Climate justice & decolonising Reading List

ABSTRACT (Open Access, CC BY 4.0): Climate change is already having unequal effects on the mental health of individuals and communities and will increasingly compound pre-existing mental health inequalities globally. Psychiatrists have a vital part to play in improving both awareness and scientific understanding of structural mechanisms that perpetuate these inequalities, and in responding to global calls for action to promote climate justice and resilience, which are central foundations for good mental and physical health. The authors highlight the interconnectedness of inequality, climate and ecological destruction, and adverse mental health outcomes, and propose a model for mental health practice and research that promotes climate justice and resilience.

Whyte names and maps an emerging field he provisionally calls 'Indigenous climate change studies', encompassing the work of Indigenous and allied scholars, knowledge keepers, scientists and leaders supporting Indigenous peoples' capacities to address climate change. The essay surveys Indigenous climate resiliency plans, policy documents, declarations and academic scholarship, arguing that climate change cannot be understood as a purely 'natural' phenomenon but must be situated within processes of extraction, dispossession and settlement that Indigenous communities have long resisted and theorised. Whyte frames Indigenous futurity and decolonisation as central, rather than peripheral, to understanding and responding to the climate crisis, offering a foundational orientation for the wider field.

ABSTRACT: This study explored how a process of community transformation emerged in post-hurricane Puerto Rico. Most post-disaster research focuses on community and personal losses while little is known about strengths and positive outcomes. In the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017, vast structural injustices in Puerto Rico were made visible. In this grounded theory study, residents from different communities in Puerto Rico (N=69) shared their post-disaster experiences. Results revealed a phase-based theoretical model of post-disaster community transformation, with facilitators including a sense of community, posttraumatic growth, and critical consciousness, and barriers including leader burnout and interpersonal tensions.