Essay by Eric Worrall
Well meaning researchers not checking their facts carefully enough.
5 reasons why climate change may see more of us turn to alcohol and other drugs
Published: November 20, 2023 5.59am AEDT
Helen Louise Berry Honorary Professor, Centre for Health Systems and Safety Research, Macquarie University
Francis Vergunst Associate Professor, Psychosocial Difficulties, University of Oslo…
Extreme weather events, such as floods, droughts, storms and wildfires, are becoming more frequent and severe. These affect our mental health in a multitude of ways.
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We outline five ways climate change could increase the risk of harmful substance use.
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1. Mental health is harmed
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2. Worry increases
With increasing public awareness of how climate change is endangering wellbeing, people are increasingly worried about what will happen if it remains unchecked.
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Politicians take note
As we head towards the COP28 global climate talks in Dubai, climate change is set to hit the headlines once more. Politicians know climate change is undermining human health and wellbeing. It’s well past time to insist they act.
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- supporting vulnerable individuals, especially young people, and marginalised commmunities, who are hit hardest by extreme weather-related events
- focusing health-related policies more on broadscale health promotion, for example, healthier eating, active transport and community-led mental health support
- investing in climate-resilient infrastructure, such as heat-proofing buildings and greening cities, to prevent more of the destabilising effects and stress we know contributes to mental health problems and harmful substance use.
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If warm weather was a significant cause of mental health issues, Singapore would be a lunatic asylum. So the suggestion warm weather on its own causes mental health issues is absurd. Our bodies are built for extreme tropical heat, that is why we need to wear clothes for warmth. Far more people die from cold than heat, even in warm countries like India. But warm weather coupled with absolute acceptance of the fake climate crisis does cause genuine distress, and is likely exacerbating mental health issues.
There is also no doubt that fear of climate change is contributing to the drug crisis. Keep telling teenagers they’re all doomed to an early painful death, and eventually they’ll look for an alternative to doing their homework.
But I wish the researchers had checked their facts before parroting harmful climate propaganda.
If they had, they might have added a few more options to their list:
- Educate kids that nearly every prediction of doom made over the last few decades has utterly failed. Claims we are in the midst of a climate crisis are wildly exaggerated.
- Remove political roadblocks to the availability of cheap energy. If global warming is now inevitable, as the researchers appear to claim, then people might as well be comfortable. Access to a bountiful supply of cheap coal electricity to keep air conditioners affordable would help with maintaining comfort during the “climate crisis”.
- Check the evidence behind claims that extreme weather events are becoming more severe, instead of parroting baseless green propaganda.
Future historians will look back on our age as a time of mass hysteria, a period of history in which adult authority figures and educators failed their duty of care, and fed the imaginary climate crisis delusion by amplifying baseless propaganda. They will struggle to understand why learned authority figures didn’t make more effort to check their facts before feeding harmful climate crisis narratives.
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