Man-made climate change poses a substantial threat to societal living conditions. In our recent perspective paper, we argue that neuroscience can substantially contribute to the fight against climate change and provide a framework and a roadmap to organise and prioritise neuroscience research in this domain. We outline how neuroscience can be used to (1) investigate the negative impact of climate change on the human brain, (2) identify ways to adapt, (3) understand the neural substrates of decisions with pro-environmental and harmful outcomes, and (4) create neuroscience-based insights into communication and intervention strategies that aim to promote climate action. The paper is also a call to action for neuroscientists to join broader scientific efforts to tackle the existential environmental threats Earth is currently facing.

Reference: Doell, K. C., Berman, M., Bratman, G. N., Knutson, B., Kühn, S., Lamm, C., Pahl, S., Sawe, N., Van Bavel, J. J., White, M. P., & Brosch, T. (2023) Leveraging neuroscience to fight climate change. Nature Climate Change. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01857-4 

A freely readable version of this paper is available at: https://rdcu.be/drJQC