Climate change is an ongoing issue causing unprecedented changes in the Earth’s global climate system. Long-term shifts in temperature and weather patterns occur with the continuation of human activities, such as burning coal, oil, and gas. As a result, increased intensity and frequency of extreme weather have been observed, causing struggles for both natural and urban environments. Extreme weather events severely affect wildlife ecosystems and land conditions in natural environments, whereas urban environments lack architectural and economic resilience toward the repercussions of climate change. Extreme weather is when weather conditions exceed a historically bounded threshold. Moreover, resilience is the ability to successfully adapt to difficult or challenging experiences through mental, emotional, and behavioral adjustment. Understanding the causes of instability within natural and urban environments is crucial, as it helps identify or highlight solutions to significant impacts of climate change. Furthermore, identifying its effects on one’s mindset can provide insight into ways to increase mental and physical resilience against climate change. Through a literature review, it is evident that environmental instability posed by climate change impacts one’s mindset negatively by feeling instability from witnessing a more unstable natural environment, from feeling unsafe by living in locations with harsh extreme weather, and by feeling the need to shift or increase daily priorities to maximize one’s safety and security.
Witnessing changes within one’s environment posed by climate change can negatively impact one’s mindset. According to the IPCC Special Report on climate change, “The frequency and intensity of extreme weather and climate events, [such as heatwaves, droughts, and heavy precipitation], have increased [due to] global warming and will continue to increase under medium and high emission scenarios.” These events and polluting human activities can permanently alter land conditions worldwide, forcing species toward relocation, endangerment, or even extinction. Organisms and ecosystems can handle only a limited range of changes in land and weather conditions at a specific time—rapid weather variability can hinder organisms’ and ecosystems’ ability to survive and adapt to new conditions. Additionally, harsh environmental conditions forcing species towards relocation, endangerment, or extinction create imbalances within localized ecosystems, putting ecosystems at risk of collapse. A study conducted by Jessica Graybill, Ph.D. in Geography and Urban Ecology at the University of Washington, found that witnessing such declines within one’s local environment leads to negative emotions because one often has a strong emotional connection with the well-being of their surrounding natural environment. Graybill interviewed people in a community in northern Russia—they showed strong emotional engagement in discussions about changes in the quality of their environment, such as: “the decrease in local quality and quantity of food resources.” The 2021 IPCC Sixth Assessment Report agrees with Graybill’s study, highlighting how significant environmental changes can devastate communities if valuable resources are lost. Weather agencies cannot accurately predict the likelihood of environmentally destructive extreme weather events because current weather models use historical data, which cannot predict or explain newly developed weather trends caused by an increased global climate. In addition, climate change and its effects on the environment are disproportionate, where small climate changes can cause extensive environmental changes. Therefore, as dangerous extreme weather events, such as intense heat waves or category 4-5 hurricanes, are both increasing and difficult to predict, an increase in anxiety would be felt by wanting to prepare for several likely outcomes, where then thoughts about likely outcomes, as well as previously developed anxiety, cause one to draw pessimistic inferences about likely outcomes. According to Kate Sweeny, a psychology professor at the University of California, as these feelings induce one to imagine undesired outcomes, such a mindset can approach broader areas of one’s life—one may then begin to question their overall living stability in the future. Optimism, on the other hand, can lead to more remarkable persistence toward goals, lower long-term levels of anxiety, and even physical benefits such as swifter physical recovery from illnesses or injuries.
Alongside witnessing environmental instability, witnessing substantial weather changes alone can trigger negative emotions, leading to negative mindsets. Yoshiro Tsutsui, a professor at Osaka University, discusses the findings of multiple studies discovering how sunnier days are associated with increased happiness levels and cloudier and rainier days are associated with lower moods. Furthermore, a study led by Matthew Keller, director of the Institute for Behavioral Genetics and a Department of Psychology and Neuroscience professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, explains the correlation between mood and sunlight, as sunlight directly affects serotonin levels. In addition, Keller’s study found how temperature, barometric pressure, and humidity impact one’s mood and memory cognition. As a result, extreme weather conditions associated with unpleasant temperatures, humidity, or lack of sunlight can lead to negative moods. Additionally, increased extreme weather correlates with more time spent inside, exacerbating mood from insufficient light. Staying inside more frequently also increases isolation from less outdoor and face-to-face human interaction. With extreme weather projected to increase in intensity and frequency, one may feel physically and mentally unprepared for expected lifestyle changes, leading to negative outlooks and mindsets. These negative emotions and mindsets can significantly impact one’s quality of life as negative emotions lead to negative outlooks, perceptions, and mindsets.
Furthermore, as building environments are more susceptible to damage with progressing climate change, one’s mindset is negatively impacted. Colin Raymond, a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory researcher, highlights how extreme weather can strain infrastructure. In addition, a 2022 NOAA report reveals that damages from extreme weather events are, as of recent years, costing the United States billions of dollars in damages per year. Robert Repetto, a member of the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the United Nations Foundation, discusses how government agencies, private organizations, and individuals whose futures will be affected by climate change are unprepared, conceptually and practically, for the repercussions of climate change. This includes disaster management agencies, agencies that finance and build public infrastructure, private investors and owners of vulnerable buildings, property and casualty insurers, creditors holding vulnerable infrastructure, and vulnerable businesses and households, which extend over coastal regions, rivers, and agricultural areas that are susceptible to significant environmental changes. With a substantial increase in extreme weather predicted, Angela Colbert, a doctoral researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, notes how hurricanes, a form of extreme weather, will immensely increase property and infrastructural damage as climate change progresses, endangering large populations, as well as putting many organizations at risk of significant setbacks or failures. Additionally, people may begin to move to safer locations—moving locations makes it harder to build stability and a mindset to pursue goals in life. Apart from safety concerns, repairing damaged buildings can be expensive. Repetto stresses that category 4 and 5 hurricanes will be 25-30% more frequent within a calendar year by 2030, and the probability of hurricane damages exceeding $100 billion to $500 billion could be 30 to 50% higher than current estimates assume by 2030. As a result, extreme weather can pose considerable financial stress on governments and societies, harming mental health and considerably affecting goal-setting motivation, optimism, and rational decision-making.
Daily tasks also change due to environmental changes posed by climate change, leading to a negative mindset. Overall, environmental changes from extreme weather, such as heatwaves, floods, and hurricanes, can negatively change business product production and trades, one’s employment status, transportation methods, and safety, one’s quality of education and their cognitive ability, and one’s access to essential resources such as food. Moreover, as extreme weather conditions have become more frequent, disruptions to urban life, such as power outages, infrastructure failures, and an overall decline in one’s safety, have become more common. For example, air pollution can negatively impact health, forcing individuals to minimize exertion or stay home. Another example is how destructive winds and heavy precipitation can result in infrastructural failures, long-lasting power outages, and further limited access to jobs and money, as seen in 2017 with Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Anticipating these events results in negative emotions such as fear or stress, and one would use these emotions to help prepare for potential outcomes caused by extreme weather. According to a study by Nick Hollon, Ph.D. in Neuroscience and Assistant Professor in the Psychiatry Department at the University of California, fear and stress particularly impact one’s motivational mindset and behavior. Furthermore, fear and uncertainty can push one to rapidly change priorities as a measure to feel more prepared for a broader range of changes. A priority change can then affect one’s mindset toward their goals—a shift in priority towards handling potential environmental instability risks causes one to restrict their progress and mindset towards their individual goals, negatively impacting one’s mindset.
Though the environmental impacts of climate change have adverse effects on one’s mindset, a resilient mindset could be built with further exposure to environmental changes due to climate change. The United Nations Race To Resilience Forum recognizes that mental resilience is crucial to keep global society thriving despite the repercussions of climate change. Studying examples of communities that have built resilience towards extreme environments and events may provide valuable insights into the potential benefits of resilience. An important example of resilience can be found in Haiti, where Haitians, from the past, have endured slavery, structural violence, and poverty and have been exposed to numerous extreme events, most notably the 2010 Haitian earthquake. Over time, Haitians have developed resilience from their experiences and shown positive mindset growth. They showcased strong commonality in qualities such as courage, discipline, open-mindedness, hope, and the ability to initiate and retain friendships after enduring the 2010 Haiti earthquake. Therefore, with further exposure to repercussions of climate change, such as extreme weather, societies can become more resilient to such events and even apply their resilience to other aspects of their lives. However, Haitian resilience has developed through numerous historical traumas, many of which are much different from one another and are extensively different than mere exposure to the repercussions of extreme weather.
Furthermore, climate change is an urgent issue that requires more time to build strong mental resilience. Climate change can negatively impact ecosystems, resources, species, and more as soon as 2030. A solution to build resilience in societies from the impacts of climate change is to reduce potentially substantial costs by addressing safety concerns that arise from environmental changes posed by climate change. David M. Schultz, a professor of Synoptic Meteorology at the University of Manchester and former NOAA Severe Storms Laboratory member, poses that implementing stronger building codes and increasing preparedness for extreme weather events can increase resilience in societies when faced with extreme weather and, in addition, reduces economic, social, and population losses from extreme weather. This would build physical resilience in societies, reducing significant damages that weather extremes can pose to building structures. Repetto agrees with Schultz as he highlights how, from a financial perspective, the difference between preparedness and unpreparedness can be a few billion dollars in damages versus hundreds of billions in damage costs. The Center For Climate and Energy Solutions, a non-profit climate change organization, proposes that resilience could also be built through the spread of renewable energy, financial funding for resilience-building projects, and to prepare cities for “acute and chronic” weather events, such as heat waves, or rising sea levels, respectively. Schultz agrees—he discusses that investments into building weather-resilient societies lead to a long-term cut in carbon emissions, as carbon emissions would not occur from rebuilding devastated areas.
A literature review indicates that environmental instability posed by climate change can impact one’s mindset negatively. Increased environmental instability, an increased likelihood of severe building damages, and significant changes in daily tasks affected by environmental changes posed by climate make way for negative emotions, thought patterns, and thus a negative outlook and mindset. Implementing stronger building codes to reduce long-term extreme weather damage costs and addressing financial and security concerns can be a step towards helping societies be and feel more prepared to adapt and face the issue of climate change. Mental and physical resilience is thus necessary for taking consistent action on climate change to minimize its effects, which ensures a safer future for societies and a more stable future for both natural and urban environments.