the source of these emotions, and methods to aid those in need and prevent those not as affected. direct effects more information: effects of climate change mental health can be both directly and indirectly impacted by climate change. direct impacts include trauma-related events, such as dislocation from climate-change induced natural disasters, such as flooding or fire, losing friends and family, or other traumatic events. many people exposed to climate-related disasters experience mental health effects. these effects commonly vary from post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and generalized anxiety disorder. these often occur simultaneously, as well as individually. physical health can be severely impacted by climate change. if one's physical health deteriorates due to climate crisis-related problems, this can also be seen as a direct effect. climate change and infectious diseases are a dangerous combination. climate change exacerbates existing challenges in managing infectious diseases. spread, contamination, and variants are all of the concern regarding these illnesses and diseases. the deterioration of one's physical health can also lead to a deterioration in their mental health. indirect effects indirect effects of climate change on mental health happen much more frequently and impact a wider range of adolescents. climate change affects everyone, their friends, their families, and their communities differently. each individual's environment will impact for drastic the indirect effect has on the adolescent. adolescents are aware and cognitive of their surroundings and what is happening around the world relating to climate change. however, they are still young, learning, and growing. their brains are not fully developed and they take in a lot of information. loads of negative information, like climate change, will negatively impact them and their development. being forced to move, or displacement is becoming more common as the climate crisis rises. forced displacement may be caused by natural disasters, reduction of food or food security, famine, water scarcity, or other environmental impacts. this displacement alone evokes feelings of grief and loss by being forced to move from a place of comfort to someplace unknown. reduction of food, famine and water scarcity will indirectly impact an adolescent's health by invoking fear and anxiety, as well as grief and loss. as an adolescent, relationships are important. displacement can put strains on an adolescent's social relationships, as well as prevent them from further developing their social skills and relationships. community conflict can also indirectly impact an adolescent's mental health. the community may experience conflicting views on how to approach climate change, climate change methods, and climate change awareness. surrounded by negative emotions, and situations can heavily way on a developing adolescent. they may not want to personally experience this conflict with others and pull back from social interactions. they may possess different ideas, but struggle to get someone to listen due to their age. feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, and fear become prevalent. high-risk factors there is a multitude of factors relating to climate change that can impact an adolescent's mental health. the geographic location of which the adolescent resides has a large impact on the risk of their mental health. located in a first-world country, the environmental impacts will be much more prevalent and noticeable. an adolescent communities reliance on the natural environment is also a high-risk factor. if their community relies heavily on good soil for agriculture, a large abundance of wildlife, and reliable water sources, they may see the effects more drastically, leading to the impact on their mental health. preexisting mental illness is a high-risk factor for adolescents. if the adolescent already struggles with mental illness, the distress caused by climate change will only worsen it. adolescents who are economically disadvantaged are at risk for mental health problems relating to climate change. adolescents with less money living on their own, or living in a home that is not economically gifted, may be more susceptible to the damages done to the world including food and water sources. they cannot individually contribute. this may look like no more single-use plastics or driving electric vehicles. feelings of guilt and anxiety could potentially arise or worsen. if a natural disaster were to occur, they might not have the fundings or the resources to live peacefully or survive. positive impacts while most studies on the psychological impact of climate change finds negative effects, positive impacts are also possible. direct experience of the negative effects of climate change may lead to positive personal change. for some individuals, experiencing environmental events such as flooding have resulted in greater psychological salience and concern for climate change, which in turn predicts intentions, behaviors, and support for policy in response to climate change . a potential example of positive impact via the indirect channel would be financial benefits for the minority of farmers who could enjoy increased crop yields. while the overall effects of climate change on agriculture are predicted to be strongly negative, some crops in certain areas are predicted to benefit. at a personal level, emotions like worry and anxiety are a normal, if uncomfortable, part of life. they can be seen as part of a defense system that identifies threats and deals with them. from this perspective, anxiety can be useful in motivating people to seek information and take action on a problem. anxiety and worry are more likely to be associated with engagement when people feel that they can do things. feelings of agency can be strengthened by including people in participatory decision-making. problem-focused and meaning-focused coping skills can also be promoted. problem-focused coping involves information gathering and trying to find out what you personally can do. meaning-focused coping involves behaviors such as identifying positive information, focusing on constructive sources of hope, and trusting that other people are also doing their part. a sense of agency, coping skills, and social support are all important in building general resilience. education may benefit from a focus around emotional awareness and the development of sustainable emotion-regulation strategies. for some individuals, the increased engagement caused by the shared struggle against climate change reduces social isolation and loneliness. at a community level, learning about the science of climate change, and taking collective action in response to the threat, can increase altruism and social cohesion, strengthen social bonds, and improve resilience. such positive social impact is generally associated only with communities that had somewhat high social cohesion in the first place, prompting community leaders to act to improve social resiliency before climate-related disruption becomes too severe. history efforts to understand the psychological impacts of climate change have antecedents in work from the 20th century and even earlier, to understand reactions to the changing physical and social environment that arose from changes such as the industrial revolution. empirical investigation of psychological impacts specifically related to climate change began in the late 20th century, and became more frequent in the first decade of the 21st. from the early 2010s, psychologists were increasingly calling on each other to contribute to the understanding of psychological impacts from climate change. while psychologists had almost zero involvement in the first five ipcc reports, at least five will be contributing to the ipcc sixth assessment report, which should be fully published by 2022. as of 2020, the discipline of climate psychology had grown to include many subfields. climate psychologists are working with the united nations, with national and local governments, with corporations, ngos and individuals. mitigation efforts psychologists have increasingly been assisting the worldwide community in facing the "diabolically" difficult challenge of organizing effective climate change mitigation efforts. much work has been done on how to best communicate climate related information so that it has positive psychological impact, leading to people engaging in the problem, rather than evoking psychological defenses like denial, distance or a numbing sense of doom. as well as advising on the method of communication, psychologists have investigated the difference it make when the right sort of person is doing the communication – for example, when addressing american conservatives, climate related messages have been shown to be received more positively if delivered by former military officers. various people who are not primarily psychologists have also been advising on psychological matters related to climate change. for example, christiana figueres and tom rivett-carnac, who led the efforts to organize the unprecedentedly successful 2015 paris agreement, have since campaigned to spread the view that a "stubborn optimism" mindset should ideally be part of an individual's psychological response to the climate change challenge.