'Climate grief': The growing emotional toll of climate change

[pscot]

When the U.N. released its latest climate report in October, it warned that without “unprecedented” action, catastrophic conditions could arrive by 2040. For Amy Jordan, 40, of Salt Lake City, a mother of three teenage children, the report caused a “crisis.”

“The emotional reaction of my kids was severe,” she told NBC News. “There was a lot of crying. They told me, 'We know what’s coming, and it’s going to be really rough.’ “
...
The increasing visibility of climate change, combined with bleak scientific reports and rising carbon dioxide emissions, is taking a toll on mental health, especially among young people, who are increasingly losing hope for their future. Experts call it “climate grief,” depression, anxiety and mourning over climate change.

Last year, the American Psychological Association issued a report on climate change’s effect on mental health. The report primarily dealt with trauma from extreme weather but also recognized that “gradual, long-term changes in climate can also surface a number of different emotions, including fear, anger, feelings of powerlessness, or exhaustion.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/mental-health/climate-grief-growing-emotional-toll-climate-change-n946751

[tblue37]

1. K&R for visibility. nt

[Moostache]

2. In 5-10 years time, young people are going to revolt.

They are going to refuse to participate in anything that is not 100% focused on climate change mitigation and human survival. They are also going to be killed by the millions as capitalists go down with the ship, fighting for those all important profits all the way down...military personnel will be ordered to fire on the very citizens they are supposed to defend, and they will do so.

In the end, by 2070 or earlier, civilization will fall and the aftermath will be worse than anyone but a real sadist can imagine.
Enjoy these last years of fiddling while the world burns people, because they are numbered...

[shanny]

3. I've been feeling it for decades

(since the mid-90s at a minimum). It turned to rage long ago.

[pscot]

4. It's like a weight pressing down on you

I fell like I should be out blowing up pipelines or stalking James Inhofe with a sniper rifle.

edit: words

[shanny]

6. amen

[The_jackalope]

5. When I first understood how huge the catastrophe is

and how puny the proposed "solutions" are in comparison, and how unwilling humans are to undertake collectively even those paltry efforts... I was suicidal for almost a decade.

I've finally settled into a resigned fatalism about the larger issues, and set my sights on very small, local, personal actions that will at least ease my conscience and remind me on a daily basis that I'm a decent human being who deserves to be alive.

[ck4829]

7. K&R