This is such an important article.
Ironically
it’s also from a mainstream media resource. And it’s been the corporate
media that has utterly failed us in their reporting about climate
change over the past 40 years and been one significant part of why these
decades have been squandered. Gradually more of the devastating deeper
truths and connecting links are beginning to seep into our corporate
media resources. But we still have a long ways to go in seeing human
caused climate
disruption and the urgency of radical changes — such as in the Green
New Deal — making the daily headlines, which is what has long been
needed. And this criminal negligence is why there has long been a vital
need to extricate our media and political system and our own minds from
the toxic influences and brainwashing that we’ve been immersed in from
the fossil fuel industry, Wall Street, the military industrial complex,
etc.
I
also agree with Bill McKibben — activism is an antidote. And opening to
grief is so vital. We can work at strengthening our hearts individually
and together so we become stronger in our capacity to allow our
experiences of grieving and fear and compassion and caring for all of
life. AND we can become active and do our part, whatever that is, in
working together to address human caused climate disruption. In this
process, we also increase our connection with each other and our Earth
Mother and treasure and hold with reverence all that we have and love.
I also continue to highly recommend the new books and work of both Bill McKibben (http://billmckibben.com/) and Dahr Jamail (https://truthout.org/authors/dahr-jamail/). We’re all in this together and we all need each other. 🙏 Molly
By Avichai Scher
When the U.N. released its latest climate report in
October, it warned that without “unprecedented” action, catastrophic conditions
could arrive by 2040.
For Amy Jordan, 40, of Salt Lake City, a mother of three
teenage children, the report caused a “crisis.”
“The emotional reaction of my kids was severe,” she told
NBC News. “There was a lot of crying. They told me, 'We know what’s coming, and
it’s going to be really rough.’ “
She struggled too, because there wasn't much she could do
for them. “I want to have hope, but the reports are showing that this isn’t
going to stop, so all we can do is cope,” she said.
The increasing visibility of climate change, combined with
bleak scientific reports and rising carbon dioxide emissions, is taking a toll
on mental health, especially among young people, who are increasingly losing
hope for their future. Experts call it “climate grief,” depression, anxiety and
mourning over climate change.
Last year, the American Psychological Association issued
a report on
climate change’s effect on mental health. The report primarily dealt with
trauma from extreme weather but also recognized that “gradual, long-term
changes in climate can also surface a number of different emotions, including
fear, anger, feelings of powerlessness, or exhaustion.”
In the last few months, a string of reports have delivered
dire warnings. The U.N. report said the worst effects — such as the flooding of
coastal areas caused by rising sea levels, drought, food shortages and more
frequent and severe natural disasters — could arrive as soon as 2040. In
November, the Trump administration released a report with similarly alarming
findings. Both reports said cutting greenhouse gas emissions could still avert
many of these effects, but a study earlier this month found that after holding
steady from 2014 to 2016, emissions rose in 2017 and are on course to hit an all-time
high in 2018.
The reports came amid a string of powerful natural
disasters, including some that wiped out entire communities, such as Paradise,
California, incinerated by the Camp Fire, and Mexico Beach,
Florida, washed away by
Hurricane Michael.
According to a Yale survey taken this
year, anxiety is rising in the U.S. over the climate. Sixty-two
percent of people surveyed said they were at least “somewhat” worried about the
climate, up from 49 percent in 2010. The rate of those who described themselves
as “very” worried was 21 percent, about double the rate of a similar study in
2015. Only 6 percent said humans can and will reduce global warming.
Dr. Lise van Susteren, a psychiatrist in Washington and
co-founder of the Climate Psychiatry
Alliance, said it’s becoming harder for patients to ignore the
threats of climate change.
No comments:
Post a Comment