Five projects. One brain. Go explore.
Thirty interns from across Canada spent the summer turning climate-and-brain research into something the public can use, then presented it at Demo Day on October 18. Every one of them has something to try right on this page. Tap a node to jump in!
The neurological effects of wildfire smoke
Smoke doesn’t stop at your lungs. Through flash fiction, infographics and short explainers, this team’s website follows wildfire smoke from the air into the body and up to the brain — and shows what researchers know, and don’t know yet.
Drag the slider through a summer smoke day and watch what changes — outside and inside you.
Advice paraphrased from Canada’s Air Quality Health Index. Check your local AQHI on smoky days.
Tap each stop to trace where fine smoke particles (PM2.5) go.
The site mixes creative storytelling with research, including an infographic on how smoke affects the lungs and brain and a knowledge check of its own. When the team asked people of different ages what they knew about smoke, almost no one had heard of PM2.5, so they wrote every blurb for readers with no science background.
The team
Mentor: Allison Y.
Understanding climate anxiety
An article-style website built from the internship’s expert lectures, with an animated intro video and downloadable worksheets. It covers climate change’s health impacts, brain and mental health, health equity, and why sharing science well matters — all centred on what climate anxiety actually is.
Their video opens with a moment most of us know. Keep scrolling and see how it feels — then put the phone down.
The team
Mentor: Isabelle N.
Brain health in a changing climate
Heat, disasters, displacement, trauma and eco-anxiety: each team member took one thread and explained how it shapes brain health — and what we can do about it. The result is a website and a companion slide deck aimed at young people.
Out of every 100 people hit by a climate event like a wildfire, flood or heatwave, how many experience each of these? Make your guesses, then reveal.
After you reveal: the filled bar is the real number, the black line is your guess.
Every topic got its own page on the site and its own slides in the deck. The site also has Canadian case studies and a Next Steps section with resources to cope, take action and donate, all written to be easy for youth and adults alike.
The team
Mentor: Bhavneet K.
The Eco-Brain Project
An accessible hub that brings brain health and climate health together — built on research into neurological conditions, a youth survey on eco-anxiety, and interviews with an Elder and with a person living with a neurological condition.
Click through the sections of their site. Then finish on Take Action and see how many you already do.
Brain Atlas
A map of how climate stressors connect to the brain — heat, air quality and extreme events linked to memory, mood, learning and neurological disease — laid out so the research is easier to follow.
Memory Bank
The site’s section on memory and the mind in a changing climate. Step inside on the live site to see how the team connects climate stress to the way we remember and learn.
Listening Library
Real voices, not just statistics. The team recorded conversations that show how the climate crisis lands on people’s lives.
Eco-Anxiety Results
What do young people actually feel about the climate crisis and its health effects? The team ran a national Youth Voices survey with young people aged 13 to 25.
Take Action
Small things that protect your brain and the air. Tick the ones you already do. On the live site you’ll also find live air-quality readings, donation links and community support networks.
The team kept the tone calm on purpose: informative for people most at risk, without being frightening for anyone.
The team
Mentor: Simran G.
An adolescent brain in love, on a changing planet
How might wildfire smoke, extreme heat and air pollution affect a developing brain — its mood, sleep, stress and even its crushes? This project links climate science, neuroscience and adolescent psychology, with an equity lens on who carries the heaviest load.
Tap the glowing spots on Sarishka’s brain illustration. Then flip to climate mode to see how the same systems can be strained by a changing planet.
Created by
Built by young people in a single summer.
Imagine what yours could be. Applications for the 2027 NeuroClimate Youth Internship open in the spring — for students and mentors.