Written by Sylas Yarad, Fair Shake Community Democracy Intern
Have you ever gone for a walk outside, heard the birds, and felt it clear your mind? Even lift your mood? There's a reason why people say they need to "get outside" – our surroundings have a profound impact on the way we think, feel, and cope with our situations. But what is the effect when those surroundings are polluted, neglected, or even unsafe? Our environment impacts more than just our physical health; it has a substantial impact on our mental health too.
What we mean by "environment": The environment includes the physical, chemical, and biological conditions around us. This includes both the natural world, such as parks, green spaces, and tree-lined streets, as well as the man made-world, like homes, the workplace, and the roads we commute down. Our environment even goes beyond the physical, and can include the social and economic conditions of our communities: things such as housing stability, resources, pollution, health, and safety. All the places where we live, work, learn, and move through all contribute to both our physical health and mental well-being.
For many communities, primarily those lower-income communities with higher concentrations of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, that environment tends to look different. Often, their daily lives include more noise, more pollution, less access to green space, and less tree cover. This imbalance is what Environmental Justice–or EJ–seeks to address.
Environmental Justice: What is it and how can we use it to heal?
Environmental Justice is the idea that everyone deserves a clean, safe, healthy environment, regardless of income, race, or zip code. However, many communities lack this basic human right. Black, indigenous, and other communities of color are statistically more likely to live near industrial sites, landfills, or areas with heavy traffic. This is no coincidence, but rather the result of years of systemic discriminatory housing and zoning policies.
Environmental injustices like these don't only harm physical health. They also carry with them a significant mental burden. Such environmental injustices are not just harmful to physical well-being. They are psychologically damaging. Chronic exposure to environmental hazards produces chronic stress, fear, and hopelessness. Parents worry about the safety of their children. Members of the community feel marginalized or silenced. Together, over time, this stress results in anxiety, depression, and even trauma.
Environment and our mental health
There is extensive public-health research showing that our environment affects how we feel. Living in a heavily polluted area with high traffic, factories, or polluted waterways is not only a physical danger, it also increases mental-health risk. Multiple studies link air pollution to higher rates of anxiety and depression. Climate change is increasing stress for many communities and has been associated with higher levels of irritability and aggressive behavior during extreme events. By contrast, people who live near parks and other green spaces consistently report lower stress and better moods. (Taylor&Francis)
Air pollution: Long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has been linked with higher risks of depression and anxiety. Studies report a measurable increase in mood disorder risk with chronic PM2.5 exposure (The Lancet).
Lack of green/blue space: Living near parks, trees, or safe waterfronts is associated with lower stress and fewer depressive symptoms. Increases in nearby green space show improvements for mood and social connection (PubMedCentral).
Noise: Chronic exposure to traffic or industrial noise disrupts sleep and raises stress levels. Noise-related sleep loss is often associated with higher anxiety and poorer mental health (PubMedCentral).
Heat and extreme weather: Heat waves and higher average temperatures correlate with spikes in mental-health emergencies and worsen symptoms for people with mood and anxiety disorders (PubMedCentral).
Housing instability & substandard housing: Unstable or substandard housing has a strong connection to elevated rates of depression, anxiety, and stress (BioMed Central).
Climate disasters (floods, wildfires): Floods, fires, and other disasters are followed by increased rates of PTSD, depression, and anxiety in affected communities (PubMedCentral).
Toxic exposure: Living near polluting facilities that release toxic chemicals contributes to chronic worry about health and environment which increases and intensifies mental-health burdens (PubMedCentral).
What Can we do?
The good news is that this can also improve mental well-being. Local initiatives to plant trees, greenify neighborhoods, and restore parks and open spaces have been shown to enhance emotional well-being and strengthen social connection (PubMedCentral). When citizens come together to create a cleaner atmosphere and healthier homes, they build resilience, not just in the environment, but also in themselves.
What you can do for yourself:
Make a habit of spending small periods of time outside on a regular basis. Even 10-20 minutes a day near natural spaces can improve mood and decrease stress! (PubMedCentral)
Use nature as a coping skill for mental health by going on walks, get off-line, and be more present outside! (AmericanPsychologicalAssociation)
Connect with your local community: Organize a clean-up, start a community garden, do local tree plantings to build social ties and give the mental benefits agency and community connection.
What you can do for your community:
Be an advocate: fight for greener streets, better monitoring for air quality, and cooling infrastructure, (like tree canopy for shade or reflective surfaces), in your neighborhood.
Support local EJ groups through fundraising, canvassing for awareness, or protests.
Volunteer with local environmental organizations.
Share your personal story with local officials or at community meetings–personal stories are often more powerful than statistics.
Fair Shake is here to help: check out Fair Shake’s resource library for toolkits and local resources to get involved, or reach out to our team to talk more about community action and mental-health resources.
The main point:
All in all, our mental health is deeply connected to the world around us, that world including where we live, where we commute, where we spend our time in our day-to-day lives. When that environment suffers, we do too. When we fight for environmental justice, we are also fighting for ourselves and the well being of our communities, for a collective healing both physically and emotionally. Protecting our planet also means protecting our peace of mind.
