Climate change & anxiety

[blackemerald1]

This issue is causing me more and more anxiety. And I'm positive I'm not alone with this.

I acknowledge that climate change should be concerning me and alerting me to what I personally can do. However it is also anxiety provoking and having an ongoing detrimental effect on my ability to handle day to day life. I can only imagine what it's doing to younger people who are yet to experience the brunt of it all.

I'm seeing evidence every day that humans have wrecked our home for ALL life on this planet. Not just us. In essence I feel like it's all too little and too late.

Personally I do my small bit towards conserving whatever resources we have left. Trying not to be wasteful and being mindful about my 'footprint' too.

I'm finding that there is an almost constant anxiety layer superimposed on me and it's about climate change. It's simmering within me and that is feeding into my general anxiety about trauma & life events which I can and do work on. Even when I think I'm getting a handle on my own personal stuff... which isn't that often... climate change is always there defeating me anyway.

Climate change is inescapable in terms of reducing how loudly it is trumpheting it's existence and I cannot turn down the volume. It's on all forms of media and though I'm not tapping into most media that doesn't mean every possible form of it. Governments are either rubbishing it's existence or embracing the evidence either way they're arguing & talking about it all of the time. Scientists and various commentators are constantly warning us about it. Even beautiful doco's on places and animals usually have a climate change message in them now. Extinction for all things beautiful. It's depressing really.

I know I'm not alone because children are marching in the streets claiming they have no future because of it & demanding more action. Massive weather events are being attributed to it by scientists. My domestic bills have graphs demonstrating my impact through energy use on it. It's everywhere and what I've listed is not exhaustive of course.

So what can I do about the anxiety? Anxiety doesn't help solve anything right? I am not fit/able to offset this anxiety by becoming an environmental warrior.
I have substantial social anxiety so I'm unable to be a volunteer in an administrative sense with organisations that are doing good works and I'm unconvinced that would help my anxiety levels.

Medications nope.

How are you feeling about the anxiety climate change is generating for you? What are you doing to manage it?

 

[Friday]

(Apologies in advance, I’m doing one of those too many words or none at all phases, atm. So this could be a helluva lot more concise, but I suck at writing right now.)

***

I worry more about militant apathy (people marching in the streets tearing their hair and rending their clothes about how their lives are over) than I do about climate change itself.

Mostly? Because we are sooooooo much better off than our ancestors facing the exact same problems... with no safeguards in place. Like the last “little ice age” in Europe that lead to the deaths of millions via famine and plague. (This outs me, by the by... historians just group it into one largish event between the 1300s & 1800s ending with apx the last “frost fair” on the Thames... but archeologists snuggle up and share hot chocolate with geologists and sociologists looking at the geographical record & effects on society, so it gets broken down into more discrete pieces).

This rock we live on? Undergoes MASSIVE change, on a near constant basis. The last 60,000 years or so of human history? People just had to suck it up and deal with those changes (iceages, little ice ages, warm periods, desertification, volcanic eruption, earthquake, tsunamis, flooding of the likes we write down in religious texts they’re so massively destructive, etc.) ... and they did.

Adaptability, creativity, ingenuity, determination... as a SPECIES we have moved from coast to jungle to savanna to desert to steppe to forest to mountain to ice covered rock... and thrived. Time, and time, and time again. People find a way.

It drives me a little bit crazy that most history classes start with Ancient Egypt/ Greece/ Rome/ India/ China. Don’t get me wrong, Fertile Crescent classical education is great. I just WISH they’d even touch base on the DOZENS of other abandoned civilisations we know of. Fishing villages in the desert, an empire of 5 cities populated by -est- hundreds of thousands along a river that rivaled any of our greatest rivers today... run dry (probably following a mountain range being born a few hundred miles away, or a smaller ice age or aridification, or -given murphy’s Law ;) all 3 happening at the same time.) <<< I actually want to say there are countless examples of the triumph of mankind? (Because we’re still finding cities in the jungle and under the sands and in the sea that we had no clue were here, thanks to satellites/ airplanes/ GPR... in addition to the dozens of settlements to empires we’re constantly tripping over out in the world... dating 10,000 years before the pharaohs , before the Olmecs... Hell. One dig we thought was homo sapien due to the amaaaaaaazing art and music content? Come to find was FIRST Neanderthal, and then cohabitated)

People? Are amazing.

We’ve done so much, been so incrediably versatile, adaptable, creative, strong, enduring, determined... all before Paracetamol for fevers and clean water for diahreah and international famine relief and vaccines and science summits and peace summits and autoclaves and vitamins and cancer research and marine biologists meteorologists aid workers relief planes and so so so much more. All of which gives us so much more of an edge than our ancestors had.

Sure... some of the climate change is our fault. Some of the climate change is just the way this molten cored water covered rock spinning in space operates. But I don’t see how either is a reason to howl at the sky in fear &/or curl up to die in apathy. Sure, some people will always take to the streets with pitchforks and torches casting accusations and blaming whomever they deem responsible rather than putting that energy towards something useful (so much for all those after school specials on “peer pressure” amirite??? ;)).

But I won’t be one of them. I like this rock. She’s volatile, and deadly dangerous, and home.

I may not be one of the bright and shining stars who is bending all my energy towards the betterment of all (music video with a few of them below), but I can damn well aim for the courage, creativity, and adaptability to deal with whatever may come.

Whether it’s an advancing army or an advancing glacier ... people? Really are incrediably creative and boldly daring and innovative to the nth degree. We’ll make it. We’ll do well. My only real regret is not living to see it happen, and what happens next. Mortality is a bitch. But my kids will see it. And theirs. Stretching out like a line to infinity. Just because I won’t be here to see it, and just because it will undoubtedly look different from my own life? Because in time all civilisations fall and are born anew... Doesn’t make it any less valuable or exciting. People are just too f*cking cool. We adapt. We survive.

How do I combat anxiety? A sense of wonder.

***
I haven’t done my standard caveat for awhile, so it might just be time ;) ... As always, not saying what anyone else should think/feel/do, this is simply what I think/feel/do

 

[shatter eyes]

I was feeling the same today wanting to be hopeful and sametime thinking we are doomed.

Plastics everywhere and because of my TBI i no longer properly recycle or live eco friendly as much as previous to TBI PTSd. I used to volunteer for environmental initiatives and take part in meetings at board level. Now i feel like a fraud because my injury limits my ability to do my part.

LNG and other fossil fuel extractions are of great concern here in Canada. The fracking, tailing ponds, hydrocarbons, wastes, and the machines used to process the waste it is a sad cycle.

You are not alone in feeling anxiety. Its valid. Just look at our weather patterns. The more mining and drilling we do the more compromised earth crust is in allowing fractures to spread. Unstable weather = unstable food crops. Global warming is real. Climate change was termed by a think tank as public strategy to nit freak us out.

So many forests and animals lost. Indigenous tribes and their land connected cultures lost. Example is industry violating the Amazon which is so very important.
Yet i understand to some it is a job for today because they have a family to feed. Giant man eating flowers go get them, penis invading fish with barbs full speed ahead. Giant snapping turtles lunch time stop them eat them!!!

But they cannot... we the humans are the ones responsible for destruction. Destroying the very earth that provides for us...

Before the car accident i was pursuing a double major in evolutionary ecology and restoration biology to focus on freshwater species. I know how nature heals and wanted to do my part in learning how to heal mother (earth).

Anxiety over climate change is valid.

 

[Neverthesame]

Climate change is inescapable in terms of reducing how loudly it is trumpheting it's existence and I cannot turn down the volume.

This is it exactly, though it's true on a much larger scale than I think you're inferring here.

Earth's climate is always dramatically shifting, always has been, always will be. This was true long before we evolved here and will be true long after we're extinct. Does that mean we shouldn't be mindful of what we do to the planet? Of course not, there's lots of good immediate reasons to be environmentally concious. That said, the Earth is going to have disastrous warm cycles and bitter ice ages that will continue ensure a 99% extinction rate no matter what we do.

 

[Ronin]

What are you doing to manage it?

Challenge.

I like challenges. If I dont, & need to hermit up, its another of those tell signs Im not well... & even then it changes to challenge, just medical.

So either I can dress & gear up differently, change how I act any given place, OR I can change my attitude about it, or both.

I refuse to believe in Doomed on principle.
Both individually, and as collectives.

Despair is a feeling... not a reality.

Reality is just harsher or kinder...

But feeling that doom over it? That aint objective. That aint reality, part of what it is.
Its just something that feels incredibly real to people, at that situation & moment.

 

[ILoveLife]

I've been having loads of mental issues due to this problem. Back in March when I got myself my house in the country and noticed the absence of insects and other things, the desertification of this area and other issues, shortages of water and so forth, I got this huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge pain in my stomach and I felt as guilt.

I think it's awesome kids are on the streets fighting for their future, but it pains me a lot to see that they have to because us, their adults, didn't do enought. I've been an activist, and like many others sat in front of parliaments, actually camped there for 2 months in 2011, and all we got was a complete shut down and hatred from the media.

There have been beautiful uprisings like the one currently happening since I was a kid that were forgotten, so I hope that this time they aren't.

@Friday, you are right, but it is also true that during all those devastations and planet regenerations a lot of the human population was dizimated and that's what the kids are fighting against.

I have a somewhat reasonable claim about climate change anxiety, is that it's perfectly natural and healthy to have it. Apathy, disinterest and the "everything will be alright because someone else will solve the problem" is not healthy at all.

There are lots of things one can do to minimize the anxiety. I got myself some ground to plant and I've been saving bees. Every day I see baby bumblebees and that makes me happy. At least they are not going extinct in my backyard.

Other things is create firefly environments because they are going exctinct too.

 

[Gs172003]

I've been having loads of mental issues due to this problem. Back in March when I got myself my house in the country and noticed the absence of insects and other things, the desertification of this area and other issues, shortages of water and so forth, I got this huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge pain in my stomach and I felt as guilt.

I think it's awesome kids are on the streets fighting for their future, but it pains me a lot to see that they have to because us, their adults, didn't do enought. I've been an activist, and like many others sat in front of parliaments, actually camped there for 2 months in 2011, and all we got was a complete shut down and hatred from the media.

There have been beautiful uprisings like the one currently happening since I was a kid that were forgotten, so I hope that this time they aren't.

@Friday, you are right, but it is also true that during all those devastations and planet regenerations a lot of the human population was dizimated and that's what the kids are fighting against.

I have a somewhat reasonable claim about climate change anxiety, is that it's perfectly natural and healthy to have it. Apathy, disinterest and the "everything will be alright because someone else will solve the problem" is not healthy at all.

There are lots of things one can do to minimize the anxiety. I got myself some ground to plant and I've been saving bees. Every day I see baby bumblebees and that makes me happy. At least they are not going extinct in my backyard.

Other things is create firefly environments because they are going exctinct too.

I guess that depends on where you live.
There are plenty of bugs (including lightening bugs) where I live. Sometimes TOO many lol

 

[Sideways]

I turn off the media on it occasionally because, yeah, it’s pretty stressful stuff.

One of the issues for me is that summer heat is a trigger for me. And where I live, summer heat has been becoming a longer and longer period of the year every year.

The climate is already changing, and certainly there’s large parts of Australia where that’s pretty obvious, and lack pf preparedness for it is pretty obvious. There’s a limit to how much I can do about that, so I remind ol’ Worry Monster that those thoughts aren’t helpful and use thought diffusion on them.

Because it comes up a lot.

Managing the increasing temperature, and the length of the hot season? Is something that I occasionally panic about. We fundamentally didn’t get a winter this year. My difficult period is meant to be limited to January/February, but each year that’s getting stretched out further and further.

If I had the money? I’d literally move south to a cooler climate for the sake of my mental health. I don’t have the money (or an air-con), and that stresses me out most days already. Having to put my dog’s cooling jacket on at the start of Spring? Doesn’t bode well for my mental health.

 

[blackemerald1]

I refuse to believe in Doomed on principle.

^I try to avoid this principle too. Unfortunately people with loads more intelligence and education seem to ferverently believe in it and they are not keeping it a secret. So, what am I to do?

But feeling that doom over it? That aint objective. That aint reality, part of what it is.
Its just something that feels incredibly real to people, at that situation & moment.

^I'm really trying hard to reduce anxiety overall. I can target in on the ptsd stuff and identify how to work on that. However the climate change anxiety is so much broader.

Apathy, disinterest and the "everything will be alright because someone else will solve the problem" is not healthy at all.

^I know and I agree. I try to do my part however the perfectionist, critic in me destroys my small, domestic level efforts.

One of the issues for me is that summer heat is a trigger for me. And where I live, summer heat has been becoming a longer and longer period of the year every year.

^For me too. We had no Winter in terms of precipitation here. It was freezing cold and incredibly dry. Water restrictions are already in force. Bushfire alerts are already coming in. I'm being advised to clean up around my home and get a bushfire survival bag ready. And yet we are barely into Spring... by three weeks and have eight weeks to go before Summer is officially supposed to begin. Yet in some regions near me temperatures have already hit record highs.

Maybe some of my distress is based around heat, summer and bushfires too. Idk... I get a deep emotional reaction when I see polar bears stranded on diminishing bits of ice, floating further and further from land and she has a cub who will never have the strength to swim home. I have the same reaction when I see millions upon millions of native fish floating dead in our river system because of man made drought.

I love this rock too @Friday :) But, I also like being comfortable. Climate change and being environmentally friendly don't seem to happily coincide with that.

All interesting responses so thank you.

 

[TruthSeeker]

Yea, but there are LOTS simple things you can do that you have control over. Like reduce the kind of things you buy in plastic vs cans (sodas, drinks), drink more water, make more food at home instead of buying dinner in a plastic container, reuse plastic you have for art stuff or craft things, buy your plastic from a yard sale and reuse, don't opt for the straw in your drink when out, don't buy plastic ware or plastic throw away plates, or water in a 24 pack of plastic......a simple way to do your part is to not contribute to the problem. I freeze in glass pyrex containers, and reuse those.....and cook in a crockpot a bunch of healthy meals-I buy milk in glass jars, and stay away from plastic as much as possible. Also, buying measured portions (like 100 cal. bags or 120 cal cereal in a huge plastic bowl/soup in plastic, you get the idea, substantially increases your personal plastic use. You could write a blog about easy ways to reduce plastic use in your home-this kind of environmental support can all be done on your time and in your space...then practice it and blow your environmental horn....link it in your facebook..someone will read it. Just a thought.

I was feeling the same today wanting to be hopeful and sametime thinking we are doomed.

Plastics everywhere and because of my TBI i no longer properly recycle or live eco friendly as much as previous to TBI PTSd. I used to volunteer for environmental initiatives and take part in meetings at board level. Now i feel like a fraud because my injury limits my ability to do my part.

LNG and other fossil fuel extractions are of great concern here in Canada. The fracking, tailing ponds, hydrocarbons, wastes, and the machines used to process the waste it is a sad cycle.

You are not alone in feeling anxiety. Its valid. Just look at our weather patterns. The more mining and drilling we do the more compromised earth crust is in allowing fractures to spread. Unstable weather = unstable food crops. Global warming is real. Climate change was termed by a think tank as public strategy to nit freak us out.

So many forests and animals lost. Indigenous tribes and their land connected cultures lost. Example is industry violating the Amazon which is so very important.
Yet i understand to some it is a job for today because they have a family to feed. Giant man eating flowers go get them, penis invading fish with barbs full speed ahead. Giant snapping turtles lunch time stop them eat them!!!

But they cannot... we the humans are the ones responsible for destruction. Destroying the very earth that provides for us...

Before the car accident i was pursuing a double major in evolutionary ecology and restoration biology to focus on freshwater species. I know how nature heals and wanted to do my part in learning how to heal mother (earth).

Anxiety over climate change is valid.

 

[Sideways]

I think there’s 2 different conversations going on here. One where people are well informed about climate change, and can see it playing out, mostly by media, in the world around them.

I try to avoid this principle too. Unfortunately people with loads more intelligence and education seem to ferverently believe in it and they are not keeping it a secret.

And that’s where this stuff comes into play. Worrying about the polar bears and how my grandkids are going to be effected? Ain’t helping anyone.

Use your vote during elections, reduce your waste & carbon footprint if you can, go for greener options like installing solar panels if you can afford it. Tell people who want to get all soapbox about “kids should be at school on Friday’s” to shut the fk up.

But general worry? Stuff like the melting ice caps in Greenland? The pygmy possums dying out in the Snowies? You can’t single-handedly make China or India or the US sign the Paris Accord, and even if you could? I think the scientific consensus is 2050 is too late to make a meaningful change.

We had no Winter in terms of precipitation here. It was freezing cold and incredibly dry. Water restrictions are already in force. Bushfire alerts are already coming in.

Then there’s stuff like this. This is less ‘general worry’ - it’s far more specific. Yes, there are more high-category cyclones, floods, bushfires, and epic drought in our corner of the world.

But you’re having to prep for an historic bushfire season this year because that is a real and present threat, yeah? We had scrub fires down the road already. We got lucky.

We aren’t on water restrictions currently (absolutely crazy that we aren’t), but if you live in a place where water restrictions have kicked in? That’s because there’s towns around you that have literally run out of water, facing “how do I safely bath my kids?” questions, all around you. We don’t have water restrictions anymore based on worst case scenario predictions. We have them in our corner of the world because there are people in our region who have no drinking water coming out their taps, and it’s an issue that’s spreading, rather than odd, see it on the news once-off’s.

So, doom is unhelpful. We’ll all be rooned, said Hanrahan. Generalised worry about the planet going arse up, and is my city council actually just sending my yellow-bin waste to landfill, can’t personally effect much meaningful change? Not helpful. Diffuse from that stuff.

But the bushfire stuff? The water restriction stuff? Ain’t doomsday scenarios here. We’re in the thick of living it. The whole planet is getting hotter, and we’re on the hottest planet you can live on, experiencing some of these life-threatening issues day to day.

And that stuff? I think you should consider. As objectively as possible.

Do you have a rock solid bushfire emergency plan? If not, that’s a serious priority. And assuming this is what it’s like living here from now on, with real bushfire threat for around 6 in every 12 months? Is it time to move? Is it time to forward plan a move in 5 years or so and start budgeting accordingly?

Are the current water management plans in my area feasible, assuming this is the new normal? What do I do to plan ahead for that?

Currently there are handouts available in some areas that have been in chronic drought - not being taken up at the rate that people are entitled to oddly enough. That’s not a solution that we can keep expanding as water systemically dries up throughout the Murray-Darling basin and inland, right? Because, that’s most of the country’s population!

Some areas do have excellent water-management & large dams. But not all of them.

So, what are the issues, how is it effecting the people in the areas around me (good way to get some objectivity), and what can I do to prep myself for more prevalent, recurring bushfire threats, and a likely significant reduction in my household water supply? (My place has recycled water - and I know how to make that work from living in Indonesia, but that’s serious lifestyle change shit right there).

My area is also potentially going to flood again. Which I’m ready for, as much as you can be, because my “need to keep it” essential stuff is kept upstairs, with the exception of food supplies (because my coffee and shakes are downstairs), which I can shift at a few minutes notice.

I don’t know the answers to all those questions. But, JMHO, we’re (certainly I am) in one of the regions where the massive doomsday predictions of climate change are already playing out in serious, life-threatening, lifestyle-changing ways. That ain’t doom, it’s just reality.

So if it helps at all? Seperate the “earth is going to hell” issues from the stuff that you’re currently facing. Worry? Is stuff we throw thought diffusion and CBT stuff at.

The stuff you are genuinely facing? Investigate what the emergency services suggest about planning ahead, and potentially think about the impact on you and your area over the next 5-10 years, and whether “this area may be fundamentally uninhabitable” is a reality that also needs to be looked at.

The town where they shipped in water on trucks was a once off. Most towns that have run out of water are simply getting undrinkable (and in some cases, largely toxic) shit through their kitchen taps. Purchasing drinkable water (like petrol!), as part of the weekly budget, is now the reality is a lot of areas.

 

[TruthSeeker]

I think there’s 2 different conversations going on here. One where people are well informed about climate change, and can see it playing out, mostly by media, in the world around them.

And that’s where this stuff comes into play. Worrying about the polar bears and how my grandkids are going to be effected? Ain’t helping anyone.

Use your vote during elections, reduce your waste & carbon footprint if you can, go for greener options like installing solar panels if you can afford it. Tell people who want to get all soapbox about “kids should be at school on Friday’s” to shut the fk up.

But general worry? Stuff like the melting ice caps in Greenland? The pygmy possums dying out in the Snowies? You can’t single-handedly make China or India or the US sign the Paris Accord, and even if you could? I think the scientific consensus is 2050 is too late to make a meaningful change.


Then there’s stuff like this. This is less ‘general worry’ - it’s far more specific. Yes, there are more high-category cyclones, floods, bushfires, and epic drought in our corner of the world.

But you’re having to prep for an historic bushfire season this year because that is a real and present threat, yeah? We had scrub fires down the road already. We got lucky.

We aren’t on water restrictions currently (absolutely crazy that we aren’t), but if you live in a place where water restrictions have kicked in? That’s because there’s towns around you that have literally run out of water, facing “how do I safely bath my kids?” questions, all around you. We don’t have water restrictions anymore based on worst case scenario predictions. We have them in our corner of the world because there are people in our region who have no drinking water coming out their taps, and it’s an issue that’s spreading, rather than odd, see it on the news once-off’s.

So, doom is unhelpful. We’ll all be rooned, said Hanrahan. Generalised worry about the planet going arse up, and is my city council actually just sending my yellow-bin waste to landfill, can’t personally effect much meaningful change? Not helpful. Diffuse from that stuff.

But the bushfire stuff? The water restriction stuff? Ain’t doomsday scenarios here. We’re in the thick of living it. The whole planet is getting hotter, and we’re on the hottest planet you can live on, experiencing some of these life-threatening issues day to day.

And that stuff? I think you should consider. As objectively as possible.

Do you have a rock solid bushfire emergency plan? If not, that’s a serious priority. And assuming this is what it’s like living here from now on, with real bushfire threat for around 6 in every 12 months? Is it time to move? Is it time to forward plan a move in 5 years or so and start budgeting accordingly?

Are the current water management plans in my area feasible, assuming this is the new normal? What do I do to plan ahead for that?

Currently there are handouts available in some areas that have been in chronic drought - not being taken up at the rate that people are entitled to oddly enough. That’s not a solution that we can keep expanding as water systemically dries up throughout the Murray-Darling basin and inland, right? Because, that’s most of the country’s population!

Some areas do have excellent water-management & large dams. But not all of them.

So, what are the issues, how is it effecting the people in the areas around me (good way to get some objectivity), and what can I do to prep myself for more prevalent, recurring bushfire threats, and a likely significant reduction in my household water supply? (My place has recycled water - and I know how to make that work from living in Indonesia, but that’s serious lifestyle change shit right there).

My area is also potentially going to flood again. Which I’m ready for, as much as you can be, because my “need to keep it” essential stuff is kept upstairs, with the exception of food supplies (because my coffee and shakes are downstairs), which I can shift at a few minutes notice.

I don’t know the answers to all those questions. But, JMHO, we’re (certainly I am) in one of the regions where the massive doomsday predictions of climate change are already playing out in serious, life-threatening, lifestyle-changing ways. That ain’t doom, it’s just reality.

So if it helps at all? Seperate the “earth is going to hell” issues from the stuff that you’re currently facing. Worry? Is stuff we throw thought diffusion and CBT stuff at.

The stuff you are genuinely facing? Investigate what the emergency services suggest about planning ahead, and potentially think about the impact on you and your area over the next 5-10 years, and whether “this area may be fundamentally uninhabitable” is a reality that also needs to be looked at.

The town where they shipped in water on trucks was a once off. Most towns that have run out of water are simply getting undrinkable (and in some cases, largely toxic) shit through their kitchen taps. Purchasing drinkable water (like petrol!), as part of the weekly budget, is now the reality is a lot of areas.

Good points, leaving lots to think about....prioritizing, planning, and spending energy and time focusing on real everyday in your face problems one can avoid or minimize or help others with (compassion)-good advice.