A report from Australia\u2019s Climate Institute links global warming with mental illness.<\/p>\n
In its report, the anti-carbon emissions organization argues that a spike in severe weather events in Australia coincides with increased rates of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress and substance abuse.<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u201cClimate change will have many adverse impacts on Australians\u2019 health \u2014 physical risks, infectious diseases, heat-related ill effects, food safety and nutritional risks, mental health problems and premature deaths,\u201d the Climate Institute declared. \u201cThe emerging burden of climate-related impacts on community morale and mental health\u2014bereavement, depression, post-event stress disorders, and the tragedy of self-harm \u2014 is large, especially in vulnerable rural areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report adds that those living in \u201crural areas\u201d of Australia \u201care already beginning to suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAcross all sectors of the Australian population, mental health (too often the Cinderella of our public health policy) is vulnerable to the stresses and disruptions caused by a changing climate and its environmental and social impacts,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n
However, Bjorn Lomborg, a Danish professor and environmental statistician who is\u00a0a cautious believer in global warming \u2014 but also an advocate for sound and rational decisions about how to fix it \u2014 told the Daily Caller<\/em> news website that the Australian study is \u201cproblematic.\u201d<\/p>\n Cutting carbon emissions to slow a mental health epidemic down the road, Lomborg says, is an extreme reaction that makes it difficult to take global warming and climate change advocates seriously.<\/p>\n According to Lomborg:<\/p>\n The new report \u201cemphasizes that we\u2019ve seen an increase in catastrophes, and obviously this is from Australia. The link is that we see more hurricanes, we see more floods, we see more bush fires and that leads to social disruption and hence, we should cut carbon emissions. Well, actually, if you look at the past of hurricanes since 1872 in Australia, severe hurricanes have declined slightly, not increased.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cIf we look at bush fires as normalized to damage costs, we\u2019ve also seen declining, not increasing, damage costs,\u201d Lomborg continued. \u201cAnd, that\u2019s also true for flooding.\u201d<\/p>\n