U.S. farmers and crop yields. This stress will be layered on top of a recent study estimating significant declines in agriculture yields as temperatures rise.
Important research connecting climate and suicide include:
Rising temperatures: A 2018 study found that suicide rates in Mexico and U.S. increased 0.7% for every 1 degree C increase in temperature, and that “business as usual” temperature increases could contribute to as many as 40,000 excess suicides by 2050 in the U.S. and Mexico. In Asia, a link between suicide and high temperatures was observed in large urban populations. A multi-country meta-analysis found a positive temperature-suicide relationship.
The mechanisms that connect heat and suicide are unclear but research indicates it may be with changes to sleep and neurotransmitters. People become more violent with heat and other climate stressors, and suicide is a form of self-directed aggression, so similar biological mechanisms may underlie interpersonal violence and suicides.
Socioeconomic: Higher numbers of suicides in India during years with crop-damaging heat suggests a connection between heat, social and economic stress, and suicide. This has important implications for low- and middle-income countries in the global south which account for over 70% of suicides worldwide.
Air pollution: Studies show there is population-wide increases in suicide after episodes of worsened air quality, including wildfire smoke.
Drought: Drought has been associated with suicides particularly among male farmers and families.
Climate distress: climate change is leading to solastalagia, emotional distress, and anxiety about the future which have the potential to increase suicidality. Researchers have found that young people are struggling with complex emotions and dissatisfaction in government responses to climate change. Youth suicidality due to climate distress was observed following the heat dome in British Columbia in 2021.
Self-immolation: There have been two notable suicides by self-immolation of climate activists, in 2018 and 2022. Self-immolation has existed for centuries as a political tool of expression, mostly but not only associated with Buddhism. While some Buddhist traditions do not consider burning oneself a form of suicide, other Buddhist traditions strongly oppose the practice.
What may lead any one individual to commit suicide is difficult to understand, but the increasing number of people grappling with the climate crisis, including climate activists, can help us recognize, acknowledge, and spur us to protect our mental health and climate and champions.
Unequal impacts
No community or group of people is immune to the impacts of climate change, but the climate crisis does unequally increase the psychosocial stress that contributes to suicide in particularly vulnerable people and communities. They include:
Refugees from areas threatened by sea-level rise and climate-related conflict.
Low and middle-income populations who may struggle to adapt to a changing climate.
Gender variations are evident, with women tending to experience anxiety, suicidal ideation, and self-harm, while men have higher rates of suicide attempts and death.
As the planet warms and climate stress increases, there will likely be more suicides.
They reflect human hardship and are preventable. As the climate crisis worsens, it is critical that suicide prevention resources are made available. There also needs to be a strong investment in mental health and well-being in both high-income and low- and middle-income countries. And it is essential that public mental health research can address research gaps on how the climate change-suicide relationship affects vulnerable populations and environmental justice groups.
Research and policy development and advocacy regarding suicide prevention in our farming communities should be one of our top priorities. They already face some of the highest rates of suicide:
How Tariffs Raise Costs for Farmers, Making Food More Expensive
A Silent Truth Hidden in the Farm Economy: Farmer Suicides Are on the Rise
Suicide and suicide prevention are urgent and complex issues that require complex solutions. More research is needed to understand what is driving suicides in vulnerable groups, as well what is driving those that are linked to climate change.
The future is uncertain, but we can find space for hope and action. Turning climate grief into action in your personal life does make a difference for the environment and your well-being. Connect with others in your community and connect with nature.