Can Climate Change Affect Mental Health?
Published 7/16/23 in Sierra Sun
Burning questions: Can climate change affect mental health? | SierraSun.com
Summer in Tahoe this year –now that it has finally arrived after a historically epic, long winter—has brought its customary splendor: verdant aspen leaves flutter in the breeze; hardy alpine flowers glow in vibrant hues of mustard, crimson and violet; the lakes move and murmur in shimmering rhythms, beckoning and mysterious.
It’s glorious and delightful… and I feel oddly guilty for being able to enjoy this bounty; to be beneath skies that aren’t choked with smoke—and a little nervous knowing it’s only a matter of time before the dangerous haze returns to the Sierra Nevada.
If you’re fortunate enough to be breathing clear air as you read this, do you struggle with a tinge of guilt and dread, like I do? Or, if you’re looking out your window at yet another dusky, gritty sky in the midwest or east coast… or the inescapable heat in the south… do you feel that creeping sense of unreality, like one of those unsettling Netflix series has started to seep into your real life, tainting it inch by inch, hour by hour?
An April 2023 article for the American Psychological Association cites many significant mental health impacts proven to result from the severe hurricanes, wildfires, droughts and heat events in recent years, including increased incidents of PTSD, suicide, aggression, anxiety, and gender-based violence. According to that APA article, “Even some Americans who have not been directly affected by a climate disaster are experiencing climate anxiety—an overwhelming sense of fear, sadness, and dread in the face of a warming planet or anxiety and worry about climate change and its effects.” (How does climate change affect mental health? (apa.org))
Whether one “believes in” the effects of greenhouse gas emissions or not, our collective future on this planet will feature more disasters with every passing year; more days of gritty, dangerous air; more battles with insurance companies over flood or fire coverage; more battles with depression and anger, domestic violence and substance abuse, as people are forced to change how they live in order to stay safe.
An October 2022 New York Times story on the effects of climate change on mental health noted that “millions of Americans now brace for seasons with a sense of heightened worry. Will children be able to play outside without smoky skies? What storms will shroud the Atlantic Coast? Will the house survive another wildfire season?” (How Climate Change Inflicts a Toll on Mental Health - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
So, as we gaze into the future, how do we keep these grim likelihoods from coloring our experience, painting it apocalyptic orange even when the skies –for the moment—are clear?
For one thing, I think we will become more and more adept at compartmentalizing experiences. I think we’ll have to. Like what I’m doing today as I write this: I breathe the crisp mountain air and look at the (seemingly) endless blue sky, and I think: Today is beautiful. The smoke and fire may come –will come—but not today. Today is beautiful.
Maybe I should amend that statement: Today in Tahoe is beautiful. It’s gritty and dingy and dangerous in Chicago and New York; it’s brutally hot in Texas; people in Canada are evacuating their homes under skies so thick with smoke you can barely see… And in the Global South, it’s dangerously hot and smoky almost all the time. But today in Tahoe is beautiful… (And boy, do I feel like a lucky jerk.)
Well, I needn’t worry; my fellow westerners and I will be suffused in smoke soon enough. And maybe a couple of floods and heat domes thrown in there. Who knows, these days?
I often think of it this way: Humans have been metaphorically smoking cigarettes for the last 150 years, and have now discovered we’ve got Stage 3B lung cancer. It’s already got us coughing up blood. If we pretend it’s not happening, the cancer will kill us. If we act decisively now, we may yet have a chance to survive, albeit not in the pink of health as we once were.
So today, I’m taking a deep breath, and another… Enjoying the clear air in my lungs and the soft blue skies above.
And I’m thinking of everything I can do to join the chorus of reasonable, frightened people who see our global home destabilizing more and more every day, calling out to take action now, before mental health becomes the least of our problems.
What is Climate Quitting?
Published 8/11/23 in Sierra Sun
Burning Question #15: What is Climate Quitting? | SierraSun.com
Picture this: You’re a passenger in a car, driving happily along at a rapid clip (Bob, the driver, is a bit of a speed demon), and suddenly something in the distance catches your eye. You squint and see what appears to be a plummeting cliff ahead. You’re headed straight for it.
You lean toward the driver and say, “Hey Bob, do you see that?”
Bob glances at you and asks, “See what?”
“That,” you say, pointing ahead. “It looks we’re headed for a cliff.”
“Nope,” Bob says. “There’s no cliff. I know this area really well. No cliffs around.” He keeps his foot on the gas, and you continue barreling ahead.
You start squirming, more anxious by the second, because you’re pretty sure the car is barreling toward a fiery crash at the bottom of that cliff, despite what Bob says.
At this point, you have an uncomfortable choice: Stay in the car and hope Bob is right despite all appearances to the contrary, or open the passenger door and bail out, hoping you don’t break your neck as you roll through the bushes.
Introducing the dilemma faced by many workers in today’s rapidly climate-changing world: Continue with business as usual despite the looming cliff of ever-worsening climate change or engage in something known variously as “climate quitting” or “conscious quitting”.
A February 2023 article in Yahoo Finance quoted Jeremy Campbell, CEO of the performance improvement consultancy Black Isle Group, “’[The COVID-19 pandemic] has made many people think entirely differently about work… Merge that shift with the realization that we are killing the planet and you bring together two powerful forces which have reprogrammed the mindset of people about the way they work and what they expect of the companies they work for.’” ‘Conscious quitting’ is the newest trend sweeping the workplace. Here’s what leaders can do to avoid it (yahoo.com)
More and more people, it seems, are beginning to see themselves as the passenger in Bob the Speed Demon’s car, considering whether to sit tight or bail out.
I recently heard a fascinating podcast from the BBC called The Climate Question, in which the staff interviewed several people around the world who had changed their careers to move away from carbon-intensive jobs and into work that helps the planet and makes our kids’ futures brighter.
Among those interviewed was a man identified as Donald who quit his job as an engineer at Exxon Mobil in 2018. “Over the course of my career,” he said, “I grew more and more disillusioned. My concerns were really coming to a head around 2013… that the company was going in the wrong direction, that… there weren’t any concerns about the greenhouse gas and climate change impacts…. It was glaring to me how hypocritical we were.” The Climate Question - Should I quit my job to fight climate change? - BBC Sounds
It only makes sense to bail out of a car that’s clearly barreling toward disaster, but the difficulty of a decision such as this is powerful. We all need to make money and feed our families. But the great quandary is how to balance short-term needs (and let’s face it, wants) with long-term factors.
To conclude the allegory with Bob the Speed Demon, our best choice is to convince Bob to slow down and consider rerouting away from the cliff. And many people are starting to find alternate routes, both for themselves in their own work and individual lives –from switching jobs to convincing their employees to adopt climate-friendly practices to driving electric vehicles and installing solar panels--and as part of a growing chorus demanding action from employers and governments.
If Bob the Speed Demon truly understood he was headed full-tilt toward a cliff, he would (unless he’s suicidal) quickly decelerate and drive a different direction (in his new electric vehicle, hopefully).
Those of us who see the cliff owe it to Bob, and to ourselves, to speak up.