‘We are not able to change anything within the time of one generation. Do you think there is any hope for us?’. Critical discourse analysis of environmental media communication as a way to understand the mediated impact of climate change on mental health.

This study investigates climate emotions as a discursive phenomenon co-constructed by digital and social media, with a focus on their implications for mental health and well-being. The mediated impact of climate change — operating through awareness, information, and media coverage rather than through direct experience of extreme weather events — remains underexplored as a distinct source of mental health risk, particularly in regions where the consequences of climate change are not yet directly felt. Drawing on critical discourse analysis (CDA) of 69 English- and Polish-language online texts, we identify a discourse of climate depression and a depressive environmental sensibility characterizing environmental media messages. They are composed of the visibility of climate change-related mental health issues and recurrent depressive tropes - such as lack of agency, hope–no hope ambivalence, and resignation - that together build the depressive emotional atmosphere in media coverage of the climate crisis. We argue that attending to the role of media discourse in shaping mental health and well-being through particular emotional atmospheres, rather than focusing on quantitative exposure to climate information alone, represents both a distinct analytical contribution and an enduring concern for mental health research and practice. The results are discussed with reference to climate justice and the complex entanglement of climate emotions with ethical values and politicized collective identities.