Extreme Weather Mental Health Report

The goal is a rigorous, publish-ready research document that tracks how wildfires, floods and droughts set off a chain reaction—displacement, school closures and wider educational disruption—and how that in turn shapes adolescent mental health.

Methodology must lean on three pillars:
• a scholarly literature review across psychology, education and climate-science databases;
• a systematic scrape of reputable news, government briefings and other media, with the query script shared for reproducibility;
• integration of existing data from the recent Pacific Palisades fires, then widening the lens to a national comparison so local findings sit in a broader U.S. context.

Displacement and the interruption of schooling are the core threads, yet the narrative should still acknowledge related knock-on effects such as infrastructure failures when they directly influence educational access or wellbeing.

Deliverables
• 8,000–10,000-word report (Word or Google Doc) with executive summary, clearly marked methodology, findings, discussion and APA-style citations.
• An annotated spreadsheet (CSV) of all scraped articles, including publication date, outlet, location and relevance tags.
• A brief slide deck highlighting key statistics, teen vignettes and policy recommendations suitable for stakeholders.

Acceptance criteria: transparent sourcing, balanced coverage of both Pacific Palisades and nationwide data, and a final document that a mental-health nonprofit could circulate without further editing.