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A new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change reveals a strong correlation between warm weather and the rise in suicides.
USA TODAY
Rising temperatures linked to climate change caused by humans could lead to increased suicide rates in the United States and Mexico, a study suggested Monday.
Comparing historical data on temperatures and suicides for decades, researchers found a strong correlation between warm weather and increased suicides, according to a new study published in Nature Climate Change, UK magazine with a reading committee.
Researchers have known for centuries that conflict and violence tend to peak during the warmer months.
"Now we see that in addition to hurting others, some individuals get hurt," said Solomon Hsiang, co-author of the study. from California-Berkeley. "It seems that the heat is deeply affecting the human spirit and the way we decide to inflict damage."
The study found that climate change could result in 9,000 to 44,000 additional suicides in the United States and Mexico by 2050.
The first conclusive evidence that climate change will have a substantial effect on mental health in the United States and Mexico, with tragic human costs, "he said. Hsiang: increase in average monthly temperature
"The thousands of additional suicides that are likely to occur as a result of unmitigated climate change are not just a number, they represent tragic losses for families across the globe. country, "said senior author Marshall Burke of Stanford University.United States, suicides make nearly 45,000 deaths a year, double the number of homicides icides, and they are the tenth cause of death. Suicide rates in the United States have increased by almost 30% since 1999, according to a June report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Globally, about 800,000 people die each year from suicide, according to the World Health Organization.
"Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the world and suicide rates have increased dramatically in the last 15 years," said Burke. A better understanding of the causes of suicide is a public health priority.
Mental health experts warn of other factors to consider when studying suicide rates
. Daniel Reidenberg, Executive Director of Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, a non-profit organization.
"If suicide rates really corresponded to temperature, would that mean that we maintain suicidal in colder climates or colder temperatures? controlled parameters and that would reduce the risk of their death? Reidenberg said:
The co-author of the study, Burke, said that higher temperatures were "not the only, nor the most important risk factor for suicide." [19659007] "Our findings suggest that warming can have a surprisingly large impact on suicide, which is important both for our understanding of mental health and for what we should expect when temperatures continue to heat up.
The past three years have been the warmest in the world, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said, just as carbon dioxide levels are at their highest in 800,000 years.
A study last year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that "global warming trends over the last three decades have already been responsible Suicides in all the world's most 9; India. "
Looking at social media, the authors found that higher monthly temperatures were also associated with increased use of" depressive language "on Twitter by watching over half a billion Twitter posts. , they found that tweets more often contain words such as "lonely", "trapped" or "suicidal" during periods of heat
recessions, which increase suicide rates, or suicide prevention and gun restriction laws, which reduce suicide rates.The study recommends policy makers "to implement policies to mitigate the rise in future temperatures."
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