There is a danger, in suggesting that therapy might help, of pathologising climate anxiety; turning it into a mental health problem that needs to be cured – medicated or spirited away with mindfulness or talking therapy . Many people I interviewed were faced with such reactions from friends, family, colleagues, GPs, and, occasionally, even therapists.
This is not how the author of Psychological Roots of the Climate Crisis Sally Weintrobe thinks. “It is important to say that anxiety is a signal that there is something wrong. It’s a perfectly normal healthy reaction to a worrying situation. We mustn’t pathologise climate anxiety. Obviously it can get very extreme – but I would say that government inaction on the climate crisis is pretty extreme, so it’s hardly surprising that people are very worried.” What Knapp, James and Perrin said helped them most was having their emotions validated in therapy – and understanding that their feelings were meaningful and valuable.
Caroline Hickman, a psychotherapist, climate psychology researcher and board member of the Climate Psychology Alliance, says, “I would worry about people who aren’t distressed – given that this is what is happening, how come?” She believes that people are using psychological defences such as denial “as a way of coping and reducing the fear that they feel”. This can leave the climate-anxious with a sense of isolation, frustration and abandonment, as others tell themselves, “Oh, well, the government will save us; technology will save us; if it was that bad, somebody would have done something,” she says. “Those are all rationalisations against existential terror of annihilation – and that’s the reality of what we’re potentially looking at.”
To face this reality is to come out of what Weintrobe calls “the climate bubble”, which, she says, “has been supported by a culture of uncare, a culture that actively seeks to keep us in a state of denial about the severity of the climate crisis”. She explains: “The bubble protects you from reality, and when you start seeing the reality, it’s hardly surprising that you’re going to experience a whole series of shocks.” She prefers the term climate trauma over anxiety because “it is traumatising to see that you are caught up in a way of living, whether you like it or not, that makes you a victim and a perpetrator of damaging the Earth, which is what keeps us all alive”. We are living, she says, “in a political system that generates a mental health crisis, because it places burdens on people that are too much to bear, as well as burdens on the Earth”.
The thing about trauma is that it can reignite earlier, individual trauma. That experience of coming out of the climate bubble and having your worries dismissed, of realising that you have been abandoned by people who were supposed to look after you, can be particularly triggering. For Weintrobe, this is where therapy can have a role to play, “in helping people to disentangle what is personal to them and their own individual histories, from what is hitting them from the outside”.
It is perhaps surprising to hear Weintrobe – a psychoanalyst – say that while there is a role for therapy in addressing climate anxiety, it is limited. We need to normalise this distress, she says, but not by pretending it’s not there, or shouldn’t be. “It’s very perverse that normalising has come to mean getting rid of anything that’s disturbing. Can we make it normal that we are very disturbed and bothered by what is going on, and help each other?” She recommends meeting to talk in groups about climate anxiety, such as at the climate cafes run by the Climate Psychology Alliance. Hickman runs psycho-educational groups with youth activists to address the impact of the climate crisis on mental health, where they discuss ways to support themselves and each other.
brooo I just found the best paper (article?) about CAM plants appropriate for food production in a region the writers term “Aridamerica” (in contrast with mesoamerica) that encompasses northern mexico, the sonoran desert, and part of arizona and nevada….it’s so fuckin good
The article is the work of some researchers who examined ethnobotanical and historical sources, interviewed native people, and did ecological surveys in “Aridamerica”
Primarily they drew from the current and historical practices of the Comcaac (Seri people), O'odham, and Pima Bajo peoples. Here are a few excerpts from the article I really liked!
Agricultural visionaries from Argentina, Australia, North America, and elsewhere have been calling for “new roots for agriculture” for more than 40 years (Felger, 1975; Jackson, 1980). Their visions favor high biodiversity-low input agroecosystems, with greater emphasis on perennial polycultures. To quote pioneering desert botanist Richard Felger, to whom this article is dedicated, we must “fit the crops to the environment rather than remaking the environment to fit the crops.” Yet, to date few agronomists have given sufficient attention to effective means to reduce heat or moisture stress in crops and livestock, or in the humans who struggle to manage them (Nabhan, 2013).
The majority of widespread crops (e.g., rice, wheat, soybean) are C3 plants with low water-use efficiency and reduced photosynthetic efficiency under high temperatures. C4 crops (e.g., corn, sorghum, sugarcane) have higher heat tolerance but usually require reliable irrigation in arid and semi-arid land settings. As temperatures increase, so do evapotranspiration and water input required to maintain crop yields. Thus, even drought- and heat-tolerant varieties of conventional C3 and C4 crops may be unable to weather—let alone mitigate—the stressful agronomic conditions predicted for arid zones over the coming century. In contrast, wild desert plants have evolved multiple strategies to cope with heat and drought (Gibson, 1996). Desert plants with the crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) pathway uptake CO2 nocturnally when temperatures are cooler, thereby optimizing water-use efficiency (Nobel, 2010).
I really like the points they make here about C4 plants! Corn and sorghum are often listed as being more suitable for arid climates because of their improved temperature tolerance and water use efficiency compared to (for example) wheat or soybean. That said…both were originally tropical plants iirc, and while there are certainly drought-tolerant cultivars of both, they still use a *lot* of water in very hot and dry regions, and those well adapted cultivars aren’t the most commonly grown.
After gathering a list of plants commonly used as crops by the native people of these areas “For each species, we determined the photosynthetic pathway (C3, C4, CAM) and categorized water-acquisition strategy as extensive exploiter (e.g., Prosopis/mesquite), intensive exploiter (e.g., Salvia columbariae/chia, Phaseolus acutifolius/wild tepary bean), or water storer (e.g., Agave/agave, Opuntia/prickly pear)”
It’s really interesting to think abt those different drought strategies! For reference, extensive exploiters tend to have very wide+deep root systems that collect water from an extensivearea. Intensive exploiters tend to be found near temporary water courses that only hold water temporarily/for part of the year. This could mean washes/dry streambeds that flood in a storm, or rivers that dry up outside of the monsoon season. I know tepary beans typically grow quickly (often quoted as taking only 60 days from growth to seed set!) when water is available, then die and weather the hottest and driest season as dormant seeds. Water storer is pretty self-explanatory–agave and prickly pear are succulents that can store a tremendous amount of water in their tissues, saving it to tide them over until the next precipitation event.
Ultimately, the article graded a variety of plant genera on their agroecological suitability (how well they grow in an arid environment), any potential medicinal uses, their community/social value (cultural importance, providing shade in communal areas, etc.), and their agronomical suitability (can it be grown at scale, is there a market for it, etc.) I won’t bother to list them here–you can go see the whole chart in the linked article–but it’s a very interesting list!
“… “I’m taking action because I feel desperate,” said U.S. climate scientist Peter Kalmus, who along with several others locked himself to the front door of a JPMorgan Chase building in Los Angeles. A recent report found that the financial giant is the biggest private funder of oil and gas initiatives in the world.
“It’s the 11th hour in terms of Earth breakdown, and I feel terrified for my kids, and terrified for humanity,” Kalmus continued. “World leaders are still expanding the fossil fuel industry as fast as they can, but this is insane. The science clearly indicates that everything we hold dear is at risk, including even civilization itself and the wonderful, beautiful, cosmically precious life on this planet. I actually don’t get how any scientist who understands this could possibly stay on the sidelines at this point.” …”
With over 125 million views in the month (roughly) since it was released, Lil Dicky’s music video Earth certainly is getting quite a bit of attention, especially (or so I’m told) in the tweenager/young-teenager crowd. The video draws on a wealth of big-name star power, profanity (although there is a “clean” version for children with 16 million views), and humor to convey its “globalized” pro-Earth/pro-Environmental message to a younger audience, before ending with a message about global warming and the twelve-year deadline, with a link to take action through WeLoveTheEarth.org. While there are certainly quite a few issues one might take with the song lyrics and visual representation, what I want to explore are not only the limitations implicit in this approach (namely a very Global North/Ameri-centric “globalized” imaginary, an obscuring of capitalist/corporate responsibility for climate change in favor of a neoliberal individual actions model, a maintaining of the Human/Nature binary, and a focus on a young audience when older demographics are perhaps more in need of convincing), but also the strengths of this approach and why, perhaps, it may be useful to step back and let these “meme-friendly” call-to-arms proliferate, rather than critiquing imperfect representations to death.
Ultimately, because I can see both how strong both the limitations and possibilities to these various approaches are, I am undecided on what the “correct” course of action may be. I recognize that the stakes are higher in this for some than for others–both in the sense that lack of action disproportionately is affecting certain communities, who therefore are more invested in results over perfect representation, as well as the way that because of the disproportionate effects of inaction, certain communities may find it less viable to overlook (and therefore further obscure) these inequalities; because of this, I am certainly not in any position to draw firm conclusions, and what follows is intended to be an exploration which I hope will invite a broader conversation.
Okay so let me start with a rundown of the limitations; while there are several points I’m making here, I am honestly going to try to keep each as succinct as possible because I think these may be more obvious than the benefits (that being said, I’m more than happy to delve into these points further if anyone has any questions or feels they do need to be made more visible). First, lets look at the “globalized” imaginary. The song’s chorus goes:
Earth, it is our planet (It’s our planet) We love the Earth (We love the Earth), it is our home (Home) We love the Earth, it is our planet (It is our planet) We love the Earth, it is our home We love the Earth
Other lines include “We love you, India/Africa/the Chinese,” the humorous “We forgive you, Germany,” and “C'mon everybody, I know we’re not all the same / But we’re living on the same Earth.” These lines simultaneously call for a globalized action, while also imagining a) that something quasi-globalized already exists and b) that “differences” are the reason we have not fully come together. Frederick Cooper has an amazing article which I highly recommend called “What Is the Concept of Globalization Good for? An African Historian’s Perspective,” and one of his arguments which is especially relevant here is that “a ‘globalizing’ language stood alongside a structure of domination and exploitation that was lumpy in the extreme” (204). What does it mean, in this context, to say “we love the Earth,” let alone “we love you, India/Africa/China”? Listing Global South nations which often bare the brunt of capitalist/colonialist industrial exploitation might be intended to acknowledge the uneven effects global warming has on marginalized communities (what Rob Nixon has termed “slow violence”); but then why is Germany on the list (other than for the comedic effect), and more importantly who is the “we” who “loves” these nations, and what does that “love” amount to? I think constantly of Elizabeth Catte’s comment in What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia, that she felt paranoid traveling for academic conferences that she would bring the smell of the coal industry with her, and give herself away as someone who wasn’t worth not being poisoned. Love is a beautiful idea to invoke, but do “we” “love” the Global South enough to stop poisoning “them”? And what about the poor in the Global North?
The lack of definition of “we” contributes to my second problem with the song/video: while I do not mean to undermine the absolute value individual actions have towards improving the environment, the opening of the song focuses on litter and the fumes exuded by personal vehicles. There is no direct reference to the kinds of waste and pollution created by corporations.
Thirdly, the lyrics contain a laundry list of humorous animal descriptions such as “Hi, I’m a baboon I’m like a man, just less advanced and my anus is huge.” While obviously intended to be funny, these descriptions reify the Human/Animal and Human/Nature divide and contribute to binary logics. One of the criticisms of the “Anthropocene” narrative is that it seperates “humanity” from “nature” in ways which obscure the entanglement actually involved in environmental networks. This is not in any way to imply that human actions and systems are not responsible for global warming (whether you put the blame on humanity in general as in the Anthropocene or specific individuals acting through capitalism as in the Capitalocene there is no denying that climate crisis is happening because of human action); rather, the problem here is that it this binary attempts to imagine a separateness between humans and nature which is not useful in addressing climate change, because it obscures the intricacy of interaction and allows us to vastly oversimplify what we see as viable solutions.
Finally, the video and lyrics are clearly intended to draw in a younger demographic, and yet polls have shown that there is an age gap in concern about climate change which trends towards younger populations.
That being said, let’s look at why this video may be a good and necessary thing, despite the potential drawbacks. First, even though younger people tend to already believe in and be more concerned about climate change than older folks, studies have shown that children change their parents’ minds about climate change, so convincing children/teens to care about climate change and to talk about it with their parents does have a measurable impact on the opinions of older adults. This leads to why the humorous lyrics and video may be particularly useful, despite the problematics outlined above. At this moment in time, social media and memes in particular are a particularly powerful political weapon. Mother Jones recently ran an article titled ““The Left Can’t Meme”: How Right-Wing Groups Are Training the Next Generation of Social Media Warriors” which outlines the role memes have played in perpetuating conservative and far-right thought and manifesting conservative/far-right desires. Memes are “cheap, subversive, and designed to provoke an emotional response, memes are a disruptive form of information guerrilla warfare.” Another article discussing “The Evolution of Political Internet Memes” argues that “memes are likely to gain more importance in a post-text future. Younger generations are shifting more and more to visual platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat. Images are therefore more likely shape their views on politics and politicians.” For these reasons, a song/music video such as Earth which is likely to draw in a large audience of kids/teens due to star power (everyone from Justin Bieber to Halsey to Kevin Hart makes an appearance), humor, and catchy tune is likely to make an impact on children and therefore their parents. Furthering this point, the website linked at the end of the music video presents itself in a far more professional manner–this is what parents are more likely to be looking at (and potentially donating to, and taking advice from) than the song itself.
So again, I’m not sure whether this benefit outweighs the oversimplifications presented through the lyrics/video but I do think they’re worth considering, and I absolutely invite further conversation on this matter. Do we need to follow the conservative meme-model of making politics more easily legible/accessible? Or does this model further obscure the struggles of marginalized folks and render invisible issues that need to be brought to light and challenged? Is there a (better) way to balance this?
On Earth Day, April 22, Climate Activist Wynn Bruce self-immolated in front of the Supreme Court building in Washington DC.
I saw little coverage in relation to this act. I don’t think it’s right to stifle the selfless action of an individual consumed by concern for the planet; especially as it was his last act on this earth.
I have been working on these pieces since I heard about the incident, and I really didn’t want to release them until I was truly satisfied, as I wanted to do as much justice as possible to the issue.
Art makes ugly issues easier to digest. It can serve as a subtle reminder without forcing the viewer to see the violence of the issue head on.
I hope the message Wynn Bruce was trying to convey spread to the right people. I hope it wasn’t in vain.
“The sun is warming the air as the market is closing now. My shirt is already sticking to my skin. They advised to avoid going out, but I feel good, I’m only coughing. Uncle Alisha is saying he got sick because it’s not air anymore, he says that before we used to see the sky and it was blue. But I don’t know; maybe he’s just getting old, he’s already 37.
The Stack is constantly growing as new people are moving in. Are they coming from Above?”
I can sit here all day and post little infographics on how best to reduce your waste, but I’m not practicing what I’m preaching if I’m not making serious changes to my diet.
Calling all veggies and vegans!
I need your help, gimme your tips and tricks, reblog this and get your friends to give me tips and tricks, educate more people!
Context: In 1977, Exxon researchers gave executives a definitive report that burning fossil fuels was causing climate change. Exxon went on to spend at least $30 million funding public skepticism about climate change and lobbying against federal action.
More than half of the world’s industrial carbon emissions have been produced since 1977. ExxonMobil’s 2018 earnings were $20.8 billion.
Through regulations, incentives, and public/private partnerships, governments hold the keys to transform and build the green economy. Similar to the industrial and information revolutions, governments must incentivize their citizens, businesses, and institutions to build a resilient future.
“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” – Socrates
How Climate Crisis could impact 5 Famous Gardens around the World
How Climate Crisis could impact 5 Famous Gardens around the World
by @PrimroseUK #climatecrisis #climatechange #climatebreakdown #ecocide
From severe storms to critical droughts, extreme weather changes caused by climate change are seriously impacting the planet. One upcoming event which has a significant impact on the environment is the fast-spending fuelled event that is Black Friday. Deliveries from Black Friday alone produce 429,000 tonnes of carbon and garden experts Primrose found that you would need to plant seven million…
“The impact of playing the games, the life of the hardware, the energy and the materials used to make the computers themselves – that’s something everybody needs to take some responsibility of.”
When a company tries to cut its carbon footprint, how far should it cast the net? Is it responsible for the choices of its customers? What if it sells something that doesn’t have a carbon footprint at all – until the second it’s used?
The world can still hope to stave off the worst ravages of climate breakdown but only through a “now or never” dash to a low-carbon economy and society, scientists have said in what is in effect a final warning for governments on the climate.
Jim Skea, a professor at Imperial College London and co-chair of the working group behind the report, said: “It’s now or never, if we want to limit global warming to 1.5C. Without immediate and deep emissions reductions across all sectors, it will be impossible.”
The reason I read this book was that I wanted to know more about sustainable agriculture. So, I search on the internet and found a list of 100 books on this topic. There were a lot of textbooks and literature for farmers and professionals in that area. So, in the end, I picked this one by Jonathan Safran Foer as it seemed to be more for newbies to the area. I got it as an audiobook and started listening. After a few minutes, I checked if I had accidentally bought another book as as Foer went on an on about suicide notes and breathing the same molecules as Hitler and Julius Ceasar - it was very confusing and not clear at all, what all that got to do with climate change and agriculture.
But I kept going - much easier with an audiobook than with a printed book, I suppose - and it slowly became clear.
Sea level rise will affect the entire global population in one way or another. Whether it’s the livelihoods of communities in low-lying floodplains, the food procurement process, or global transport networks, sea-level rise will continue to threaten millions of people worldwide.
Specifically, the world of tourism is at risk of rising sea levels. Scientists, experts, and government officials have outlined the extreme risk of flooding in some of these places and that even some of these destinations could simply disappear. The increased threat of sea-level rise also will severely impact the communities that facilitate tourism in these holidaying hotspots.
Here are some visuals showing how some of the world’s most popular holiday destinations could look by 2100, if sea levels continue to rise dramatically.
“In 2022 you have got tens of thousands of peer-reviewed papers spelling out the climate science,”
said Larch Maxey, a veteran eco-campaigner. Authorities such as David Attenborough and David King, the former government chief science officer, were in agreement.
“When your house is on fire, you stop pouring petrol on the flames,” he said. “That’s basically the demand – no new licences. We are in a crisis. Let’s stop digging out new oil and gas.”
Politicians acting like legality equals morality. While taking away women’s right to make choices about their body, closing borders, letting refugees die right in front of that borders and ignoring climate change. There are no problems in the system, the system itself is the problem.
Among the forerunners of Transcendentalism, a movement according to which the divine pervades all of humanity and nature alike, 19th century philosopher-poet and woodsman-ecologist Henry David Thoreau left behind a vital contemplative legacy resembling the intensive retreats undertaken by Buddhist meditators.
“Along the roads, laurel, viburnum and alder, great ferns and wild flowers delighted the traveler’s eye through much of the year…Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change…Everywhere was a shadow of death."
“No witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves.” Such words from Silent Spring speak volumes. Anthropogenic climate change has befallen us. How do we rise from the ashes?
Speaking to the impermanent nature of phenomena, Silent Spring tells the tale of an ecosystem set off kilter. While the condition of the climate may seem dismal, there remains much that can be done or abstained from in order to shift the scales and restore symbiotic balance.
Temptation of Mara. Mogao Cave Mural, Dunhuang. 950.
The Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra charts the bodhisattva’s path of practice—an embodied way of life—not merely one of well-wishing from afar. Through compassion, one is moved to action, drawing near to the flames in order to extinguish them for good.
Invoking fire through simile, Śāntideva seers us with the burning reality that plagues our world, both literally and figuratively. While raging fire spreads across the planet, the heat of violence and conflict seethes and ferments in its midst. What can be done to douse the flames?
Painting a portrait eerily reminiscent of the current state of our world, the Aggañña Sutta records an early Buddhist origin story, replete with Garden of Eden-like themes and imagery. The Buddha’s message enters the realm of social justice and engaged Buddhism, with implications for the climate crisis, civil rights, and civilization’s collapse.
In light of current events, what would the Buddha do?
A poet-painter of Edo period Japan, Buson was aesthetically-inclined in ways that bridged the ecological and the contemplative. His life and creations mirror the mix of challenges and privileges faced by many of us during the current pandemic.
A core text of Mahāyāna Buddhism, the Lotus Sūtra introduces the single vehicle upon which all beings ride to awakening. No one is excluded or left behind.
Its parable of the herbs depicts a majestic range of plants receiving the same medicinal rain, according to their diverse needs.
Such a story offers insights into how to craft an inclusive path of regenerative remedies for social and ecological ills. May all receive the reprieve offered by rain.
On meditation and ecology, the Kasibhāradvāja Sutta from the Pāli Canon depicts a particularly vivid instance of cross-fertilization between horticulture, permaculture, and contemplative practice via poetry spoken by the Buddha.
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