The world faces a threefold environmental crisis: climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Awareness of these crises is growing, as more and more organizations attempt to control harmful human activities. Despite these efforts, the changes made are insufficient. The media delivers alarming news on a daily basis, triggering stress that can turn into eco-anxiety, a chronic fear of environmental catastrophe which in turn can lead to depression and states of anxiety. Climate anxiety, a form of eco-anxiety, is a major threat to mental health in the 21st century. It impacts mental health directly via extreme meteorological events, indirectly via consequences such as famine, and vicariously via the media. Young people are particularly susceptible: 47% of young adults in the US state that it impacts their day-to-day lives. Children are especially vulnerable and may develop eco-anxiety from as young as 8 years old. Tackling this widespread mental health problem, linked to a variety of factors, requires taking action that addresses the root of the problem: education, provision of more green spaces, biophilic design, responsible attitudes, a long-term vision on the part of politicians and businesses, and the transformation of our systems. Governments must protect young people, recognize their fears, and involve them in decision-making. Urgent collective action is essential if we are to protect the mental health of younger generations.

Abstract Green space matters for mental health but is under constant pressure in an increasingly urbanising world. Often there is little space available in cities for green areas, so it is vital to optimise the design and usage of these available green spaces. To achieve this, experts in planning, design and nature conservation need to know which types and characteristics of green spaces are most beneficial for residents' mental health. A scoping review of studies that compare different green space types and characteristics on mental health was conducted. A total of 215 (experimental, observational and qualitative) papers were included in the scoping review. This review highlights a high level of heterogeneity in study design, geographical locations, mental health outcomes and green space measures. Few of the included studies were specifically designed to enable direct comparisons between green space types and characteristics (e.g. between parks and forests). The included studies have predominantly experimental research designs looking at the effects of short‐term exposure to green space on short‐term mental health outcomes (e.g. affect and physiological stress). More studies enabled only indirect comparisons, either within the same study or between different studies. Analysis of the direction of the mental health outcomes (positive, neutral, negative) from exposure to various types and characteristics of green space found positive (i.e. beneficial) effects across all green space types. However, green space characteristics did appear to render more diverse effects on mental health, which is especially the case for vegetation characteristics (e.g. higher vegetation density can be negative for mental health). The scoping review reveals gaps in the present evidence base, with a specific need for more studies directly comparing green space types and characteristics within the same study. Proposed future research directions include the use of longitudinal research designs focusing on green space characteristics, considering actual exposure and systematically addressing heterogeneity in factors influencing the relation between green spaces and mental health (e.g. type of interaction, user experience). Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

The WHO European Centre for Environment and Health has been closely following the research on green and blue spaces because of their importance in addressing human and ecosystem health in urban planning, especially in the context of climate change. Particular attention has been paid to the mental health effects of such spaces. The EKLIPSE Expert Working Group on Biodiversity and Mental Health conducted two systematic reviews on the types and characteristics of green and blue spaces, in relation to a broad set of mental health aspects. The reviews demonstrated the overall positive relationship between green and blue spaces and mental health. This report summarizes the key findings of the systematic reviews, briefly looks at the relevant WHO tools and strategies, and reflects on future needs for research and action. The comparisons of the different green space types and characteristics produced mixed results, indicating that there is no one single space type or characteristic that is a “gold standard” that works best for everyone, everywhere and at any time. For blue spaces, few high-quality papers were available, with little systematic variation in the type of blue space exposure. This prevented the formulation of firm conclusions and recommendations. Finally, the role of access to green and blue spaces, as a refuge for people to relax and socially interact, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic is discussed

Urban green space plays an important role in the mental and physical health of urbanites, as well as of people working in or visiting urban areas (WHO Regional Office for Europe, 2016). But green space can be very diverse in its typology, including for instance urban forests, parks, playgrounds, allotments and urban farming locations. These green space types can also differ greatly in their defining characteristics; for instance, parks can differ in scenic beauty, vegetative composition or openness. Globally, continuing urbanization, as well as climate change, is increasingly putting pressure on the existence of green spaces within urban areas (e.g. Dallimer et al., 2011; Richards & Belcher, 2020). The scarcity of urban green space and the desire to create liveable cities requires in-depth knowledge on how different green space types and characteristics influence mental health, to facilitate well-informed design and planning choices.

Burnout is, besides a global, complex phenomenon, a public health issue with negative consequences on personal, organizational, social, and economic levels. This paper outlines the co-design of a novel Nature-based Burnout Coaching intervention, called NABUCO. Due to the complexity of burnout, we propose a One Health approach in healthcare, educational and governmental pilot organizations, to deliver guidelines and protocols for prevention and recovery of burnout. We advocate the inclusion of the salutogenic and mutual healing capacity of nature connectedness, facilitating a positive impact on mental and environmental health. A transdisciplinary Participative Action Research-design resulted in an iterative adaptive cycle of co-design, implementation, and evaluation of NABUCO.

In the Lago Grande de Curuaí, a floodplain of the Amazon River, located close to the city of Santarem (Brazil), the inhabitants have always adapted their activities (centered on agriculture, fishing, cattle raising) to the seasonal fluctuations of the water level. Historically, strong floods occurred about every 20 years, but recently, they have occurred more frequently, every 2 or 3 years, reaching water levels previously unrecorded. In recent years, dry seasons have also been drier. Scientists mainly attribute these changes to global climate change, which can be observed and measured at the scale of the Amazon basin. This chapter compares the scientific data with the observations, knowledge, and interpretations of the inhabitants of the Lago Grande. Local people do not connect directly floods, drought, and climate change, because at the scale of the floodplain the water level is little impacted by local rainfall. Environmental change cannot be dissociated from social, economic, and political changes. It is generating uncertainty, but floodplain dwellers are more able to adapt to it than other societies.

Working Group (EKLIPSE EWG) was formed to answer the following question: “Which types of urban and suburban blue and green spaces and which characteristics (components) of such spaces have a significant impact on human mental health and wellbeing?”. The answer will be provided by examining the scientific literature. Financial support from the World Health Organization (WHO), adding to that initially provided by EKLIPSE, will allow the EWG to conduct two separate systematic reviews (one for blue spaces and one for green spaces). Previous reviews have been focused on the local amount and availability of, or access to, green (and to a much lesser extent) blue space. The current systematic reviews will be unique in that they focus on the mental health benefits of the type of green (and blue) space and of its distinct characteristics (components). Each systematic reviews will follow six consecutive stages: 1) eligibility criteria for the articles will be formulated, 2) a systematic search strategy will be employed to yield relevant articles, 3) meta-data will be extracted and coded for each eligible study, 4) each study will be critically appraised, 5) a narrative and descriptive synthesis will be performed, and 6) outcomes of the synthesis will be discussed. The main deliverable of the project will be two reports (blue and green), but will also include dissemination via oral presentations and each systematic review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. The outcomes of the systematic reviews will be aimed to inform and provide recommendations to (future) decision makers in several domains, such as health promotion, nature management, spatial policy, urban planning, and design.

In the context of current environmental problems, our study attempts to analyze the representations of pollution on children. In a theoretical framework emphasizing the role of the biophysical environment in cognitive development, we studied the representation of pollution on children living in Perpignan (n = 68, M = 10 years 1 month, SD = 0.64; girls = 32; boys = 36) and Paris (n = 57, M = 10 years 4 months, SD = 0.4; girls = 28; boys = 29). In this comparative study, two tasks were proposed: a free association task and a Likert questionnaire. Significant differences between the representations of children of both cities are highlighted. The results are discussed according to the literature, focusing on the role of direct biophysical environment in the construction of representations. This study opens up ways of reflection about the influence of daily reality experienced in the representation of environmental problems.

Dans le contexte des actuels problèmes environnementaux, notre étude tente d’apporter un éclairage sur les représentations de la pollution chez les enfants. Dans un cadre théorique insistant sur le rôle de l’environnement biophysique dans le développement cognitif, nous avons étudié la représentation de la pollution chez des enfants habitant à Perpignan (n = 68,M= 10 ans 1 mois ; ET = 0,64 ; Filles = 32 ; Garçons = 36) et à Paris (n = 57, M = 10 ans 4 mois ; ET = 0,4 ; Filles =28 ; Garçons= 29). Pour cette étude comparative, deux tâches ont été proposées : une tâche d’association libre et un questionnaire de type Likert. Des différences significatives entre les représentations des enfants des deux villes sont mises en évidence. Les résultats sont discutés selon la littérature, mettant l’accent sur le rôle de l’environnement biophysique direct dans la construction des représentations. Cette étude ouvre d’intéressantes pistes de réflexion sur le rôle de la réalité quotidienne vécue dans la représentation des problèmes environnementaux.

This chapter addresses the foundations of decision making with respect to climate impact, adaptation, and vulnerability (CIAV). The Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) summarized methods for assessing CIAV (Carter et al., 2007), which we build on by surveying the broader literature relevant for decision making.

The present paper uses a methodological and theoretical perspective on cognitive and cross-cultural psychology as it basis. Our research covers an important area: the role of cognition on the human adaptation to global warming. We draw the general hypothesis that human cognition, mediated by culture, can adapt to changes in the environment. However, we believe that accelerated global climatic changes create cognitive vulnerability because culture cannot provide proper knowledge and cognitive tools. We present some results of our fundamental research on cognitive adaptation to climate change from a cross-environmental and cross-cultural perspective. We specifically highlight some preliminary comparative analysis between adults of New Caledonia and Paris on the representation of climate and climate change followed by the human capacity to adapt to this condition. In addition, we provide an intra-cultural comparison on representation of climate, taking into consideration important geographic and climatic differences in France. Preliminary results suggest that culture and environmental experiences have focal impacts on cognitive adaptation. Our findings show that Parisian adults present greater cognitive vulnerability, thus less adaptive cognition. In the light of cross-cultural psychology, we consider that this fact is due, on one hand, to the analytic way of thinking dominated by an urban occidental population and, on the other hand, to the absence of bi-metric representations.

This article examines both the role of cognition in human adaptation to climate change and the role that cognitive psychology can play in this field. We start from the assumption that human cognition, mediated by culture, plays a central role in the adaptation to climatic and environmental changes. However, the current acceleration of global climate change perturbs the cognitive treatment of climate information. The character unpredictable and highly complex of climate in addition to the fact that culture does not provide knowledge as well as cognitive tools necessary to understand it might produce cognitive vulnerability. Taking into account the environmental constraints and cultural characteristics, firstly we present some preliminary results of our fundamental research conducted among adults in New Caledonia and Paris on the representation of climate, climate change and the representation of the human capacity to adapt to global climatic changes. Secondly, we will provide a comparison of intra-cultural representation of the climate in different geographical and climatic conditions in France. Our results suggest that both culture and climatic experience affect cognitive adaptation. Parisian adults exhibit the highest cognitive vulnerability, therefore a less adaptive cognition. We believe these results can be explained by the persistence and inadaptability of analytical thinking dominant in western urban populations along with the lack of bi-metric representations.

In this paper we explore how the original inhabitants of New Caledonia, a French Pacific collectivity, view current climate change, explain its causes and predict climate modifications in the coming 10-, 30- or 100-year periods. We start with the presumption that the traditional worldview of indigenous habitants of New Caledonia allows the construction of a holistic view of climate change despite the "western" teachings based on fundamental analytical thinking in the French school system. Analysis of 61 semi-structured interviews with indigenous adults of New Caledonia demonstrates a universally held systemic view of climate change, in which the circular interaction between activities (including pollution of the air, surface water, cryosphere, lithosphere and biosphere of the Earth) is life threatening for all human beings.

Los estudios en psicologia indican que las concepciones implicitas occidentales de la inteligencia no son compartidas necesariamente por todas las culturas (Dasen, 1985; Grigorenko, 2001). Nuestra investigacion llevada a acabo en Francia (Paris) y en Mexico (Monterrey) estudia por la primera vez la conceptualizacion de la inteligencia de los ninos en estos paises. Consideramos que, aunque el concepto de la inteligencia es transmitido en las dos culturas a traves de una educacion occidental, deberiamos poder identificar diferentes concepciones implicitas de la inteligencia ya que los dos paises tienen sistemas eco-culturales (Brofrenbrenner, 1979) y modos del pensamiento diferentes (Hofstede, 2005; Lammel y Kozakai, 2005; Triandis, 1995). A traves de una tarea de asociacion libre y un cuestionario analizaremos las concepciones implicitas que tienen los ninos de la inteligencia en los paises mencionados (ninos franceses n=50, M=9.63; ninos mexicanos n=50, M=9.4). Los resultados confirman nuestras predicciones; el concepto de inteligencia esta organizado de manera diferente no solo a nivel semantico, sino tambien a nivel estructural. Los resultados se discuten a traves de la literatura relevante.

Based on association tasks, we focused our research on the process of concept construction and on the nature of the semantic structure network of three important concepts in the lives of young adolescents in the Parisian suburbs: violence, religion and intelligence. In this exploratory study, we were interested in identifying similarities and differences in the organization of these social concepts between adolescents with French parents and adolescents with immigrant parents. Despite the fact that these children share common “eco-cultural” experiences, we supposed that the different cultural guidelines in the family settings might influence the construction and the semantic organization of the concepts. Subjects were all born in France (N=228), and they share the same social environment and low socioeconomic status. Analyses of representational fields and of semantic networks were conducted and evidence for some similarities as well as for major differences between the two groups in concept construction and in semantic organization was present. Our findings showed a more homogeneous organization in children with immigrant parents; meanwhile French children’s structures of concepts are more heterogeneous. Major differences can also be observed at the semantic level. The findings are discussed in respect to the concept formation literature and the eco-cultural approach of human development.

In this investigation we were concerned with the cultural covariates of temporal orientation in 14 different national contexts. Data were collected from United States of America (US), Australia, Germany, Poland, Chile, Venezuela, Turkey, United Arab Emirates (UAE), India, Indonesia, Malaysia Japan, South Korea and China. Analyses show that collectivistic cultural orientation tends to be relatively important in the prediction of three facets of temporal orientation (i.e. emphasis on planning and scheduling; sense of time and attitude towards time).