Coming Out of the Closet: My Climate Trauma (and Yours?)

I have spent my lifetime face to face with some of the most brutal and inhumane acts ever committed, but nothing has been as traumatizing for me as trying to get action to tackle the climate crisis.

As a long time human rights defender and prior Executive Director at WITNESS, I helped produce and direct films on rape as a weapon of war and amputations in Sierra Leone's recent bloody conflict, I conducted an undercover investigation into the Russian mafia's involvement in trafficking women for forced prostitution, I investigated hit squads in apartheid South Africa, and I spent countless hours in editing rooms watching first hand images of death, destruction, and devastation.

But spending my days and nights trying to get our country to tackle global warming is more emotionally demanding than any job I have ever done.

When I was at WITNESS, people used to say "The work you do must be so difficult. How do you manage?" to which I would respond "Well, I can see the results. And it's not as bad as environmental work would be!" What I meant when I said that five years ago is that I felt overwhelmed by our inexorable march to "pave it all" -- parking lot by parking lot, McDonald's by Wal-Mart.

But seeing former Vice President Al Gore give his now famous slide show at the TED conference in 2006 convinced me that nothing mattered more than tackling global warming, and that climate change had massive humanitarian and human rights consequences. There was no looking back, so in mid-2007 I leapt, knowing that I was headed straight towards my deepest fears and concerns.

As I started to immerse myself in the science and early impacts of global warming, I became increasingly distraught. But I soldiered on, hoping against hope that I would be so busy in an ambitious new start up campaign at 1Sky, and so relieved to be trying to do something about it, that I would not be overwhelmed with existential angst and despair. Looking back on the last year and a half since I started as 1Sky's Campaign Director in the fall of 2007, my wish has generally come true. But since President Obama's inauguration and the 2009 clock started ticking on the countdown to Copenhagen, I feel myself slipping. And I know I am not alone.

So when Dr. Lise Van Susteren, a psychiatrist and co-convenor of last month's conference at the National Wildlife Federation on the Psychological Aspects of Climate Change asked me to videotape an interview (part 1 | part 2) with her that would be played before the heads of the American Psychiatric Association and the Centers for Disease Control, I agreed. And in spite of the fact that I found myself weeping at several points during the conversation and know it never bodes well for a woman in leadership, I let her play it during the plenary session in conference.

I did that because I believe that I and many other people around the world are suffering from "Climate Trauma." It's my own term. I am not a mental health professional, but I can identify plain as day the symptoms I recognize in myself and in my colleagues traumatized by our work to tackle climate change. And these symptoms are of course different from, but related to, the much deeper trauma of those who are already being directly impacted by climate change, whether through dislocation, drought, or the death of a loved one:

1. Anxiety and Stress. We know we are facing a looming catastrophe of unparalleled proportions -- a truly existential crisis in that scientists predict that if we do not take dramatic action now, human beings will not be able to continue living on Earth as we have come to know it. This is not the place to detail the reasons or predicted impacts of climate change, but it is to say that a central motivation in pushing for climate and energy policy is our knowledge of that existential threat. And there has never been more urgency or intensity to our wish and our call, with the looming international negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009 and the critical need to have demonstrated US leadership before we get there. We in the US are literally dizzy with work, given the pace of the congressional calendar, regulatory action, and the Administration more broadly. Many of us are insomniacs and obsessive workaholics.

2. Fear and Hopelessness: We know we must be bold and visionary and imaginative and hopeful about all of the potential of a 21st century green economy built on wind, solar and geothermal. All the polls and marketing specialists tell us that people will tune us out if we shriek about the fact that the sky is falling and that people want to hear about solutions. We do see a path forward -- a way out of this mess we got ourselves into. But in our heart of hearts ,we are fearful that the powers that be in industrial America, the votes in Congress, and the ignorance or economic plight of voters all around us, will stand in our way and we may get nothing at all, or too little to late. Will we add up? We think about our children and their future, and we weep. We tear ourselves away from them for yet another day, another night, trying to preserve something left for them to live in. Even the children are traumatized: look at what 10 year old Nikos Spiridakis produced as a wake up call or what this young girl in Michigan says when her aunt asks her what global warming is.

3. A Parallel Universe: We often feel like we are living in a parallel universe. Don't people see that we are headed straight off a cliff? How could they possibly continue to argue that there is legitimate dispute about whether or not the planet is warming? How could the ones who know that it is warming leave all their incandescent bulbs on? Leave their SUV idling? Blast the heat and open the windows? Toss their water bottle in the trash? And sit out this fight of a lifetime, this fight for our lives? We are obsessed and alone and sometimes we or our loved ones literally have to ban the topic from conversation rather than repeat ourselves again. And again. And again.

4. Depression, Irritability and Anger: Flip sides of the same coin, we find ourselves alternately depressed, irritable, or angry. Who wouldn't under the circumstances? But these symptoms only get in our way, and diminish our power to be the leaders we must be to confront the greatest challenge of our generation, and perhaps of all time in life on this precious planet we call home. We need each other -- our colleagues, our teams and the people who love us -- to keep on keeping on.

When Dr. Spencer Eth, a respected forensic psychiatrist, saw the interview I did with Dr. Van Susteren at the conference, he wrote a short article on "Climate Warriors and Emotional Burnout." He wrote:

The mission of a 'climate warrior' is demanding and may become self-sacrificing. The activist must articulate terrible truths about the coming ecological catastrophes. Indeed, future scenarios may approximate what psychiatrist Robert Lifton described as a death imprint -- the indelible images of the grotesque that the person cannot assimilate.

Dr. Van Susteren followed up with some advice on how to sustain ourselves.

And so, we find ourselves "surfing the apocalypse," as my friend Gary Cohen from Health Care Without Harm would say. We know that this crisis is an opportunity to reinvent the way we are living our lives, and to steer this troubled ship called Earth towards safer harbor. In our despair, we must surface all our passion and commitment and power to ensure that we come together as an unstoppable force for change, turning the tide back in the right direction, and lifting all boats.

CLIMATE TRAUMA SURVIVAL TIPS FROM DR LISE VAN SUSTEREN

• Take care of yourself physically and spiritually, through healthy living and maintaining a balance in your professional and personal life.
• Physical exercise is essential -- endorphins, the body's natural pain killers, are secreted in response to exercise. Endorphins help fight psychic pain, too. Exercise also boosts your immune system. If you are stressed out and getting sick a lot -- you need regular exercise. Swimming can be very soothing.
• Get out of doors as much as possible -- connect with the forces that drive you and give yourself up to the beauty of nature in the present. Your energy to continue the battle will be rejuvenated.
• Remember that you are not alone. There are lots of other people who may be just as traumatized as you are -- they just aren't talking about it. Some people are distracted by jobs that don't constantly expose them to the realities. Unlike you, they can get away from it for a while.
• Diversify your work and your life: force yourself to participate in activities not related to climate.
• Reinforce boundaries between professional work and personal life. It is very hard to switch from the riveting force of apocalyptic predictions at work to home where the problems are petty by comparison. If you haven't found another solution: Take 10 mins, close your eyes, shut your brain down. If you don't know how, Google "How to meditate."
• Connect with your fellow climate warriors: Gather -- Play games, dance, tell jokes. There is nothing like a laugh. Don't talk about climate!
• Your fears are realistic. But what you can do, or what you expect you can do, may not be.
• Personal therapy can help. You wouldn't be the first person to conflate some personal problems with what is happening to the planet. Although "we" are working on it, many professionals may not yet "get" the problem with climate.

The Don'ts

• Overwork
• Having trouble sleeping? Avoid climate related work at night. Make sure to cut off the computer at least 2 hours before bedtime. The blue light emitted by computers suppresses a hormone that triggers sleep more than light from other parts of the spectrum. Additionally, turning out lights is not only good for the planet -- the resulting incremental darkness sets the body up to sleep. Also, did you know that it can take as many as 9 hours for your body to completely break down caffeine?
• Believe that you are invulnerable. In fact, admitting what you are going through makes you more resilient.
• Ignore signs & symptoms of burnout. Like an overused muscle -- without some kind of rest or intervention burnout will only get worse.
• Forget that understanding the material does not require that you actually experience what is being spoken about.
• Lose focus on the essential tasks.
• Don't give up! Despite the forecast -- we are working together like never before.

 

Follow Gillian Caldwell on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Gillian1Sky

Comments

[SFTor]

I thought it was deniers who were supposed to be crazy.

[JamieTee]

I feel sorry for you, working yourself up so much over such an overblown "problem." Temperatures are barely warmer today than they were 30 years ago, according to NASA satellite instruments launched in 1979 at the end of a 30-year cooling period, and temperatures have not risen at all for most of the past decade. Moreover, European Science Foundation temperature reconstructions from Greenland ice cores show temperatures are significantly cooler now than they were during most of the past 8,000 years.

Get some sleep, take a valuum if you must, and try not to unquestioningly drink the Kool-Aid of every self-serving environmental scare that comes down the pike.

[Chandra Vikash]

Jamie, So do we conclude from your too randomly picked up "evidences" that climate change is an overblown "problem"? A simple search on the Internet disproves your point to most people. Do it Yourself, if you care.

If it already causes more than a million deaths each year and threatens to wipe out more than half of humanity in coming decades, faster than our capacity to control it, that is "overblown" in your opinion. Gillian may have some genuine reasons to feel dejected and needs as you say, "Get some sleep". Shouldn't you wake up, before begin advising others?

[JamieTee]

Chandra, specifically which of the facts I cited do you claim a "simple search on the Internet" disproves?

[Chandra Vikash]

Gillian, Most people give in when they are oh-so close to the finishing line. A good way to refresh and recharge yourself is to celebrate every important milestones. We need to develop rituals and folklore to sustain our energies. Lots of primitive societies did this by elevating natural forces to the status of gods. So you have a God of wind, sun, seas, earth, all the planets and round about everything.

We may believe differently about what's been causing climate change, but our habits are still glued to a "flat earth" climate change deniers. This is causing a tension that's taking a toll on many of us. That way, paradoxically, deniers may be better off, b'coz they don't suffer this tension.

The best way forward for us is to understand that victory is in sight and go for the kill. Once we are cross the tipping point where the supporting structures and systems are in our favour and easier on us, climate change mitigation will seem more easier on the gut for everyone. It's the deniers who will be losing sleep - ostracised or incarcerated.

The world needs you more than ever. We are with you.

[quidam56]

Appalachia's future is being decapitated one mountain at a time, one river at a time. Not sure we can stand anymore of the progress and prosperity thanks to GREED. If you care to see 3rd world Appalachia take a peek. http://www.wisecountyissues.com

[Kim Cranston - Huffpost Blogger]

Gillian, I know the experience, and believe there is a different way to think about the challenge(s) we face that gives me more hope and a different handle for addressing them: Humanity’s Greatest Challenge and Its Solution: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kim-cranston/humanitys-greatest-challe_b_196128.html

[dgscol]

One might witness food shortages from weather changes - but this is due more to overpopulation requiring the use of marginal arable land, rather than real climate change. That is my dread - that we are not dealing realistically with the situation - and wishing for a miracle from energy usage. But who is taking charge of energy use?

It is not NASA, who with every launch of the Space Shuttle Supervan, claims another 1 degree C increase in global temperature. It is not the business community and the Orientals, who build cheaper electronic devices that consume large amounts of energy, even in "off" mode.

Is it possible that energy use cannot be controlled? In fact do not people require energy for the sake of commerce? The only way to reduce energy use is to reduce global commerce, not increase it.

[nainoa]

Good news, a cheap immediate solution to the crisis of CO2 that both removes CO2 from the air and converts it into restored ecosystems. This is restoring the SEAS and TREES. We'v already begun restoring plants bck to levels of abundance that this planet benefitted from just 30 years ago. In these most recent 30 years 4-5 billion tonnes of CO2 that was being converted into plant life has become poison to our small blue planet. The trauma is especially severe in the oceans which cover 70% of the planet where many fold decimation of plant life has resulted from high and rising CO2. ONLY the green plants of this planet are powerful enough allies that if we help replenish and restore them to recent natural levels will they take care of fully half he crisis of our fossil fuel age CO2.

But the fact a potent, immediate, and an affordable solution costing 1% of the re-engineerig of industry and lifestyles leads these practical truely green methods to be be attacked by both sides on the burgeoning trillion dollar climate change gravy train. Big Greens spend millions to convince people allowing inexpensive restoration of SEAS and TREES wll take he heat off governments and industry to eschew old technology and build new. Big Black industries don't want acknowledgement of a problem especially one that wil inexpensively and immediately solve half the problem leaving the other half to far greatrer mitigation cost. read more at www.planktos-science.com

[dobermanmacleod]

Yeah, climate dread is horrible. We are facing the next great extinction, the death of billions of people, and the possible collapse of civilization. Worse, people seem to be sleepwalking toward it.

On the other hand, the primary prescription for global warming tends to be a politically unfeasible scheme of severe carbon dieting. Yet, any carbon diet strategy would be dependent upon clean coal:

"The vast majority of new power stations in China and India will be coal-fired; not "may be coal-fired"; will be. So developing carbon capture and storage technology is not optional, it is literally of the essence." --"Breaking the Climate Deadlock," Tony Blair, June 26, 2008

But, Vaclav Smil, an energy expert at the University of Manitoba, has estimated that capturing and burying just 10 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted over a year from coal-fire plants at current rates would require moving volumes of compressed carbon d ioxide greater than the total annual flow of oil worldwide -- a massive undertaking requiring decades and trillions of dollars. "Beware of the scale," he stressed."

"The alternative (to geoengineering) is the acceptance of a massive natural cull of humanity and a return to an Earth that freely regulates itself but in the hot state." --Dr James Lovelock, August 2008

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

[Richard2]

Gillian,

You have clearly been involved in many difficult, meaningful efforts to help people around the world. I applaud your efforts, and thank you. The world is a better place because of people like yourself.

However, on the issue of global warming, have you ever considered the possibility that statements like "a looming catastrophe of unparalleled proportions" don't ring true in the real world?

In the real world, people can make observations to check on theories of how the world is changing.
We have scientific instruments that measure air temperature, ocean temperature, sea ice extent, ocean level changes, and CO2 in the atmosphere.

The real world doesn't appear to be changing the way the global warming theorists predicted. The earth is not warming, the oceans are cooling, the sea level rise is slowing down, and the global sea ice level is above the average of 1979-2000. If the original global warming theory was true, we would be seeing lots of evidence that the world is getting warming at an accelerating rate. Instead, the world is stable, or slightly cooling. Further, our cooling sun may lead the world into several decades of cooler weather.

In the real world, the words "catastrophe of unparalleled proportions" don't seem to match the current trends in the earth's climate.

[Nooooorm]

Bravo. Very well done.

[AntonioSosa]

My climate trauma is related to the man-made global warming/climate change SCAM that threatens our future and the future of our children. I can't believe that there are still people who support the scam and that are ready to help Obama shackle us with cap and trade, based on the scam! Cap and Trade “would be the equivalent of an atomic bomb directed at the U.S. economy—all without any scientific justification,” says famed climatologist Dr. S. Fred Singer.

More and more scientists and thinking people all over the world are realizing that man-made global warming is a hoax that threatens our future and the future of our children. More than 700 international scientists dissent over man-made global warming claims. They are now more than 13 times the number of UN scientists (52) who authored the media-hyped IPCC 2007 Summary for Policymakers.

Additionally, 32,000 American scientists have signed onto a petition that states, "There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate…"

"Progressive" (communist) politicians like Obama seem determined to force us to swallow the man-made global warming scam. We need to defend ourselves from the United Nations and these politicians, who threaten our future and the future of our children.