There is some increasingly interesting and grim research on the psychological consequences and affects of rapidly changing environmental conditions and global warming available. This is a summation of a
report by Van Susteren and Coyle, reblogged from
Climate Progress:
We spend vast amounts of time and personal energy trying to calculate
the most urgent threats posed by climate change. Washington, D.C.
psychiatrist and climate activist Lise Van Susteren, however, says the
most insidious danger may already be upon us. She’s not talking about
heat, drought, floods, severe storms, or rising seas. She’s focused on
the psychological risks posed by global warming.
Van Susteren has co-authored a report
on the psychological effects of climate change that predicts Americans
will suffer “depressive and anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress
disorders, substance abuse, suicides, and widespread outbreaks of
violence,” in the face of rising temperatures, extreme weather, and
scarce resources. Van Susteren and her co-author Kevin Coyle write that
counselors and first responders “are not even close to being prepared to
handle the scale and intensity of impacts that will arise from the
harsher conditions and disasters that global warming will unleash.”
There is currently no organized discipline for the study of the
psychological risks of climate change, yet it is already taking a toll
on many people who tackle this issue. Surprisingly susceptible are those
who might seem to be immune.
“The climate deniers? I always say they‘re really too stressed to
hear the truth,” said Van Susteren. “We see this kind of thing in my
work all the time, where people who aren’t ready to hear the truth about
something will simply say it doesn’t exist.”
Those who do acknowledge the problem face a different set of issues,
particularly those who work on the problem. Lisa Van Susteren coined the
term “pre-traumatic stress disorder” to describe the grief, anger, and
anxiety clinging to the scientists and advocates whose job it is to gaze
into a future that can look increasingly bleak. [MORE]
