Climate change and mental health: what can we do about the impending pandemic?

Mental health sequelae of the changing climate arise through various pathways -- direct and indirect, acute and chronic. As the consequences of the climate emergency become more frequent and severe, these pathways may align to impair wellbeing and increase the risk of psychopathology in populations across the globe, especially in vulnerable and underprivileged communities, leading to a mental health epidemic of unprecedented proportions. The healthcare community should thus do all it can to prepare for the coming crisis before it arrives. I propose four ways we can all act within clinical practice to begin mitigate the effects of climate change: (1) become environmentalists and work with sustainability groups at our Trusts; (2) conduct more research to address the understudied areas of climate-triggered mental disease; (3) be involved in teaching and outreach about global heating and its consequences; (4) address our own cognitive biases that climate change will never impact us.