Coping with the Climate Crisis
by Lisa Cottrell, LPC
Many of us who are waking up to the reality of the climate crisis have a wide range of feelings about this existential threat which can be hard to manage effectively. According to a Washington Post - Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 91% of Americans now believe we are experiencing climate change and 80% of Americans believe the fact that the current levels of climate change are caused by human activity.
We may go into denial and try to repress our knowledge and feelings. However, repressing our feelings tends to make us anxious or can lead us to engage in compulsive behaviors like overeating or drinking too much.
We may feel angry at our political leaders for not taking this threat more seriously, for pretending it’s not reality and taking actions that make the situation much worse like withdrawing from the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement. We may feel disheartened by the greed and ignorance that seems to run the world’s economies. We may feel angry at companies who only care for profit. We can vote at the polls and with our pocketbooks.
We may feel anxious or scared about the impact global warming will have on our lives. We may already have been impacted emotionally and financially by the increased natural disasters caused by climate change like increased droughts, wildfires, floods, superstorms and hurricanes. We may feel sad that the life we hoped we would have in the coming decades seems unlikely. Former Vice President Al Gore, founder of Climate Reality, says it’s not too late if we act now.
We may feel confused or uneducated. Here are some of the latest facts: If we continue AT OUR CURRENT RATE OF EMISSIONS, WE ONLY HAVE 8.5 YEARS LEFT before an average 1.5 degree of climate warming worldwide. There is only so much carbon we can emit before we reach that degree of warming. If that happens, we’ll see many natural systems begin to cross dangerous points of no return, triggering lasting, irreversible changes. We need to emit 50% less carbon dioxide (C02) and aggressively mitigate the effects of CO2 in the next ten years to have a better chance of preventing the climate catastrophes that will occur with a 1.5 degree change, include drought, more intense hurricanes, storms and flooding, crop failures, famine, farmland turning to desert, water scarcity, increased migration, and a negative impact to our current ecosystems and economies. We have the knowledge and the resources, we need the political and personal will to make the change.
We may feel like we need to DO SOMETHING, but what? Reduce greenhouse gas emissions!
You may feel depressed because you doubt one person can make a difference. That is not true. You can impact those around you and beyond. Our anger and our despair can be transformed into action. Look at Martin Luther King, Jr. Look at Young Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. She was a young girl who learned about climate change in school when she was 8. She said, “I remember thinking it was very strange that we were capable of changing the entire face of the Earth and the precious thin layer of atmosphere that makes it our home.” She wondered why we weren’t hearing about it everywhere. At first, she got very depressed because she could not understand how adults could have let this crisis happen. She was in great pain and stopped eating or speaking. After getting some help from a counselor, she started urging her parents to reduce their carbon footprint and asked them to give up flying. Her mother was an opera singer who eventually gave up her career when she stopped flying and changed her career to singing in musicals. Her parents’ responsiveness gave her hope.
Last year, when Greta turned 15, she decided that she would try to do something, however small it might be, to address the climate crisis. After the tragic school shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, Greta heard about some of the students becoming activists and refusing to go to school. This inspired her. So after record heat waves and wildfires last year in Sweden, she started skipping school to stand in front of the Swedish parliament to demand politicians treat climate change for what it is: the biggest issue we have ever faced. She stood alone with a sign saying school strike for the climate. She asked, “why should any young person be made to study for a future when no one is doing enough to save that future? What is the point of learning facts when the most important facts given by the finest scientists are ignored by our politicians?”
At first, she tried to get others to join her but they weren’t interested. She sat there alone in the cold for three weeks and then every Friday for weeks after that. She began to draw attention on social media and others joined her. She began to join other climate actions. She gave a TED talk. This January, she was invited to speak at Davos World Economic Forum about the climate crisis where she said “Our house is on fire.” She has scolded adults, saying, “You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes.” She was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. She spoke out at the UN recently, urging action.
Greta inspired other students from around the world to strike. Other young climate activists have been speaking out and are being heard, including Autumn Peltier, Haven Coleman, Lily Gardner, Helena Gaulinga, Mari Copeny, Kehkashan Basu, and Alexandria Villaseñor. Four million people around the world participated in the latest Strike for the Climate. Activists like Jane Fonda and groups like Extinction Rebellion are making headlines and increasing awareness. Groups like Climate Reality are giving presentations around the world.
We each need to do what we can and join with others to make a difference. Talk to neighbors and friends. You can change how you live. We can do this if we act now. Read about the climate crisis. NASA has good information. Join a group like 350.org, Climate Reality, Extinction Rebellion, the Sierra Club, or the Wilderness Society. Remember, when we are motivated and clear about our goals, people and nations have done great things. Learn more and do what you can. Last but not least, enjoy your life and do things that nurture you and your friends. Life is precious. Protect yours.
Sources:
July 9 - August 5, 2019 Washington Post - Kaiser Family Foundation survey of 2,293 U.S. Adults with an error margin of +/- 3 percentage points. https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/washington-post-kaiser-family-foundation-climate-change-survey-july-9-aug-5-2019/601ed8ff-a7c6-4839-b57e-3f5eaa8ed09f/
The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on Global Warming of 1.5°C, October, 2018, https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/
Real Science: Climate Science from Climate Scientists, www.realclimate.org
Why Greta Says We Have 8 years to Stop Catastrophe, Huffington Post, 9/27/2019 https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/greta-thunberg-carbon-dioxide-numbers_ca_5d8e86b6e4b0ac3cdda8cd40
Opinion: Al Gore: The Climate Crisis is the Battle of Our Time and We Can Win. New York Times, 09/20/2019 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/opinion/al-gore-climate-change.html
by Lisa Cottrell, LPC
Many of us who are waking up to the reality of the climate crisis have a wide range of feelings about this existential threat which can be hard to manage effectively. According to a Washington Post - Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 91% of Americans now believe we are experiencing climate change and 80% of Americans believe the fact that the current levels of climate change are caused by human activity.
We may go into denial and try to repress our knowledge and feelings. However, repressing our feelings tends to make us anxious or can lead us to engage in compulsive behaviors like overeating or drinking too much.
We may feel angry at our political leaders for not taking this threat more seriously, for pretending it’s not reality and taking actions that make the situation much worse like withdrawing from the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement. We may feel disheartened by the greed and ignorance that seems to run the world’s economies. We may feel angry at companies who only care for profit. We can vote at the polls and with our pocketbooks.
We may feel anxious or scared about the impact global warming will have on our lives. We may already have been impacted emotionally and financially by the increased natural disasters caused by climate change like increased droughts, wildfires, floods, superstorms and hurricanes. We may feel sad that the life we hoped we would have in the coming decades seems unlikely. Former Vice President Al Gore, founder of Climate Reality, says it’s not too late if we act now.
We may feel confused or uneducated. Here are some of the latest facts: If we continue AT OUR CURRENT RATE OF EMISSIONS, WE ONLY HAVE 8.5 YEARS LEFT before an average 1.5 degree of climate warming worldwide. There is only so much carbon we can emit before we reach that degree of warming. If that happens, we’ll see many natural systems begin to cross dangerous points of no return, triggering lasting, irreversible changes. We need to emit 50% less carbon dioxide (C02) and aggressively mitigate the effects of CO2 in the next ten years to have a better chance of preventing the climate catastrophes that will occur with a 1.5 degree change, include drought, more intense hurricanes, storms and flooding, crop failures, famine, farmland turning to desert, water scarcity, increased migration, and a negative impact to our current ecosystems and economies. We have the knowledge and the resources, we need the political and personal will to make the change.
We may feel like we need to DO SOMETHING, but what? Reduce greenhouse gas emissions!
- Vote out climate deniers and destroyers at every level of government. Vote in those with an aggressive climate mitigation plan. We must reduce greenhouse gas emissions of carbon dioxide and methane ASAP. Register voters.
- Reduce your use of electricity. Turn your thermostat one or two degrees closer to outside temperature and leave it there. Urge your office to do the same. Get an energy conservation check up. Unplug appliances when not in use, so they don’t use power.
- Switch to renewable energy like solar and wind. Often you can do this through your utility or a certified renewable energy provider, if you don’t do it individually.
- Make sure your air conditioner and refrigerator don’t leak freon, a chlorofluorocarbon.
- Don’t buy things you don’t need including the latest fast fashion. Every thing you purchase that is new, took energy to create and ship. Most of the world’s energy is created from burning, coal, oil and natural gas. Reduce, reuse, and recycle.
- Stop eating meat or reduce the amount you eat, especially red meat. Farm expansion is destroying forests. Cows emit methane. Animal agriculture is the number one consumer of fresh water. It takes over 1900 gallons of fresh water to produce a single pound of beef.
- Use less gasoline. Drive less. Use mass transit, carpool, bike or walk. Buy electric, hybrid or high fuel efficiency vehicles. Move closer to your work.
- Fly less. Look into buying carbon offsets when you do.
- Save trees and forests, plant trees and give money to protect wild lands.
- Try to eat local and organic. Avoid processed foods, as processing plants are major polluters and energy consumers. Reduce food waste.
- Learn more about the climate crisis. Support pro-environmental laws.
- Divest retirement investments from oil, gas and coal companies.
- Organize so your voice is heard and we can all do our part.
- When you can, buy organic, non GMO food. Don’t use herbicides or pesticides. Don’t buy plants pre-treated with bee killing pesticides and herbicides like neonicotinoids. If we lose pollinators, we will lose many sources of food.
- Stop purchasing plastic or reduce your use by buying products in bulk.
- Conserve your use of water and protect our waterways from contamination.
You may feel depressed because you doubt one person can make a difference. That is not true. You can impact those around you and beyond. Our anger and our despair can be transformed into action. Look at Martin Luther King, Jr. Look at Young Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. She was a young girl who learned about climate change in school when she was 8. She said, “I remember thinking it was very strange that we were capable of changing the entire face of the Earth and the precious thin layer of atmosphere that makes it our home.” She wondered why we weren’t hearing about it everywhere. At first, she got very depressed because she could not understand how adults could have let this crisis happen. She was in great pain and stopped eating or speaking. After getting some help from a counselor, she started urging her parents to reduce their carbon footprint and asked them to give up flying. Her mother was an opera singer who eventually gave up her career when she stopped flying and changed her career to singing in musicals. Her parents’ responsiveness gave her hope.
Last year, when Greta turned 15, she decided that she would try to do something, however small it might be, to address the climate crisis. After the tragic school shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, Greta heard about some of the students becoming activists and refusing to go to school. This inspired her. So after record heat waves and wildfires last year in Sweden, she started skipping school to stand in front of the Swedish parliament to demand politicians treat climate change for what it is: the biggest issue we have ever faced. She stood alone with a sign saying school strike for the climate. She asked, “why should any young person be made to study for a future when no one is doing enough to save that future? What is the point of learning facts when the most important facts given by the finest scientists are ignored by our politicians?”
At first, she tried to get others to join her but they weren’t interested. She sat there alone in the cold for three weeks and then every Friday for weeks after that. She began to draw attention on social media and others joined her. She began to join other climate actions. She gave a TED talk. This January, she was invited to speak at Davos World Economic Forum about the climate crisis where she said “Our house is on fire.” She has scolded adults, saying, “You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future in front of their very eyes.” She was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. She spoke out at the UN recently, urging action.
Greta inspired other students from around the world to strike. Other young climate activists have been speaking out and are being heard, including Autumn Peltier, Haven Coleman, Lily Gardner, Helena Gaulinga, Mari Copeny, Kehkashan Basu, and Alexandria Villaseñor. Four million people around the world participated in the latest Strike for the Climate. Activists like Jane Fonda and groups like Extinction Rebellion are making headlines and increasing awareness. Groups like Climate Reality are giving presentations around the world.
We each need to do what we can and join with others to make a difference. Talk to neighbors and friends. You can change how you live. We can do this if we act now. Read about the climate crisis. NASA has good information. Join a group like 350.org, Climate Reality, Extinction Rebellion, the Sierra Club, or the Wilderness Society. Remember, when we are motivated and clear about our goals, people and nations have done great things. Learn more and do what you can. Last but not least, enjoy your life and do things that nurture you and your friends. Life is precious. Protect yours.
Sources:
July 9 - August 5, 2019 Washington Post - Kaiser Family Foundation survey of 2,293 U.S. Adults with an error margin of +/- 3 percentage points. https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/washington-post-kaiser-family-foundation-climate-change-survey-july-9-aug-5-2019/601ed8ff-a7c6-4839-b57e-3f5eaa8ed09f/
The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on Global Warming of 1.5°C, October, 2018, https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/
Real Science: Climate Science from Climate Scientists, www.realclimate.org
Why Greta Says We Have 8 years to Stop Catastrophe, Huffington Post, 9/27/2019 https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/greta-thunberg-carbon-dioxide-numbers_ca_5d8e86b6e4b0ac3cdda8cd40
Opinion: Al Gore: The Climate Crisis is the Battle of Our Time and We Can Win. New York Times, 09/20/2019 https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/20/opinion/al-gore-climate-change.html
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