Climate Change and Psychological Well-Being in Kerala: A Phenomenological Exploration

Global climate change has become one of the most visible environmental concerns of the 21st century. Kerala, a southern state of India, is suffering its impacts through floods, landslides, increasing temperatures, drought, and wildfires for the past few years. Although there is significant research and communications on the physical impacts of climate change, there is a minimal reference on how climate change affects psychological well-being across various demographics, even though mental health is as important as physical health. This article explores the experience of 10 Keralites in the age range of 35 to 55 who were affected by climate-related natural disasters. The researcher aims to find the effect of climate change-related events on psychological well-being across various genders and occupations. It also tries to investigate how people psychologically adapt to extreme climate events. The study’s research design is exploratory and uses an interpretative phenomenological qualitative approach. The results will be analyzed using Braun and Clarke's (2006) thematic model and will be discussed in the full paper.