I lose sleep over climate change almost every single night. I can’t remember how long this has been happening, but it’s been quite a while, and it’s only getting worse. I confess: I need help.
A few years ago, I shared my climate change depression on Twitter, and the response was overwhelming. One of my tweets rose up the alt-truth ranks all the way to Fox News, where one host called me a “kook” for publicly expressing my feelings about the environment. Other responses were more empathic. Hundreds of people wrote to me admitting their own personal struggles under the weight of an unraveling world. This was a consolation of sorts. I realized that I am not alone in experiencing a kind of environmental dread.
Like many people who care about the fate of the planet, I’ve spent most of the past year alternating between soul-crushing despair and headstrong hope. My personal situation, however, is a bit unusual in that I get paid to be a climate-science communicator.
I’m a meteorologist by training and a journalist by profession. For the past 12 years, I’ve focused every working day on understanding, explaining, and trying to alleviate the effects of climate change. Yet global carbon emissions are more than 20 percent higher now than when I started work as a climate journalist. It’s difficult not to internalize some of this as a personal failure. “I should be telling that story better,” I’ll tell myself, as the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere continues to climb. The regret is catching up to me.
For now at least, the good days are enough to keep me going. But there are also days when I’m paralyzed. Case in point: This very essay. It sat open in a window on my computer for nearly 11 months, begging to be completed. Yet I resisted. Confronting the existential dread that climate change infuses into nearly every aspect of my life just isn’t something I want to spend my time doing.
About a year ago, I went to see a counselor for anxiety. He seemed unprepared for my emotional crisis. His simple advice was, “Do what you can.” Easier said than done, of course, but the advice helped me to realize something important: We are all in this together.
But for some reason, I still have a hard time talking about these emotional challenges in person. Climate change and mental health are still fairly taboo subjects in polite company (even if these aren’t days in which being polite gets one very far). Over the past several months, I’ve stopped talking about climate change with my parents, my wife, and my sister in order to avoid heated dialogue about what I think is the most important issue in the world. Instead, I’ve privately sought out personal advice from other scientists and journalists, and often commiserated with strangers. My support network has become those who are going through the same emotional crisis.
I know that cutting out my family is a defensive strategy. I know it can’t last forever. In ordinary times, I would welcome any chance to include my loved ones in my life’s work. But right now, I feel like I have to restrain myself from opening up about how I really feel to protect whatever seeds of hope I have left. I don’t know if it’s the right decision, but I know that I need to preserve my own well-being to continue to fight for the planet.
This article appeared in the March/April 2018 edition with the headline “Climate Change Blues.”
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I bet he is not the only one! Fighting ‘the wind’ is very tiresome. Maybe, just maybe this might be his road to Damascus experience. If he’ll just open his eyes. He is tired, and needs a break! Maybe, just maybe, deep down, he knows the truth? And its eating him up? I dunno, but to me, his cry of despair, is a cry for help! But is he going to get it? The truth? Time will tell, of course.
The solution to Eric Holthaus’s problem is simple. He needs to sign in on a basic engineering course and concentrate on the thermodynamics and behaviour of water. If he is honest with himself in his endeavours all his worries will depart.
Meanwhile, however, he is a danger to society peddling his neurosis to the world.
His family must be relieved that he has stopped bending their ears about climate change.
Ha ha ha ha haaaaaa!
Do I feel sorry for this deluded charlatan?
Not in the least.
My heart pumps p1ss for him.
“I lose sleep over climate change almost every single night. I can’t remember how long this has been happening, but it’s been quite a while, and it’s only getting worse. I confess: I need help.”
That’s what happens when you pretend you do science but have zero knowledge of how it is meant to be done. Those symptoms are always experienced by the incompetent when they are in over their heads.
He needs to be neurotic over many other thing besides the global warming that is going to fry his butt. Some of these will help him along:
The Russians will steal his vote.
Aliens are gonna eat him for lunch.
The “Lizard People” are already in control of the world’s governments.
An asteroid is going to hit him in the head.
Trump doesn’t take him seriously.
Everyone else thinks he’s a nut case.
Sharks are gonna eat him and his family due to rapid ocean rise.
Hillary will never be president.
C02 causes his psychotic behavior.
He can’t wipe away the tears in a strait jacket.
Now he has his 15 minutes of fame and it’s not like he thought it would be.
Lots of people are laughing and pointing their finger at him.
It’s already raining on his parade.
Hillary wants to spend a weekend with him. She understands.
There is always another windmill to tilt at.
Besides that, fear of the unknown is a common human trait that probably has an evolutionary advantage for survival. It might be wise to take a wide detour around that rock in case there is a tiger behind it. Taking other action such as knocking yourself on the head so you won’t feel pain as the tiger eats you may not be such a good response.
The alarmists are trying to knock us all on the head but it seems it is only themselves they are concerned with.
Reminds me of the lyrics of Green Day’s song:
Do you have the time
To listen to me whine
About anything and everything
All at once
I am one of those melodramatic fools
Neurotic to the bones
No doubt about it
Sometimes I give myself the creeps
My mind plays tricks on me
It all keeps adding up
I think I’m cracking up
Am I just paranoid
Or am I just stoned?
I went to a shrink
To analyze my dreams
He said my lack of sex
Is bringing me down
I went to a whore
She said my life’s a bore
Should quit my whining
Coz it’s bringing her down
Eric is depressed.
Almost everyone within Western society is depressed.
It’s caused by their diet and how they abuse sugar & alcohol to obtain the reward/feelgood chemical Dopamine
Dopamine can be had from other sources.
(Babies and young children are a very good source – now you ‘get’ why there are so few babies and sooooooo many fat women around? Rocket science it ain’t)
Dopamine also can be had here
Its from Utube, usual rules – make space, give the amp at least 9.5 tending to 11, let it roll and just ‘do’ whatever.
Let the machine carry you. Synchronise with it.
Learn empathy. Get Dopamine (without a chemical cheat)
fouled up the quote – I have EVERY confidence The Machine can handle it.
ha ha
or a mod
xx
What you propose is my favored cause as well… a bad diet full of cheap carbohydrates.
In addition to roses, that’s what I gave my wife for Mother’s Day, Bob!
@Eric Holthaus: Go to the doctor! Your problems do not come from climate change, you have an anxiety disorder. You can treat them in a therapy or take medication. The concern for the climate will not help you!
Dear Eric,
I found another article that might be useful for you:
“Why I Stopped Believing in Man-made Global Warming and Became a Climate Skeptic”
https://climatechangedispatch.com/why-i-stopped-believing-in-man-made-global-warming-and-became-a-climate-skeptic/
Happy reading! Break on through (to the other side).
Best regards,
Scarface
This song is dedicated to Eric. I tried to post the lyrics of the song but it was censored. C’mon it’s a favorite song of young girls but older men find it scandalous 🙂
“…where one host called me a “kook” for publicly expressing my feelings about the environment.”
I believe he was called a “kook” not for expressing his opinions publicly but for what those opinions were. Typical of the left – they can’t get anything right.
Here’s my solution: study coral reefs from different viewpoints. For example, you might start with this excellent essay by Jim Steele: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/04/05/falling-sea-level-the-critical-factor-in-2016-great-barrier-reef-bleaching/. Make sure that you look up the references and read them. A good book on corals, but shot-through with the alarmist viewpoint, is https://www.amazon.com/Coral-Reefs-Microbial-Forest-Rohwer/dp/0982701209. But, this easy-to-read book you give you a very good idea of coral life-cycles and environments.
There’s a lot of interesting material on reefs and if you search WUWT you’ll find references to published science that contradicts that mainstream view that reefs are dying because of global warming. Long story short: they are not.
This research into reefs should teach you that one of the major problems with the “science” of warming is that it conflates causality: it appropriates other causes for its own use. Reefs, I think, are a good example of this because accurate information is readily available. In short, reefs are dying due to overfishing, which removes needed algae-grazing fish from reefs, and from pollution, which changes the microbial balance of the reef environment. Are we destroying reefs? Yes. Is it because of global warming? No. Why do we constantly hear that warming is destroying reefs? Because that furthers “the cause.” I suppose some people feel this fear-mongering is justified to get people to act, but the “real” science, the science that does not confuse cause and effect, tells us that “global warming” has virtually nothing to do with reef declines.
Unfortunately, climate science is filled with conflated causality. That’s why, all-in-all, it’s a junk science. Climate science isn’t a rigorous science yet it parades around as if it’s indisputable and beyond question. Find this out for yourself by doing an in-depth study of coral reefs. Keep your eye on the ball: conflated causality. You might then do the same for sea-level rise, and although this is a little trickier to sort through (requires diligence! and maybe a decent understanding of stormwater engineering) the same conflated causality is used to “prove” grave danger.
Ocean acidification? Same thing: https://academic.oup.com/icesjms/article/73/3/529/2459146 Causes are either inflated or else are transferred in order to justify fear. Good science does one thing very well: it does not confuse causes. This is basic! Climate science fails miserably at this test.
I have some advice. But it’s for his long suffering wife.
We’re all dooomed, Eric Hothouse. And now It’s time for you to go. Be brave, step out into the searing sun and face Gaia, arms uplifted and …wait a moment, why not a little carbonated accelerant in the local park, it’s all the rage these days, no crowdfunding to Switzerland needed when tight-as*ed rellies won’t cough up, and it’s very tidy, the garbos do a great job.
The poor guy needs to have any guns he owns taken into temporary custody until he gets the help he needs.
The solution to Eric’s problem is that he needs to take a red pill every day, rather than the blue pill he’s been consuming for who knows how long.
(And for any of you not familiar with this analogy, “red pill” generally means the Free Thought movement while “blue pill” is the Woke movement; or, Right vs Left; Republican vs Democrat; Conservative vs Progressive/Communist; Capitalist vs Socialist; Classical Liberalism (the ideology advocating private property, an unhampered market economy, civil liberties under the rule of law, and constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion) vs Modern Liberalism (no rights to private property, a centralized controlled market economy, government intervention and restrictions on the individual, and abolition of religion in the public square.)
A red pill will make you happy; a blue pill will make you unhappy. It’s as simple as that.
Eric is obviously taking the blue pill, which makes him so unhappy. (He’s also overdosing on the “green pill”, that unsubstantiated belief that CO2 is somehow going to destroy our planet.)
Face it Mr. Hothouse or umm Holthaus. You have failed, and indeed wastes your life so far. Time to find another gig. Perhaps playing the native flute or some type of interpretive dance.
I’m tired of being sympathetic to people like Mr Hothouse.
it’s not easy to be sympathetic to someone’s self-inflicted problems. If (being paid for) communicating lies about the climate is causing you to lose sleep, then it’s time to stop being (a paid for) liar.
If you’re losing sleep, think of the effect you’re having on kids. Time to stop. Time to grow up.
I worry a little bit about the conditions my great great-grandchildren will be living under. Methane bombs going off?
My great great grandparents didn’t give a second thought to whether my living conditions would be harsh and scary due to how they were depleting resources and changing the landscape and beginning to release stored carbon.
Things change, and hopefully technology will be able to keep up and rescue them.
Honestly, the worries I have about my children is neocons warmongers and green indoctrinated proselytes : They are an immediate threat to their immediate future and mine.
How about worrying about the conditions children in poverty stricken countries live under today? Right now. Talk about a first world perspective on life. Wow. Your great grandchildren? Methane bombs? Stop. Grow up.
Self-Induced depression… Bet he wants us to pay for his free treatment.
I feel sorry for Holthaus, but I believe he hasn’t had the professional help he needs. One of the classic and common forms of depression arises from (really, the word banned here on this site is from psychogical nomenclature!) dеиiаl. The hope-crushing Pause following upon Climategate and the dismal failure of the Copenhagen climate klatch caused self doubt to appear and rejection of these doubts created what came to be called the “Climate Blues”, which ended the careers of a number of climate scientists.
The patients rationalized a different more noble reason for being smitten, but that’s precisely the type of self deception that engendered the illness. If that wasn’t bad enough, Trump backed out of the Paris Agreement, temperature projections had to be slashed at least in half to be believable, the planet was noted to be greening healthily and lead countries fell to half-hearted in their support. I believe we are seeing the next wave of “Climate Blues”.
A surprising revelation from this disorder is that when the brain discerns something not quite right about your thinking on a matter, it creates doubt and insists you correct your perception of reality. I say ‘insists’ because if you resist it, it makes you sick! I’m truly amazed and happy to say that we have a mind that insists truth so forcefully. I should add, that their are other forms and causes of depression. But we should start with this garden variety one first to eliminate it on the way to a diagnosis.
I disagree. If he can’t sleep, he’s doing that to himself. He’s obsessed with trying to “convert” people to his point of view. His ego demands it. His self-importance is being depleted.
It would be far more constructive if all his technojunk were removed from his possession, and he was sent to dig potatoes using a spade, because hard labor will wear you out enough to make you pass out in the middle of dinner. After that, a long, solo hike through woodlands where there are trails, birds, trees, undergrowth and critters.
I doubt that he can find his way around a city block without a GPS locator. He probably doesn’t know which was is north or south, up or down. Dump ALL the technojunk , because it feeds the addictive part of the brain, and spend a full week hiking solo – not a 15 minute saunter along a bicycle path – and then spend some time splitting about 10 cords of firewood on a tree stump.
If that doesn’t get him back to “normal:”, not much else will.
No Sara. We’ve already had the first wave of climate blues that was caused by the pause, Climategate etc. When you have devoted decades of your life to this cause and doubts loom, you don’t want to face the waste of a career. This internal conflict , not fully realized makes you sick. Eric has clearly bludgeoned family and friends with his hysteria and changing his mind looks to be too big a swallow for him. Why do you think Karl adjusted the temperature record out of the Pause as a last act before retirement. It was a huge issue.
Ah! The ‘waste of a career’ aspect! Yes, that did occur to me, and while this self-centered whining individual is devastated that he can’t make “Other” think as he does or follow his lead, he fails to realize that cults have a history of failing. At some point, they implode. They may do great harm along the way toward implosion, but we can only get out of their path of destruction.
He’s built his own path toward failure, you see, and is unable and unwilling to accept he couldn’t drag “Others” along with him. He Is Not Jesus, after all, so what does he do now? He is unlikely to take any responsibility for his own failure, which stems from being unwilling to see or even consider someone else’s view. The Cult of Climate has become ragged around the edges, frayed an worn, and not moving ahead.
It’s a cult. It has failed. Now does he do? He tells us he can’t sleep? Hard physical work will bring Hypnos, the God of Sleep, to your side very quickly. His brain is deprived of oxygen because the imagined horrors of Carbon, the Nemesis, have overloaded it.
Now he flounders, which is of his own doing. This is where I’d tell him to go split some wood so that I can cook. Calvados and an overload of cheese will have the same effect.
Brilliant, Sara. You’re absolutely right. Eric’s problem is a form of adrenaline addiction best treated by doing something that doesn’t involve getting stirred up by constant doses of propaganda. No TV, no Internerd, no radio, no newspapers, no magazines. No talking to Warmists. Camp out in the deep woods for two weeks.
“When you have devoted decades of your life to this cause and doubts loom, you don’t want to face the waste of a career. This internal conflict , not fully realized makes you sick.”
I think that sums it up nicely. The truth is starting to dawn on Eric Holthaus: human-caused atmospheric CO2 is increasing but the temperatures are not. It’s upsetting to realize you have been living in a false reality and that your whole worldview is wrong.
Strange – doesn’t look like Tuscon: https://twitter.com/EricHolthaus/status/995476151182209024
Having a lawn is Tuscon is not eco-friendly.
What a pathetic dolt. I wonder if it occurred to the therapist whom he sought out that his anxiety may stem from adeep-seated understanding in his own dishonesty (and)or competence) and the means by which he’s painted himself into an unescapable corner of b.s. After all, if he want to continue “getting paid to be a climate science communicator.” I realize I could be imagining, but does anyone see a sort of quiet admission in that sentence?
Indeed.
He certainly needs to ask himself what is the definition of success in the field of “climate science communication”. He also might want to do that before his benefactors ask him the same question.