Hester Parr is Professor of Human Geography at University of Glasgow and is an award-winning Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and Academy of Social Science. Her research looks at relationships between place and mental health, often informed by people with lived experience of mental ill-health. She is a co-convenor of a network of researchers in University of Glasgow interested in climate change and mental health.

The talk will outline the connections between climate change and mental health, as they are represented in contemporary interdisciplinary research and global reports. These higher-level headlines contextualise a more detailed picture relating to how philosophers and geographers have understood the challenges in this area, with a focus on emotions and emotional responses to climate change. How Scotland’s mental health might be implicated in climate change scenarios is outlined, along with an assessment of what needs to be done going forward. The talk will feature attention to lived experience of seasonal affective disorder (SAD), in connection with Parr’s current UKRI research project. The conclusion will broadly address the future politics, policies and practice of climate change and mental health.