Crop-damaging temperatures increase suicide rates in India

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. I study India, where one fifth of global suicides occur and suicide rates have doubled since 1980. Using nationally comprehensive panel...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 114; no. 33; p. 8746
Main Author: Carleton, Tamma A
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States 15.08.2017
Subjects:
Acclimatization - physiology
Agriculture
Climate
Developing Countries - statistics & numerical data
Hot Temperature
Humans
Income - statistics & numerical data
India
Seasons
Suicide - statistics & numerical data
Temperature
agriculture
weather impacts
climate
suicide
India
ISSN:1091-6490, 1091-6490
Online Access:Get more information
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Summary: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. I study India, where one fifth of global suicides occur and suicide rates have doubled since 1980. Using nationally comprehensive panel data over 47 y, I demonstrate that fluctuations in climate, particularly temperature, significantly influence suicide rates. For temperatures above 20 °C, a 1 °C increase in a single day's temperature causes ∼70 suicides, on average. This effect occurs only during India's agricultural growing season, when heat also lowers crop yields. I find no evidence that acclimatization, rising incomes, or other unobserved drivers of adaptation are occurring. I estimate that warming over the last 30 y is responsible for 59,300 suicides in India, accounting for 6.8% of the total upward trend. These results deliver large-scale quantitative evidence linking climate and agricultural income to self-harm in a developing country.
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ISSN:1091-6490
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1701354114