Robert Kuehnel, Ph.D., of LaFayette, and Martha Viglietta, Ph.D., of Pompey, are psychologists and members of the Syracuse chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby.
Planet Earth is feeling the heat. The year 2023 was the hottest on record, and the warmest in the past 125,000 years. It was a record year of billion-dollar U.S. climate disasters (28). Across the world, we saw massive wildfires, a near-record number of hurricanes and torrential downpours, floods of biblical proportion, and marine heat waves that are wreaking havoc on corals and other sea life. Here in Central New York, we saw the acrid smoke that dimmed our sun for days on end, the early budding of plants and emergence of ticks, and the lack of snow and lake ice.
As part of its evolutionary process, each species has developed a “thermal envelope,” a range of temperatures within which its members can survive. When temperatures change slowly, as they do over geologic timelines, the edges of the envelope can evolve and adapt. When temperatures change more rapidly, as they are now, living creatures must either move to a more suitable climate niche – an option that is rapidly vanishing — or be pushed out of their envelopes and perish. We humans are able to adapt our personal environments to accommodate our thermal needs; however, this condition applies primarily to the more affluent among us, and not at all to other forms of life.
Under the weight of this environmental degradation, we’re feeling the heat psychologically, as well. While the mental health epidemic in the U.S. has multiple causes, the fingerprints of climate change are all too apparent, especially among our youth: hopelessness about an environmentally uncertain future, reluctance to have children for fear of the kind of world they may be born into, and feeling abandoned by leaders who seem to care only about the next quarter’s earnings. Courts in Montana and Europe have found that the effects of climate charge are detrimental to human health, wellbeing and quality of life, and that governments are responsible for shielding children and others from these effects. Sadness about the situation is certainly appropriate, but sadness can lead to feelings of helplessness and hopelessness and result in anxiety and depression. As clinical psychologists concerned about the human impacts of climate change, we would like to offer some thoughts that may be of benefit.
How we think about a problem, and how we respond behaviorally, strongly affect the emotions we experience and how we feel about ourselves. One way of thinking about the climate problem is to just deny it. In psychological parlance, “denial” is considered a “primitive” defense — primitive in the sense that it simply rejects the reality situation. Denial keeps sadness at bay but has obvious drawbacks when it comes to solving a problem.
A less primitive, but nevertheless harmful, way of thinking about the climate crisis is to minimize its importance. Minimizing climate change can make it seem more manageable, easier to adapt to, and allow us to avoid the incredible sadness that comes with knowing that our climate, and the pyramid of life that it supports, is breaking down. However, minimizing the climate problem is a form of fantasy that permits our habits of overconsumption, which got us into this predicament, to continue unabated.
A more productive way of thinking is to start with a realistic appraisal of the problem and a review of what might be helpful. The science tells us the problem of climate change is very real and human-caused, and that there are several things we can do individually to help. We can limit consumption of energy-intensive commodities, such as electricity, gasoline and natural gas, by investing in cleaner technologies to heat and cool our homes and power our vehicles. We can simply travel less and live in smaller spaces. We can limit consumption of beef, lamb, veal and dairy in order to use our land more efficiently and reduce methane emissions. Even though the impacts of such individual actions are limited, they’re nevertheless important because they are indeed helpful, and they provide us with a sense of self-efficacy – a feeling that we have what it takes to make a difference. More importantly, this feeling of confidence may allow us to take the next big step.
Collective effort is that next big step and, by far, the most effective way to address the climate problem. The continuing excessive production of greenhouse gases is the result of large, systemic and economic forces that must be addressed at the macro level. We will do well to join with others and support organizations that represent our values and lobby for the changes we need. And, during this all-important election year, we can vote. Although done individually, voting is fundamentally a collective undertaking. Because our 22nd Congressional District seat is one of the very few in the country that is actually in contention, our votes are incredibly powerful. The road to control of the House of Representatives runs right through Central New York. We can avoid voting for anyone who minimizes the climate problem, and instead vote for the candidate who supports additional action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and is willing to do the hard work of negotiation and compromise necessary to move legislation forward.
Very powerful climate bills are just waiting to be passed by a more functional Congress, bills that would: improve and build out the electric grid to make it more resilient and accommodating to new sources of green energy; lay the foundation for rewarding American manufacturers for their clean energy innovations, and disadvantaging foreign competitors that continue to rely on dirty fossil fuels; and create policies that preserve and expand our healthy forests.
Sadness about the breakdown of our climate is only a bad thing if it leads to feelings of helplessness and hopelessness and to inaction. Sadness is a good thing if it awakens compassion for others and for other forms of life and motivates skillful action. If enough of us step up and actively participate in the movement to address the climate crisis, we will preserve not only our mental health, but our one and only home as well.