Science Source
Crop-damaging temperatures increase suicide rates in India
- States that more than three quarters of the world’s suicides occur in developing countries, yet little is known about the drivers of suicidal behavior in poor populations
- Looks at India, where one fifth of global suicides occur and suicide rates have doubled since 1980
- Uses nationally comprehensive panel data over 47 years
- Demonstrates that fluctuations in climate, particularly temperature, significantly influence suicide rates
- Finds that for temperatures above 20 °C, a 1 °C increase in a single day’s temperature causes ∼70 suicides, on average
- Finds that this effect occurs only during India’s agricultural growing season, when heat also lowers crop yields
- Finds no evidence that acclimatization, rising incomes, or other unobserved drivers of adaptation are occurring
- Estimates that warming over the last 30 years is responsible for 59,300 suicides in India, accounting for 6.8% of the total upward trend
- Results deliver large-scale quantitative evidence linking climate and agricultural income to self-harm in a developing country
