Links tagged “psychological”

"Climate distress is very difficult, if not impossible, to bear alone...The IPCC report is the bearer of alarming news for all on Earth. How can we best hear and respond to this alarm, caring for ourselves and others while mustering motivation and commitment for desperately needed action? The research of climate psychology tells us that rather than suppress or avoid our distress, we need to welcome it as a healthy response to the climate crisis. If we are not feeling some level of fear and grief, we are in denial. Acknowledging the myriad feelings of distress we have in response to climate breakdown is crucial for sustained action in response. Our feelings show us how much we care about our world, our communities, our lives and our loved ones. This caring is the basis for the action and change our world needs from us all right now.

WaPo: “Yes, the planet will get hotter. Sea levels will rise further. Extreme weather will worsen, and more people will suffer,” writes WaPo. “[M]ore people than ever could experience serious challenges to their mental health as a result.”

“A nonprofit organization called the Good Grief Network, [created] a 10-step program inspired by the structure of Alcoholics Anonymous whose meetings provide ‘social and emotional support to people who feel overwhelmed about the state of the world,’ says it has reached over a thousand people in four years. Steps in the program range from accepting ‘the severity of the predicament’ to reinvesting ‘into meaningful efforts.’”

ABC News: For Meg Keene, climate change is something that not only needs to be addressed but is also very difficult to cope with personally. "As someone with anxiety, I kind of try not to think too much about the future with regards to climate change, because it's so terrifying," Keene, 41, said. ... Keene says she has been struggling with anxiety since she was a kid and for her, talking about the uncertain and changing weather patterns is triggering. "I find it crippling with my anxiety and depression, but mostly with my anxiety," Keene told ABC News.

Some experts say that the mere discussion of climate change can contribute to that anxiety. "Climate change can affect mental health by just increasing people's stress and worry about the issue, the more they hear about it," said Dr. Susan Clayton, a professor in psychology and environmental studies in The College of Wooster, in Ohio. "It's been described as an existential threat, something that really challenges the way we think about the world. And I think it has the potential to really erode our sense of security," Clayton added.

Sustainability scientist Kimberly Nicholas new book, Under the Sky We Make: How to Be Human in a Warming World:  "She has struggled to address her feelings of sadness." ... Q: You write that your own approach has included learning to “sink into your grief.”

A: There are things that are changing beyond recognition right now from climate change, and that makes me really sad. And to me, grieving is an important part of the process of acknowledging that. It does draw from my experience of losing a dear friend to cancer, who died at 37. ... it shouldn’t take a terminal diagnosis for life on Earth to wake us up to the urgency of working for climate stability." ... 

“My dispassionate training,” the Lund University researcher writes, has “not prepared me for the increasingly frequent emotional crises of climate change,” or how to respond to students who come to her to share their own grief. ... I have pretty much stopped flying for work. It hasn’t meant I can’t be a productive researcher. I have collaborations and projects, but I try to focus on work that doesn’t require so much travel or is easier to reach by train. The only flight I haven’t yet given up is going back to the U.S. to see my family."

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Flashback: Crying over ‘climate change’ – Tears, sobbing, & ‘climate grief’ is an actual thing for activists – Special Report

ProPublica profile of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab climate scientist Peter Kalmus: "The Climate Crisis Is Worse Than You Can Imagine. Here’s What Happens If You Try". - "A climate scientist spent years trying to get people to pay attention to the disaster ahead. His wife is exhausted. His older son thinks there’s no future. And nobody but him will use the outdoor toilet he built to shrink his carbon footprint." ... 

Peter had been pleading, begging for people to pay attention to the global emergency. “Is this my personal hell?” he tweeted this past fall. “That I have to spend my entire life desperately trying to convince everyone NOT TO DESTROY THE FUCKING EARTH?”

“We’re talking about the end of life on Earth as we know it.” ... Peter walked around Manhattan, “freaking out in my brain,” he said, like “one of those end-is-near people with the sandwich boards.”

Next came dumpster diving (which eventually — and thankfully — morphed into an arrangement with Trader Joe’s to pick up their unsellable food every other Sunday night). Peter’s haul — “seven or eight boxes,” according to Sharon; “three boxes,” according to Peter — included dozens of eggs with only one broken. Flats of (mostly not moldy) strawberries. Bread past its sell-by date....Low-carbon living was a lot. ... 

They stopped using the gas dryer. They stopped shitting in the flush toilet and started practicing “humanure,” composting their own crap. Sharon...liked the local, organic anti-capitalist politics of it. “Marx writes about this in ‘Capital, Volume 1’ that one of the reasons Europeans started to use chemical fertilizers is because people started to move into the cities and off of the land, … and people stopped pooping out in the countryside, so it became less fertile.”

They used eucalyptus leaves to try to cover up the smell, but then little bits of leaves got all over the bathroom, too. After a while Peter moved the composting toilet outdoors.

Peter had been pleading, begging for people to pay attention to the global emergency. “Is this my personal hell?” he tweeted this past fall. “That I have to spend my entire life desperately trying to convince everyone NOT TO DESTROY THE FUCKING EARTH?”