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The climate crisis is coming for 'the CEO of the family's health'

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Thursday, May 30, 2024

The increasing incidence of climate change-induced heat spikes, wildfires and life-threatening flash floods is engulfing pregnant and postpartum individuals in a wave of eco-anxiety and depression. "The mom is kind of guiding the ship," Jennifer Barkin, an expert on maternal mental health, told The Hill. "You're already worried about — are your kids eating enough vegetables? Are kids getting school on time? How are their grades? And now you've got this additional worry." Barkin, a professor of community medicine and obstetrics and gynecology at the Mercer University School of Medicine in Georgia, characterized the influence of climate change on maternal mental health as “a global issue,” while noting that “it hits the disadvantaged in a more dramatic way — and quicker.” The issue appears to be going largely unnoticed, however. Although the concept of climate despair has attracted some media attention, there has been little coverage of the unique mental health impacts that occur during the perinatal period, Barkin and colleagues found in a December 2022 study. The perinatal period spans from pregnancy to a year following childbirth. That stage in a mother’s life "is a time of increased vulnerability to negative mood symptoms due to various changes within the mother and her environment," the authors noted in the study, published in the Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association. Extreme weather events, which often result in disruptions of support networks as well as health care, jobs and education, can all become “possible downstream effects that exact a significant toll on mental health,” the authors noted. In a July 2022 editorial for Frontiers in Psychiatry, Barkin argued that more pregnant and postpartum women will be shouldering such outcomes, noting that “there is a looming threat (risk factor) on the horizon and its name is the climate crisis.” The physiological effects of heat risk, which are intertwined with its mental health impacts, are amplified in pregnancy — when symptoms like dehydration can take a particular toll on all organ systems, Barkin told The Hill. A November 2023 advocacy brief from the World Health Organization stressed that "climate hazards, including extreme heat, are associated with increased risks of developing complications that lead to adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes." Such effects, the brief said, could "affect mental health and contribute to intergenerational trauma," while causing an increase of "stress, anxiety and depression — known risk factors for adverse perinatal outcomes." When families either choose or are forced to migrate due to climate change, the mental health effects on pregnant individuals are especially severe, as they have a fetus to consider, Barkin stressed. "If you're pregnant, and you're in an evacuation center, two other kids and no obstetric care what if you have an emergency?" Barkin asked. "Or if you have your prenatal care, and you've got your child's pediatrician lined up, and you need to move suddenly? I mean, it's a major stressor, and it's a disruption in care." "Depression and anxiety are related to the severity of the exposure," she continued. "Were you wading through floodwaters, were you directly breathing in the wildfire smoke? All of that is linked to the severity of the mental health consequences." In an evacuation center, Barkin continued, there's also the question of cleanliness, infectious diseases or the inability to find dry clothing. A January 2023 literature review likewise found that "climate change-related environmental exposures, including extreme temperatures, air pollution and natural disasters, are significantly associated with adverse perinatal and maternal health outcomes across the United States." These effects included mental health issues, such as the development of maternal depression following a natural disaster event like Hurricane Katrina, per the review, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Laura Geer, the senior author of that review, explained that “a post-climate related event can go in two different directions.” In the first, she explained, a mother can be thrown into a position of social isolation in which she finds herself managing a family without appropriate access to care, while also facing a potential “intimate partner violence increase during this stressful period.” “Or you're highly resilient, you've got a lot of social support, you can kind of manage and weather, and it actually kind of makes you stronger,” added Geer, chair of the department of environmental and occupational health sciences at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. But in so many cases, severe climate disruptions can influence food and housing security, while sometimes leading to unhealthy coping mechanisms like illicit drug use, according to Geer. "Somebody's ability to be resilient is so directly tied to their mental health," she said. Even for those families not likely to face imminent displacement or natural disaster, the mental gymnastics connected to keeping kids protected from escalating heat can be exhausting. "I can think from a mother's perspective: Do I want to send my kids to a summer camp?" Barkin asked, noting that it's difficult to gauge whether individual camp counselors are "aware how to handle heat risk." Detailing her own internal debate as a mother, Barkin said that she discouraged her son from playing football — which requires wearing heavy equipment — in the Georgia weather, while adding that her daughter once fell ill from the heat at tennis camp. Mothers, she added, also often grapple with the fact that their kids are "going to inherit something they didn't create." More and more women, she has found, are raising questions like, "Do I want to bring kids up necessarily? Is it even ethical to get pregnant?" Geer echoed these sentiments, thinking back to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics and the coinciding surge in the Zika virus — a mosquito-borne pathogen known to cause birth defects. The virus’s spread in the region prompted many athletes of childbearing age to reconsider their attendance, she explained. "I definitely think it led to anxiety around decisions about family planning, even in our country," Geer said, noting the increased concern that this vector of Zika could move up to the Southeast U.S. as well. Another quandary Barkin has found mothers facing is that while green spaces are supposed to be good for mental health, there is now increased uncertainty as to whether certain green spaces have become "inhospitable or inhabitable." Barkin cited several repeat complaints on the subject: "We're trapped inside. I've got these kids running around going crazy. I want to get them outside, but I can't breathe, or it's so hot, or I'm worried about breastfeeding the baby." In addition to those of childbearing age, much older women may be suffering similar mental health impacts from climate change. Earlier this month, the European Court of Human Rights sided with a group of more than 2,000 older women, who had filed a complaint against the Swiss government demanding health protections from the effects of climate change. Members of the Swiss association, Verein KlimaSeniorinnen, or Climate Seniors, argued that they are uniquely vulnerable to the effects of surging heat waves — citing significant, climate-related health impacts on their daily routines. Among the effects they named were various heat-related physical symptoms, as well as social consequences— due to their inability to leave their homes. While these women may be from a different generation, the mental tumult they have been enduring bares similarities to the struggle that many young mothers experience during the perinatal period. Asked what clinicians can do to ensure that maternal eco-anxiety doesn’t fly under the radar, Barkin said "the good news is a lot of the infrastructure for screening for depression is already in place." Within that infrastructure is her own Barkin Index of Maternal Functioning, a patient-centered measure of postpartum functional status. In the July 2022 editorial, Barkin advised organizations that assist new mothers to "strongly consider incorporation of climate change effects into their programming," adding that health care providers should include environmental factors into mental and physical health assessments. She acknowledged that most OB-GYNs and pediatricians working with perinatal women do conduct depression screenings — which Barkin said is “going to work to everyone’s advantage.” "But the bottleneck is, do they have somewhere to send them? And can they afford it?" she asked. "If you just had your home wiped out or you're injured, or your whole family's on the run, can you afford to stop and address your mental health?" Stressing that natural disasters are considered traumatic events, Barkin noted that such occurrences are poised to happen more frequently in the future. "That's going to impact mothers," she said, noting that they are often primary caregivers, regardless of whether they also work full time outside the home. "They're often kind of like the CEO of the family's health.”

The increasing incidence of climate change-induced heat spikes, wildfires and life-threatening flash floods is engulfing pregnant and postpartum individuals in a wave of eco-anxiety and depression.

"The mom is kind of guiding the ship," Jennifer Barkin, an expert on maternal mental health, told The Hill. "You're already worried about — are your kids eating enough vegetables? Are kids getting school on time? How are their grades? And now you've got this additional worry."

Barkin, a professor of community medicine and obstetrics and gynecology at the Mercer University School of Medicine in Georgia, characterized the influence of climate change on maternal mental health as “a global issue,” while noting that “it hits the disadvantaged in a more dramatic way — and quicker.”

The issue appears to be going largely unnoticed, however.

Although the concept of climate despair has attracted some media attention, there has been little coverage of the unique mental health impacts that occur during the perinatal period, Barkin and colleagues found in a December 2022 study. The perinatal period spans from pregnancy to a year following childbirth.

That stage in a mother’s life "is a time of increased vulnerability to negative mood symptoms due to various changes within the mother and her environment," the authors noted in the study, published in the Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association.

Extreme weather events, which often result in disruptions of support networks as well as health care, jobs and education, can all become “possible downstream effects that exact a significant toll on mental health,” the authors noted.

In a July 2022 editorial for Frontiers in Psychiatry, Barkin argued that more pregnant and postpartum women will be shouldering such outcomes, noting that “there is a looming threat (risk factor) on the horizon and its name is the climate crisis.”

The physiological effects of heat risk, which are intertwined with its mental health impacts, are amplified in pregnancy — when symptoms like dehydration can take a particular toll on all organ systems, Barkin told The Hill.

A November 2023 advocacy brief from the World Health Organization stressed that "climate hazards, including extreme heat, are associated with increased risks of developing complications that lead to adverse maternal and perinatal outcomes."

Such effects, the brief said, could "affect mental health and contribute to intergenerational trauma," while causing an increase of "stress, anxiety and depression — known risk factors for adverse perinatal outcomes."

When families either choose or are forced to migrate due to climate change, the mental health effects on pregnant individuals are especially severe, as they have a fetus to consider, Barkin stressed.

"If you're pregnant, and you're in an evacuation center, two other kids and no obstetric care what if you have an emergency?" Barkin asked. "Or if you have your prenatal care, and you've got your child's pediatrician lined up, and you need to move suddenly? I mean, it's a major stressor, and it's a disruption in care."

"Depression and anxiety are related to the severity of the exposure," she continued. "Were you wading through floodwaters, were you directly breathing in the wildfire smoke? All of that is linked to the severity of the mental health consequences."

In an evacuation center, Barkin continued, there's also the question of cleanliness, infectious diseases or the inability to find dry clothing.

A January 2023 literature review likewise found that "climate change-related environmental exposures, including extreme temperatures, air pollution and natural disasters, are significantly associated with adverse perinatal and maternal health outcomes across the United States."

These effects included mental health issues, such as the development of maternal depression following a natural disaster event like Hurricane Katrina, per the review, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Laura Geer, the senior author of that review, explained that “a post-climate related event can go in two different directions.”

In the first, she explained, a mother can be thrown into a position of social isolation in which she finds herself managing a family without appropriate access to care, while also facing a potential “intimate partner violence increase during this stressful period.”

“Or you're highly resilient, you've got a lot of social support, you can kind of manage and weather, and it actually kind of makes you stronger,” added Geer, chair of the department of environmental and occupational health sciences at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University.

But in so many cases, severe climate disruptions can influence food and housing security, while sometimes leading to unhealthy coping mechanisms like illicit drug use, according to Geer.

"Somebody's ability to be resilient is so directly tied to their mental health," she said.

Even for those families not likely to face imminent displacement or natural disaster, the mental gymnastics connected to keeping kids protected from escalating heat can be exhausting.

"I can think from a mother's perspective: Do I want to send my kids to a summer camp?" Barkin asked, noting that it's difficult to gauge whether individual camp counselors are "aware how to handle heat risk."

Detailing her own internal debate as a mother, Barkin said that she discouraged her son from playing football — which requires wearing heavy equipment — in the Georgia weather, while adding that her daughter once fell ill from the heat at tennis camp.

Mothers, she added, also often grapple with the fact that their kids are "going to inherit something they didn't create."

More and more women, she has found, are raising questions like, "Do I want to bring kids up necessarily? Is it even ethical to get pregnant?"

Geer echoed these sentiments, thinking back to the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics and the coinciding surge in the Zika virus — a mosquito-borne pathogen known to cause birth defects. The virus’s spread in the region prompted many athletes of childbearing age to reconsider their attendance, she explained.

"I definitely think it led to anxiety around decisions about family planning, even in our country," Geer said, noting the increased concern that this vector of Zika could move up to the Southeast U.S. as well.

Another quandary Barkin has found mothers facing is that while green spaces are supposed to be good for mental health, there is now increased uncertainty as to whether certain green spaces have become "inhospitable or inhabitable."

Barkin cited several repeat complaints on the subject: "We're trapped inside. I've got these kids running around going crazy. I want to get them outside, but I can't breathe, or it's so hot, or I'm worried about breastfeeding the baby."

In addition to those of childbearing age, much older women may be suffering similar mental health impacts from climate change.

Earlier this month, the European Court of Human Rights sided with a group of more than 2,000 older women, who had filed a complaint against the Swiss government demanding health protections from the effects of climate change.

Members of the Swiss association, Verein KlimaSeniorinnen, or Climate Seniors, argued that they are uniquely vulnerable to the effects of surging heat waves — citing significant, climate-related health impacts on their daily routines. Among the effects they named were various heat-related physical symptoms, as well as social consequences— due to their inability to leave their homes.

While these women may be from a different generation, the mental tumult they have been enduring bares similarities to the struggle that many young mothers experience during the perinatal period.

Asked what clinicians can do to ensure that maternal eco-anxiety doesn’t fly under the radar, Barkin said "the good news is a lot of the infrastructure for screening for depression is already in place."

Within that infrastructure is her own Barkin Index of Maternal Functioning, a patient-centered measure of postpartum functional status.

In the July 2022 editorial, Barkin advised organizations that assist new mothers to "strongly consider incorporation of climate change effects into their programming," adding that health care providers should include environmental factors into mental and physical health assessments.

She acknowledged that most OB-GYNs and pediatricians working with perinatal women do conduct depression screenings — which Barkin said is “going to work to everyone’s advantage.”

"But the bottleneck is, do they have somewhere to send them? And can they afford it?" she asked. "If you just had your home wiped out or you're injured, or your whole family's on the run, can you afford to stop and address your mental health?"

Stressing that natural disasters are considered traumatic events, Barkin noted that such occurrences are poised to happen more frequently in the future.

"That's going to impact mothers," she said, noting that they are often primary caregivers, regardless of whether they also work full time outside the home. "They're often kind of like the CEO of the family's health.”

Read the full story here.

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Five activists were handed multi-year sentences for their role in the M25 actions in 2022. Those were reduced on appeal earlier this month but are still the longest jail terms for non-violent civil disobedience ever issued.Senior JSO members deny the crackdown had anything to do with the group's decision to "hang up the hi-vis" – as its statement this week announcing the end of campaign put it.JSO's public position is that it has won its battle. "Just Stop Oil's initial demand to end new oil and gas is now government policy, making us one of the most successful civil resistance campaigns in recent history," the group claimed.The government has said it does not plan to issue any new licences for oil and gas production but strongly denies its policies have a link to JSO. Furthermore, the Prime Minister's official spokesperson told journalists: "We have been very clear when it comes to oil and gas that it has a future for decades to come in our energy mix."And the group's wider goal – to end the production of oil and gas – has manifestly not been achieved. The members of the group I spoke to for this article all agree the climate crisis has deepened.AFPA protest at the Aston Martin showroom in central LondonIn the face of stiffer sentences, some climate campaigners have said they will turn to more clandestine activities. One new group says it plans a campaign of sabotage against key infrastructure. In a manifesto published online it says it plans to "kickstart a new phase of the climate activist movement, aiming to shut down key actors of the fossil fuel economy."That's not a direction the JSO members I spoke to said they wanted to go. Sarah Lunnon said a key principle of JSO and the civil disobedience movement generally was that activists would take responsibility for their actions. One of the first questions new joiners were asked is whether they would be willing to be locked up."As corporations and billionaires corrupt political systems across the world, we need a different approach. "We are creating a new strategy, to face this reality and to carry our responsibilities at this time," the group says, suggesting they may be planning to form a new movement.JSO's most high-profile figure, Roger Hallam, is one of the five activists convicted for their role in the M25 protests. In a message from his prison cell he acknowledged that JSO has only had a "marginal impact". That is "not due to lack of trying," he said. The failure lay with the UK's "elites and our leaders" who had walked away from their responsibility to tackle the climate crisis, Hallam claimed. A hint perhaps that the group's new focus might be on the political system itself.JSO has said its last protest – to be held at the end of April – will mark "the end of soup on Van Goghs, cornstarch on Stonehenge and slow marching in the streets". But don't believe it. When pressed, the JSO members I spoke to said they may well turn back to disruptive tactics but under a new name and with a new and as yet unspecified objective.

Climate

Activism

Crisis

Amid Trump Cuts, Climate Researchers Wait for the Ax to Fall

Climate experts whose research is funded by federal grants hide, whisper and wait for their jobs to disappear

Climate Researchers Wait for the Ax to FallClimate experts whose research is funded by federal grants hide, whisper and wait for their jobs to disappearBy Ariel Wittenberg, Chelsea Harvey & E&E News The Trump administration has slashed jobs and funding at the National Institutes of Health. Mark Wilson/Newsmakers/Getty ImagesCLIMATEWIRE | The National Institutes of Health has canceled grants for research on diversity, Covid-19 and vaccines. Climate scientists are hoping their work won’t be next — but fear it could be.“We are holding our breaths because we know we are on their list of targets,” said Marsha Wills-Karp, chair of the Johns Hopkins University Department of Environmental Health and Engineering. “It feels like it’s been slash and burn. We are hopeful they won’t get to climate, but we know it’s not likely.”Researchers in her department have received NIH grants to study the effects of wildfire air pollution on preterm birth rates and how hotter weather is affecting the health of babies at birth, measured by their weight and potential complications. They’re also studying how climate change is affecting nutrition.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.At the University of Washington, Kristie Ebi is fearful that NIH could cut grants that fund studies about which populations are more vulnerable to extreme heat — a project that the team is planning to expand to include the dangers of wildfire smoke.“We’re working to provide information that departments of health, communities and individuals can use,” Ebi said. “The more you know, the more of those lives you can save.”None of those programs haven’t been cut yet. But there’s reason to think they could be, and soon.Earlier this week, ProPublica reported on an internal NIH memo that outlined how the agency will no longer fund research on the health effects of climate change. It followed a story in Mother Jones showing that NIH had ended three climate-related programs, including the Climate Change and Health Initiative. The program was created in 2022 and has had annual congressional appropriations of $40 million, according to a December NIH report that was taken offline by the agency earlier this year.“HHS is taking action to terminate research funding that is not aligned with NIH and HHS priorities,” said Emily Hilliard, a department spokesperson.“As we begin to Make America Healthy Again, it’s important to prioritize research that directly affects the health of Americans,” she added. “We will leave no stone unturned in identifying the root cause of the chronic disease epidemic as part of our mission to Make America Healthy Again.”She did not respond to questions about whether HHS believes that research into the health effects of heat and other types of extreme weather are aligned with agency priorities or whether HHS believes that heat waves affect the health of Americans. NIH did not respond to a request for comment.Heat is the No. 1 weather-related killer in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency within HHS. Heat caused or contributed to at least 2,300 deaths in 2023, CDC records show.In addition to turbocharging temperatures, climate change can affect people's health by increasing the prevalence of vector-borne diseases and the number of wildfires, whose smoke has been shown to increase asthma and cause cardiovascular problems.Those connections have long been studied with funding from the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences. Then in 2022, NIH broadened the scope of federal funding for climate health research, directing each of the agency’s 26 centers and institutes to study the dangers of climate change. At the time, the agency said “a mounting number of assessments and reports provide undeniable evidence that climate change is resulting in … direct and indirect consequences for human health and well-being.”Most of the climate researchers contacted by POLITICO's E&E News declined to talk publicly about their funding, citing concerns about their grants being rescinded if they spoke to the media.One researcher who was awarded federal funding said some experts in the climate and health field are pausing work related to their grants, like hiring.Others have turned down speaking requests because they're concerned about attracting attention from the Trump administration. Their work often focuses on how extreme weather has disproportional effects on the health of communities of color, according to several researchers who were granted anonymity for fear of retribution. One said that they declined a speaking invitation to avoid “accidentally us[ing] language we are not supposed to and then be told our language is not compliant with various executive orders” on diversity and equality.“We’ve been told we need to comply with those executive orders as federal grantees, but it’s hard to do if you are funded for something that the name is something you are not allowed to say,” the researcher said. “No one wants to do a social media post or a webinar or an event that might get them in trouble.”An annual conference hosted by NIH, Boston University and the Harvard School of Public Health was postponed earlier this month.Linda Birnbaum, who led the National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences until 2017, said that during the first Trump administration, researchers were able to circumvent directives by wording grant applications as “climate and health” rather than “climate change.”“It worked then. I don’t think that will work anymore,” she said.Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2025. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environment professionals.

Climate

Energy

Pollution

Suggested Viewing

Saving Jaguars and Ourselves

"Saving Jaguars and Ourselves" brings attention to the plight of jaguars, wildlife, the Pantanal in Brazil AND the Amazon Rainforest and Cerrado Savannah. The film combines intimate human conversations and portrayals of jaguars in the Pantanal with clear explanations of larger threats that expand to include the Amazon, Cerrado, and the U.S.—focusing on ways that individuals in the U.S. can act effectively to bring change. These three areas form a critical Triad for preventing global climate change. My film explains why this Triad is crucial--why OUR survival in the U.S. depends on its recovery--and what we must do to literally save it, jaguars/wildlife, and Earth. The Pantanal wetland is larger than Florida and stores at least 10 billion tons of carbon. The Cerrado stores at least 13 billion tons. The Amazon stores 200 billion tons. If ANY of these areas completely burns, the carbon releases would be catastrophic. The Amazon and Pantanal are paradises. The Pantanal is directly affected by destruction of the Amazon and Cerrado savannah. Scientists believe that 80% of the Amazon Rainforest must be protected by 2025 or it will not be able to regenerate itself. The Amazon creates its own weather but if deforestation continues, its ecosystem will die and dying trees will give off as much as 200 billion tons of carbon over the next 30-50 years, effectively destroying our ability to protect the climate--and the Earth will die. The Pantanal is one of the most unique and beautiful places in the world, home to over 5,000 animal species and is now also facing threats from upstream river projects.

Solutions

Animals

Climate

Voices of Transition

Voices of Transition is an enthusiastic documentary on farmer- and community-led responses to food insecurity in a scenario of climate change, peak oil, and economic crisis. Concrete examples from Cuba, France, and the United Kingdom tell of a future society where our monoculture deserts will be restored to living soil, where fields will be introduced into our cities, and where independence from oil will help us live a richer, more fulfilling life.

Agriculture

Food

Climate

CO2? CO-Nee!

Joep van Dijk is a passionate climate scientist. He likes to search for extreme examples that show how life can be lived sustainably. This documentary follows Joep on his CO2-neutral journey from Amsterdam to the United States of America and shows how this choice inspires himself and others to live a climate conscious life.

Climate

CO2

Sustainable

A Low Carbon Future for China’s Furnace Cities

China’s economic development and rapid urbanization has led to a dramatic rise in energy consumption due to excessive heating and air-conditioning causing carbon emissions of immense proportions. China’s government has set the ambitious target of reducing CO2 emissions by 40–45% by 2020 against the 2005 baseline. A UK/China-funded team working on how to solve the problem in some of the most extreme climate regions in China. The team discovers groundbreaking solutions using computational-fluid-dynamics simulations.

CO2

Energy

Climate