Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Psychiatric advice to engage in green activism to overcome intense feelings of eco-anxiety is producing some fascinating outcomes.
News about climate change can be distressing. Here’s how to cope with ‘ecoanxiety’
MONDAY 15 OCTOBER 2018 5:23PM
By Ange McCormackAfter hearing about a damning report into climate change last week – which basically gives the world 12 years to halve our emissions or else face uncontrollable climate change – 27-year-old Caitlin Grace sent Hack an email.
In the subject line Caitlin wrote, “Ecoanxiety”.
“I’ve gone full existential crisis,” Caitlin wrote while reeling from the IPCC findings.
“I’ve been having several panic attacks a day, can’t concentrate and just have a constant overwhelming feeling of impending doom.”
Caitlin Grace told Hack that going about her daily life in the last week has been pretty surreal.
“When I’ve been out and about I’ve been looking around at people and thinking, why are we just going about our normal lives?
…
The Australian Psychology Society has developed a bunch of resources to help people cope with feeling anxious about climate change. Dr Burke says one of the first things to do if you’re feeling anxious about climate change is share what you’re going through with your friends and family.
“One of the more dangerous things you can do is push the feelings away and ignore the problem and then not do anything about it.”
…
It’s a strategy that Caitlin Grace is trying too.
“My partner and I have talked about it heaps, and just today we’ve gone and bought a bunch of tofu and we’re going to phase ourselves into veganism,” Caitlin says. “I think it is the biggest thing individuals can do to help the environment. I’m really excited about it.
Caitlin Grace is becoming a vegan after reading last week’s IPCC report
“I’ve never been to a protest before but I’m now feeling the need to mobilise – I’m keen to get out on the street and be part of it.”
…
Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/feeling-ecoanxiety/10378470
One question not addressed in the article – do green activists receive a moral license to take a break from vegetarianism while actually participating in a climate protest?
It can get cold and wet on those mean streets, a tofu burger in such circumstances might not be enough.
Lets not forget, by actually participating in a climate protest green activists are doing a lot more virtue signalling than simply going vegan in their ordinary lives.
Update (EW): Video explaining why you should vote green. Contains rude language.
Update 2 (EW): Sadly the classic comedy video “Why I voted green” (original link here) is now displaying an error. It may have been deleted by the ABC, the people who originally published it. A rather sad piece of cultural vandalism if this removal is intentional.
Update 3 (EW): Another copy, see how long this lasts
My local power station in Hong Kong scrubs its flue gasses like this:
Limestone powder is mixed with water to form slurry and fed to the scrubber to absorb SO2 from the flue gas. The by-product is withdrawn for dewatering to produce saleable gypsum.
Now, what a lot of people probably don’t know is that the production of tofu requires the use of a coagulant. Guess what a very common coagulant is – yes, gypsum. And that’s one of the markets for HK Electric’s saleable gypsum, making tofu.
So, the unintended consequence for herbivorous greens is that by forcing the closing of fossil fuel power stations they are endangering their supply of tofu.
Something that’s only delicious in its irony, I’d say.
That’s hilarious 🙂
Yet another industrial use of limestone that releases non fossil fuel carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Wet-Limestone Scrubbing Fundamentals
H/T David
Question from the bean gallery: Does tofu have to be made of non-GMOs or will my bean crop possibly end up as tofu instead of diesel fuel this year❔
non gmo
which means NO american product,
and some careful company contact to find their source
i eat no usa corn or any soy, and yes i do read labels and call companies.
pretty much i buy fresh and whole grains for bread and aussie grown only.
recent COOL labelling heres brilliant
we now see that most ham bacon etc for sale in delis is as little as 10 to 20% aus ingredients
ie the nitrates/water maybe and the plastic packing
its sure cut consumption at our local shops;-)
but the local butcher buying local free range pork is doing a hell of a trade now;-)
At the supermarket yesterday, a young woman moving with another woman who was pushing the shopping cart in the opposite direction to me in the fruit and vegetable area, reached in front of me to pick up a plastic lime-shaped container of juice. “This is the sustainable thing to do”, she explained to her friend as she dropped the juice into the basket. Her companion must have asked why because she added, “It’ll save them picking the green limes off the trees.” I’m quite sure that she was serious.
Moira Egan
Shopping can be hazardous to your health.
Need to start telling these people, “We can’t take you seriously unless you sell your car and completely disconnect from the electrical grid. Anything else is too little to be of help.” With any luck, some will do exactly that, and we will never hear from them again.
Rather than total disconnect from the grid I’d be happy if they only used electricity when either Wind or Olar output reached 50% of installed capacity. Once they got used to that then move onto when both are at 50%.
Bet ya anything the tofu she bought was wrapped in plastic packaging. She drove to the store, and back home again, used a gas or electrically powered stove to cook it (If not raw) metal cutlery and ceramic plates etc. And *THEN* used her computer to send an e-mail!!
Yes dear, at 27, you are suffering “ecoanxiety”. Now, take 2 valium, a green herbal tea and have a rest.
I would recommend a large entrecote with baked potatoes and butter, and a pint of stout. She is obviously lacking B-vitamins, fatty acids and proteins…..
““My partner and I have talked about it heaps, and just today we’ve gone and bought a bunch of tofu and we’re going to phase ourselves into veganism,” Caitlin says. “I think it is the biggest thing individuals can do to help the environment. I’m really excited about it.”
First thing she needs to do is read up the potential side-effects of a rapid dietary change. It’s not all good! And lets hope she does not do it while pregnant.
RE: And lets hope she does not do it while pregnant.
Lets hope she never gets pregnant. There’s enough debris floating in the gene pool as it is.
Infants need fat, real animal fat, in order for their brains to develop properly.
Off topic – but another absolutely wonderful instance of this kind of thing, from the Guardian
Another marvellous example of ‘don’t say obviously correct things because they upset me…’
And also ‘truth is what I feel it is….’
The inquiring reader wonders if perhaps a man of 70 could classify himself as a teenager, because to determine people’s age by the number of years since birth is clearly ageist, phobic, and abhorrent and deeply upsetting to, well, those young people who have come to realize they are teenagers trapped in aging bodies, and will undoubtedly lead to attempts and suicides.
michel
Meanwhile, back in the real world, a man who identified as a woman was convicted of a crime and sent to prison, an all woman prison.
There, he/she committed various sexual assaults on female inmates including, I believe, rape.
He/she was eventually transferred to a male only prison.
The moral of the story seems to be that if you fancy a bit of rumpy pumpy simply tell everyone you’re a woman.
Please don’t tell us what happend in the new prison.
I wonder if Biber will open Peoplekind prisons?
bonbon
Having been in a number of prisons I have a good idea what would have happened to him/her when transferred.
I hasten to add I used to be a cop so my prison visits were fleeting.
You had me worried for a second.
A 101% predictable outcome to anyone but the doe-eyed all-tolerant champions of “social justice”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atpn_T6zZr4&start=22&end=32
I don’t know how to play just one segment — from 0:22 to 0:32 is the part I want here.
It is actually almost as bad as those temperature-phobics who openly and astonishingly go around pretending that the temperature is what is shown on thermometers and that extreme weather is what is measured by wind and pressure gauges.
Whereas actually of course the temperature of the planet is what I feel it is, and the extreme weather events are clearly increasing by my count, and I shall get very depressed and think about suicide if anyone tells me different.
“What have YOU done about the Climate Crisis?” you ask Eric.
Well I’ve help some friends clear a couple of fallen trees in recent high winds, chainsawed and made ready for burning later in the winter.
🙂
tom0mason
So it’s all your fault and nothing to do with CO2?!
Just wait until the MSM get wind of this.
Oh look, I found a sarcasm key on my keyboard, best switch it off.
🙂
Welcome back to the ’60s. In those days the existential crisis of choice was “The Bomb”. All the usual suspect (CND, most thespians, the limp wristed left with their hand knitted underwear) campaigned, marched and generally stamped their feet. They had nervous breakdowns about imminent mega-death and the end of civilisation was widely predicted.
That was a cause that they could possibly have some effect on because it was undeniably man-made (the evidence actually existed on the mainland of Japan), but I suspect they had little real effect. Eventually the grown-ups took charge and agreed a sensible course of action, spurred on, I am sure, more by the savings brought about by abandoning the arms race than altruism.
Now we have a new job for all the unemployed campaigners, waving signs mostly saying hooray for our signs (I pinched that phrase, but it describes virtue signalling perfectly). They can again suspend any critical faculties that they may have, put on their blinkers (blinders) so that they are not distracted by anything that contradicts their views and create a lot of hot air about not making a lot of hot air.
I just opened a package of bacon.
To Caitlin, 2 words:
Coconut oil
Some warmists seem to be working themselves into genuine mental illness. My care factor is low.
for them, I agree, not a skerrick of sympathy.
I am however angry that pschys are pandering and actively encouraging their aberrant behaviour and the health system is footing the outrageous consult bills for the large part
while people with real and serious mental health issues cant even get to see a health professional
She needs some Mogadon and a slap around the face.
“One of the more dangerous things you can do is push the feelings away and ignore the problem and then not do anything about it.” Your first problem is you have misidentified your problem entirely. Do not mobilise that.
After buying the tofu they likely got in their SUV and drove home and turned on the lights.
There’s FINALLY been a start to fracking in the UK. Who should turn up to help protest, and to tell the world, but Vivienne Westwood, a famous UK fashion designer. She obviously forgot to watch the recent documentary which suggested (with some pretty graphic examples) that fashion is the world’s second worst polluter after fossil fuels. Never mind.
Anxiety is a big problem among populations. It happens to a person, who searches (anxiously) for a cause. If it can be some media-driven hoax like ‘climate change’ (there are others), anxiety will glom onto that.
Anxiety, and disordered assumptions, are manifest everywhere yet barely recognized.
And another example of “You Couldn’t Make It Up” – In last week’s BBC Radio’s Any Questions anniversary edition, the audience was all 25 or younger, the political panel under 30. Climate change was inevitably raised and there was unusual unanimity (guess which way). Just to test the resolve of the audience, the chair asked whether any of them used air travel for breaks, etc – virtually every hand went up. They’ve a long way to go.
I don’t put ice in my Scotch.
When flying my private jet to a global warming convention, I ensure that the limo is a hybrid or electric vehicle.
My diet is 100% vegetarian, I don’t believe in the global warming scam and I’m not subject to anxiety attacks as this young lady is.
The cattle, pigs, goats, deer, fish and chickens that are slaughtered for my gastronomic enjoyment are vegetarian so me consuming them means I’m vegetarian, or vegan (or does one claiming to be Vegan imply they are from the Planet Vega?) or just normal.
I am proud of her for eating tofu however! Soybeans are not planted, cared for, harvested, transported and processed by hand. They require a significant amount of oil, gas and diesel along they way so her pursuit of this tasteless protein helps support our critical Oil & Gas industry.
Tofu? Soy contains estrogen-like compounds called isoflavones. Cancer cells love estrogen for growth and proliferation.
Unless it’s produced by Monsanto, or Monsanto contributed in some way to its production, they probably don’t really care about these parasitic endoctrine signals.
They are concerned trolls, not real risks concerned. (They probably actually couldn’t care less.) If it’s Monsanto, they will care about a nanogram of the product.
One French green politician once said on TV (LCP-AN/Public Sénat, channel 13) that if you can’t determine a toxic dose (if the product has zero measurable toxicity), the scientific level of tolerance is zero: you have to ban it. It implies that if a product is known to cause babies to miss arms and legs, you can tolerate a small dose of it; but if not, you can’t, you have to ban it because you can’t find any poisonous effect. That was said clearly. There was no room for interpretation. It was in French and I can testify that no other possible meaning for what was said exit. The lady did not misspoke: she was very clear.
That person was never called out on that statement. The journalist did not asked followup question, did not noticed what was said, and nobody did or everybody accepted it.
I’m still waiting for someone to broadcast that statement in loop and ask the Greens about it.
It was several years ago and everyone but me has forgotten about it, but I have unlimited grudge.
Hello! my name is Pinky. I am a feather-brained progressive communitarian virtue-signaling social justice parrot warrior. I repeat everything the media says about President Trump, because he made a lot of money and I hate money because I don’t have any.
And he doesn’t believe in global warming so he is obviously evil. Too much air will kill us all! It’s everywhere and he will not stop its prolifeatheration!
And cow farts are frying the planet, so why not a diet of insects? I eat them all the time and they are crunchy delicious!
And oil power is very bad, except for Al & Leo’s private planes, navy subs that spy on Evil Russians and my plastic squeak toys.
We must make a sacrifice for Gaia, like the windmills that keep beheading my fine-feathered friends and bring us closer to our Muslim brothers. BWRAAAAK!