For every degree the temperature rises, the suicide rate rises by 0.7% in the United States and 2.1% in Mexico, according to research in Nature Climate Change. In view of the estimated global warming by 2050, this phenomenon could lead to 40,000 suicides in these countries alone.
Climate change could increase the suicide rate. This is stated in a new article in Nature Climate Change, which estimates that rising temperatures in the United States and Mexico will cause tens of thousands of additional self-induced deaths in the coming years.
The research, led by researchers from Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley (both in the US) and in collaboration with other institutions, analyzes the effects of high temperatures on the rise in suicides during the warmer months that have been observed for years. When analyzing decades of historical data in thousands of cities and taking other factors into account, researchers conclude that suicide rates increase by 0.7% in the US and by 2.1% in Mexico when the average monthly temperature rises by 1°C.
According to the “normal” emission scenario of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), global surface temperatures could rise by 2.5°C in the USA and 2.1°C in Mexico by 2050. According to the study, this heat would lead to an additional 9,000 to 40,000 suicides in both countries.
Although the cause is unknown, research suggests that high temperatures have a direct effect on mental health, “perhaps because of the side effects of thermoregulation. In other words, the blood flow patterns of the brain can change when the body works to keep its temperature within a certain range.
To find out whether high temperatures are related to mental health, the researchers analyzed data from more than 600 million geotagged Twitter posts. They found that any 1.35% increase in average monthly temperatures stimulates the likelihood of tweets with “depressive” language (such as “lonely”, “trapped” or “suicidal”).
The document follows an increasing number of researches that gradually confirm that climate change will have a broad impact on human health and well-being. Earlier work by Stanford University researcher Marshall Burke and the University of California at Berkeley researcher Solomon Hsiang concluded that global warming will also significantly increase violence around the world (see Wars: The Hidden Effect of Climate Change). In a statement, Hsiang says: “Some people hurt themselves and others. It seems that heat influences the human mind deeply and how we decide to do harm.