Tuesday, May 14, 2019

Climate Grief: The Growing Emotional Toll of Climate Change

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.

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