The majority of Canadians say they have witnessed a “climate-related event,” according to a newly released poll.
In the Leger poll, 81% of respondents attributed events they have witnessed such as heatwaves, high winds, flooding, drought, and wildfire to climate change.
“While some may feel sad and helpless about it, they remain motivated to protect themselves, and think there is more they could be doing to adapt,” wrote the Leger report.
Canadians had a gloomy outlook about the environment.
Most respondents (70%) said impacts have gotten worse in the past two years. The same number said consequences will continue to worsen over the next five or ten years (69%).
Canadians were scattered in their opinions of how such events impact their well-being.
Food security was the most popular health and wellness concern among respondents (59%), physical health was middling (40%), and mental health was the least concerning (26%). A smaller share reported they were not concerned about anything on the list (6%).
While Canadians were least concerned about the effects of mental health, mental health has still gained traction in the world of climate change.
Last month, a university in British Columbia announced it will host “climate change anxiety and grief” seminars to address the rising impacts of climate concerns.
The Simon Fraser University seminar taught strategies for managing emotions, such as breathing exercises, as well as strategies to relieve stress, such as reducing caffeine intake and improving exercise regimens.
A 2020 study in the National Library of Medicine linked high caffeine intake to mental distress in university-aged men and women (aged 18 to 29), and similarly linked high exercise with a decrease in mental distress of university-aged men and women.
While people may blame global warming for weather-related events that cause them grief, this may not always be the case.
In 2020, US Forest Service scientist Malcolm North said forest fires were not intensifying because of climate change, but because humans are preventing fires from burning. Preventing natural fires, he said, was effectively stockpiling the forests with dead wood, which added “fuel” for the next fire.
The Leger climate change public opinion poll was completed last summer, and released in January 2023. It was conducted on behalf of the Environment and Climate Change Canada department of the Government of Canada.
