The planet is warming up and will lead to rising sea levels and mass extinction events and droughts all over the world. Experts now say that a warming planet will likely also lead to a mental health crisis in our species. Veuer’s Tony Spitz has the details.
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00:00The planet is warming up and while we know that will lead to rising sea levels, mass extinction
00:04events and droughts all over the world, experts now say that a warming planet will likely also
00:08lead to a mental health crisis in our species. Research has identified that during heat waves,
00:14mental and behavioral disorder or MBD hospitalizations go up as well. In fact,
00:19the 2008 heat wave in Adelaide, Australia saw MBD hospitalizations rise 64% among children
00:25and 10% among elderly. Those issues include anxiety, depression, schizophrenia and substance
00:30use disorders. So what does heat have to do with it? Well, heat may impact mental health in many ways,
00:36disrupting sleep, messing with blood oxygen flow and impairing stress regulation. Experts now say
00:41this could become a big problem as our planet gets warmer, saying that by 2050, MBD episodes could rise
00:47by 49%. That could surge hospitalizations linked to those episodes from 1.8% now to 2.8% by 2050.
00:55Research has also discovered that young people are more susceptible to heat-related mental stress,
01:00a concern considering they are also the ones more likely to be exposed to heat.
01:04Younger individuals are also more likely to bear the mental burden of a worsening climate crisis.