New study: climate change will increase the number of suicides



[ad_1]

This is about the same change in suicide rates as "the estimated impact of economic recessions, suicide prevention programs, or gun restriction laws."

He also concludes that humans can do little -climate the link beyond the development of better medical care to tackle suicide in particular. The usual ways of adapting to high temperatures – by installing air conditioners, for example – do not seem to affect the suicide rate.

Suicide is the second most common cause of death among Americans aged 10 to 34 years. It is also one of the few causes of death in the United States where the age-adjusted death rate does not decrease. In other words, more people die by suicide than before.

"I found convincing results and strong methodology," says Gregory Tasian, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania who was not related to " It fits very well into the global narrative about the effects of climate change and high temperatures on human health and it incorporates another aspect of human health that is often overlooked, namely mental health, "he said. he said.

The new document provides unusually strong evidence that high temperatures will significantly worsen the problem of suicide.

First of all, the new document makes a causal claim: Unusually high temperatures really seem to cause suicide rates increase. The authors controlled for each other major variable that could affect suicide rates. The effect does not seem to change if the victims are men or women, whether the month is January or June, whether they live in an American city or in the Mexican countryside. Second, he finds that the effect manifests itself everywhere : in Saint Paul and San Antonio, in Ohio and in Oaxaca. "We see exactly the same size effect in hot places compared to cold places," Burke told me.

Previous studies on climate change and mortality have shown that the effects of global warming would be mixed. In a landmark study last year, for example, a team of economists found that warmer temperatures will bring modest economic benefits to the Upper Midwest and New England, as they will dull winters murderers from these regions. (The Sunbelt, however, will suffer much less during the summer.)

The same is not true for the suicide rate, which will increase ubiquitously under global warming

. climate change will generate winners and losers. " is a phrase you hear all the time, "said Burke." But for this result, everything is losing. There are no winners. We find these strong linear relationships everywhere as you raise the temperature.

Finally, the article finds that there are few ways to mitigate this effect.In previous studies, economists have found that the adoption of air conditioning leads to decrease in heat-related mortality over time, but the link between climate and suicide does not show the same flexibility.

[ad_2]
Source link