Included in this edition:

• To My Climate-Concerned Health Colleagues: September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month
• 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina
• The Fight to Retain the Endangerment Finding: Update
• Call to Action: Submit a Written Comment
• Introducing Climate Junction
• Climate Champion of the Month: Caroline Dumont MD, MPH
• Events, Talks, Conferences, and Courses: Alan Weisman Book Club, Climate Change and the Environmental Impact of Mental Health
• Good Reads and Good Listenings: The Practice and Assessment of Science: Five Foundational Flaws in the Department of Energy's 2025 Climate Report - American Meteorological Society; How Students and Teachers Are Talking About Climate

CPA has a very lean budget. We heavily rely on member contributions for our continued work. Your financial support is essential for the ongoing work of the CPA! Please make a generous tax-deductible end of year contribution. Every bit helps. 

With Sadness, We Announce the Death of Robert Jay Lifton, MD, Psychiatrist & Psycho-Historian

Just as we prepared to send out this Newsletter, we saw the sad news of the death of Robert Jay Lifton, MD who died on September 4 at the age of 99 years old. Dr. Lifton was an outspoken leader and prolific writer who addressed the intersection of psychology and the socio-political influences of the most profound historical events of the 20th/21st centuries. He brought attention to the understanding of collective violence, the reaction of humans to extreme situations, the human capacity for evil, as well as the potential for resilience in the face of immense trauma.

We will look at his life and contribution more deeply next month; for now we mourn his death and wonder who will be that guiding voice in shaping our understanding of the psycho-socio-political challenges of our world going forward. His courageous voice will be missed. See Dr. Steve Moffic’s brief personal and touching tribute.

Jane,

September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. This month’s column is written by our colleague Caroline Dumont, MD, an expert on suicide and climate change.

Globally, over 720,000 people die by suicide each year, and suicide is the third leading cause of death in young people. The Commonwealth Fund 2023 International Health Policy Survey found the U.S. has the highest suicide rate compared to nine other high-income countries, and has been trending up. There is increasing evidence of relationships between suicidality and climate change. Climate-driven suicides must not be ignored if we are to protect those most at risk in our communities.  

The climate crisis can be linked to suicide through direct and indirect impacts on health and well-being. Direct effects of burning fossil fuels such as air pollution and higher temperatures are linked to increasing suicide rates. Indirectly, climate-related suicides may increase when people experience extreme weather such as drought or crop-damaging heat. In its extreme, climate change permanently displaces people, and research has shown that refugees have higher rates of suicidality. 

Beyond these impacts, climate change-suicide relationships are complex, interrelated and exacerbated by our public policies. We may see unintentional consequences of the Trump administration’s policies on socioeconomic and environmental stress within communities facing high rates of suicide. Consider farmers who, as U.S Senator (R) Tommy Tuberville recently highlighted, are three and a half times more likely to commit suicide than the general population. The short- and longer-term impacts of policies including agricultural tariffs on costs, the deportation of undocumented farmworkers causing crops to go unharvested, while backtracking on climate policies, may strain U.S. farmers even more. This stress will be layered on top of what a recent study estimates will be significant declines in agriculture yields by 2050.

As the planet warms, there will likely be more climate-driven suicides.

Suicides emphasize human suffering but are preventable. It is critical that suicide prevention resources are made available and that Medicare, access to mental health care and social safety net services be maintained. There also needs to be strong investment in mental health and well-being in both high-income and low and middle-income countries. And it is essential that public mental health research address knowledge gaps on how climate change-suicide relationships affect vulnerable populations and environmental justice groups.  

We must simultaneously support all efforts to move away from our dependence on fossil fuel use, the driver of climate change, and support the transformative shift to clean energy. Together at CPA–and many other climate-concerned groups–we can find hope in action and advocate for sound mental health policies that protect people in our communities and beyond.

On the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Climate Psychiatry Alliance solemnly remembers the many lives disrupted, lost, and forever changed by that devastating storm. Katrina was a wake-up moment for many of us; a stark early warning of the deep interconnections between extreme weather, climate change, and mental health. Katrina highlighted how climate-driven disasters amplify social vulnerabilities, strain mental health systems, and disproportionately affect marginalized communities. Just when we need more resources for responding to disasters, the current administration is unraveling the essential supports we need.

See Dr. Steve Moffic’s reflections on Katrina here.

We are supporting STAND UP FOR SCIENCE’s response to Trump administration’s cuts and dismantling FEMA programs. You can read the declaration here and add your name to the Statement of Solidarity and Support.

If you have been following our actions, you will know that the proposed repeal of the Endangerment Finding threatens to dismantle EPA’s ability to address climate pollution and to accelerate harmful emissions. The Endangerment Finding, issued by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2009, is the scientific and legal foundation for regulation greenhouse gas emissions. EPA Director Lee Zeldin is proposing to repeal it. It’s not too late for us to protect it.

We at CPA have been pouring our energy and time into advocating to oppose these actions.

• Several of us have joined hundreds of scientists, physicians, health advocates and citizens by providing oral testimony at EPA public hearings. See just a few comments from our community here.

• We have submitted extensive written comments from our expertise on the mental health and brain impacts of climate change and air pollution in a scientifically referenced document.

• We have provided our expertise to other organizations in the development of their written comments, for example, the American Lung Association, Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Call to Action: Submit a Written Comment

Here’s how you can help: you can submit a written public comment. Written comments are now due by September 22. These comments are important since they become part of the record and can be used to support potential future litigation–it is expected that this will go to the courts.

As trusted messengers, health professionals have an essential role to play in advocating for protecting the health of our patients and communities from harmful emissions, air pollution, and mental health. As psychiatrists, we have a unique expertise to speak to the harms on brain health and mental health.

You can submit your comment here. Click here and here for a few tips.

Introducing Climate Junction

Climate Junction is a unique collection of information and thinking about climate and mental health. It will be the new “home” for Ecopsychepedia, along with Climate and Your Mind, an open-access e-book with personal narratives from respected authors, and Gen Climate Speaks, a new youth-led podcast series.

Climate Champion of the Month

Her work on the relationships between suicide and climate change has been published in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease and in a highly-accessible and concise article for Ecopsychepedia. She is a reviewer for the Journal of Climate Change and Health, a global scientific medical journal. We are so appreciative that she has shared her expertise in providing our column on suicide, which will soon be published on CPA’s website, and for her many other important contributions.

Events, Talks, Conferences, and Courses

Course: First Responder Operations

DATE: September 11 – December 11, every Thursday from 5–8 PM PT

LOCATION: Virtual

REGISTER: Email Cassandra Dilosa, cdilosa@wi.edu

Whether a first responder, a mental health practitioner, or a student, join The Wright Institute to learn about individual and organizational factors in first responder health & mental health. This unique multi-session course focuses on lives and careers of first responders and their families. Course director: Dr. Emily Diamond, Psy.D, Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health.

Day of Action: SUN DAY

DATE: September 21

LOCATION: Nationwide. Find an event near you here.

Bring the health voice to climate, health & democracy events! SUN DAY is a national day of action that will celebrate wind and solar power and stand up to the wealthy and well-connected who are doing everything they can to stop the clean energy transition.

Sun Day is an opportunity to spread the message that health professionals want Clean Energy for Healthy People. Use the Prescription for H.O.P.E. and action-prescribe at Sun Day events:

• Spread the message that clean energy, climate change and health are closely connected.

• Emphasizes collective action, and guides people towards joining a group

• Identifies simple ways that people can get started immediately to take action on energy policy in their community or state.

• Reminder advocacy that is FUN is sustainable.

• Generic version Prescription for H.O.P.E. [Ready- to- Use]

  Simply print, cut and hand out to attendees.

• Editable version -make it specific to your local area Prescription for H.O.P.E. Editable. 

Micro-Credential in Climate Change and Youth Mental Health

COURSE START DATE: The first cohort started September 2. Discover the course here. Sign up here to receive information about future dates for the Winter cohort.

This fully online and self-paced course is designed to equip frontline professionals with the knowledge and skills, to support youth in our changing climate. Presented by The Luna Moth Circle, with partnership from CPA and Ecopsychepedia. Certified through Carleton University in Canada, learners from any country can participate and earn a certificate.

Good Reads

The Practice and Assessment of Science: Five Foundational Flaws in the Department of Energy's 2025 Climate Report - American Meteorological Society

DOE ignores decades of climate science and contributes to disinformation and public confusion.

Climate Experts’ Review of the DOE: Climate Working Group Report

For a very deep read, this an extensive report from climate scientists.

Don’t let Donald Trump undermine your faith in the climate fight, published by Gina McCarthy in The Guardian on August 24, 2025.

Good Listening and Watching

How Students and Teachers Are Talking About Climate, NEW podcast episode by Climate One: “Their feelings are across a whole variety of spectrums. They're feeling a lot of anxiety. They're feeling dread, they're feeling fear,” says Robin Cooper, co-founder and president of the Climate Psychiatry Alliance. So what can the adults in young people’s lives do to help handle these strong emotions? Tune in to this stellar panel of guests interviewed by Climate One hosts.

Where Climate Change Meets Mental Health, The GoodBeing Podcast, by Bo Aganaba.

Follow this six part series on the intersection between Climate Change and Mental Health to hear from experts working at this intersection, as well as from young people directly sharing from their own lived experience. This series is part of a project in partnership with Carleton University, Break the Divide, Climate Psychiatry Alliance, and Families Canada, collectively known as Luna Moth Circle.

Our Partners

American Lung Association

Chesapeake Climate Action Network

Children's Environmental Health Network

Climate 911: Health People Healthy Planet 

Climate Action Campaign

Climate Health Now

Climate Mama

Climate Mental Health Network

Climate Psychology Alliance North America

Climate Psychology Alliance - UK

Eco-America 

Evangelic Environmental Health 

Families for a Livable Climate

Gen Dread

Georgia Clinicians for Climate Action

Michigan Clinicians for Climate Action

Moms Clean Air Force

Montana Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate

My Geen Doctor

National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative on Decarbonizing the US Health Sector

Physicians for Social Responsibility

Physicians for Social Responsibility San Francisco Bay Chapter

Restore Our Earth

Subject to Climate

The Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health

The Resilient Activist

Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action