Carolyn Beeler: So, just simply that the roads are cut off, things like that, like you can’t physically reach people for a while.

Samia Akhter-Khan: Yeah, totally. That’s one pathway that’s possibly leading from climate change to loneliness. And another one might be migration. So, just increasing climate change around the world leads to increasing migration, which results in loss of place and identity for many people who migrate to a new culture and then maybe feel isolated, as well, because they don’t share the same cultural norms and values as they’re used to at home and also miss their home, of course.

So, when people are displaced as a result of climate change, that contributes to loneliness because they have to leave their homes and communities. They’re uprooted.

That’s right. And there’s also a term called solastalgia. If you leave your home and you see your home being destroyed, you might feel this sense of loneliness that you cannot go back to the places where you shared many memories with your friends and families, and you are sad about losing that physical place, as well.

Interesting. Those sound like they are both linked somewhat to extreme weather events. Is there any link here between the slower-moving impacts of climate change, like rising heat or rising drought to loneliness?

Of course. Yeah. Heat is a big one, as well, where we know that heat is very much related to increasing conflict and violence. So, if there are hotter days, then there’s more violence in the city, as well, and more crime. But also, within families, there is more interpersonal violence as well, for example, directed at children. So, there’s more child abuse during hotter days, which makes sense if we think about it, that people are then confined to their homes. Maybe more stressed, maybe more agitated during heat, but then also not being able to leave because perhaps your home is air-conditioned and outside it’s just far too hot to do anything.

I know that’s true in some places for domestic violence, intimate partner violence, as well, worse on hotter days.

Yeah, totally.

There’s another phenomenon here that you talk about in your research, which is something called “climate loneliness,” which is a little bit different than the other things we’ve been talking about. What is that?

Climate loneliness is very much related to pluralistic ignorance, which is a shared misperception of how others think or behave. And that poses a challenge to collective action. And I’ll give you one example. In the US, a study found that 80% to 90% of Americans underestimate how much people support climate change mitigation policies and climate concern. So, if I feel very strongly about climate policies and mitigation, but I believe that my family and people around me don’t believe in climate change and don’t believe in policies and action that concerns them, then I might feel isolated because of that difference between me and my close relationships. And that is what we call climate loneliness.

All right, so we have these different types of loneliness, these different ways that climate change drives social isolation, but we also want to talk about the solutions here. I know that’s something you’ve looked into. What are some ways that have been shown to actually work to combat the loneliness that can be caused by climate change and natural disasters?

In research, we see a natural tendency to look for social bonds and reconnect with people who we’re maybe not so attached to after an extreme event or during a heat wave when there’s something special. We saw this a little bit during COVID-19, as well, where people were checking in on their neighbors to see if they’re feeling all right. And some of these programs have really implemented that natural tendency to go back to these bonds by, for example, in Italy, creating a neighborhood check program where volunteers or just neighbors checked in on older people who are living alone because they’re some of the most vulnerable people in the context of climate change. And throughout a summer of multiple heat waves in Italy, these people checking in on other people could reduce the mortality rates of these older people living alone by 13%.

Wow.

And that’s a really impactful way, an easy way as well, to check in on your neighbors who live alone, who may not get the medication they need, or may not be able to get the groceries they need because they’re supposed to stay at home during a heat wave.

Or they might not know where to go or be able to go somewhere cooler if they need it, maybe, and folks can help them do that. What about the isolating impact of migration that you’ve outlined? I mean, is there a way to solve that? If you’re displaced from your home, what can help?

I mean, many things could help. It’s always useful for people who have migrated to connect with others in the community and strengthen those social bonds, so you’re not the only one who migrated and can share that feeling. But then also connect with people from the local culture. So, there are, like, buddy programs, or we also just conducted a study using a World Café method with migrant students and older adults in Germany, where we brought people together to think about climate solutions, but also issues around climate change and social isolation and loneliness in the city of Berlin. And these ways of connecting between generations, as well, and talking about something that’s meaningful to everyone and affects everyone in the world, as well, that could really help strengthen that social connection and also create new social ties and bonds.

Does it matter why people are displaced, or do some fixes apply to everyone? So, if you’re trying to address social isolation in a city where people come from all over, does it matter that some of them have been displaced due to the impacts of climate change, or can we just think about addressing loneliness for the whole population as the fix?

It makes sense to think about different reasons and different situations and contexts that people are in. If you come from a place where you were displaced because of a flood or a storm or an extreme weather event, you might have post-traumatic stress, as well, associated with that, as well as with conflict. And these often go together, like political conflict and climate change. They’re also very much connected in a way. So, these folks are dealing with a very different experience than people who migrate for economic reasons, for example, and might have a difficult journey as well, but not this extreme traumatic event that they experienced.

Interesting. I think you mentioned that the link between climate change and loneliness is not something that is at the forefront. It’s not super well-known or super studied. Do you see that changing?

Well, I hope so. Our lab in Brandenburg is really dedicated to making this a more prominent issue of looking at social infrastructure and social relationships in the context of climate change, as well, next to just physical and mental health outcomes, which most researchers and policies have focused on. So, I think they’re really nice integrative points in policy as well, as well as research to look at solutions that address both loneliness and climate change, basically having these co-benefits for social relationships and climate change mitigation adaptation.