Guest “WTF?” by David Middleton
Report: Mental Health Concern over ‘Climate Despair’ Sweeps Nation
by PENNY STARR 5 Sep 2021
Some people are so upset over climate change they are suffering from mental health concerns considered “climate despair,” a new Washington Post report said.
The devastating and deadly Hurricane Ida has energized activists, including the Post, which published a lengthy piece that claims “more people than ever could experience serious challenges to their mental health as a result” of climate change.
The Post reported on what it refers to as “climate despair”:
[…]
The Post cited heat warnings, wildfires, and floods in recent years as proof of climate change, which is “suddenly feeling a lot more real for many Americans who have not seen it up close until now, clinicians say, leading many to seek one-on-one therapy.”
WaPo Quote:
A nonprofit organization called the Good Grief Network, a 10-step program inspired by the structure of Alcoholics Anonymous whose meetings provide “social and emotional support to people who feel overwhelmed about the state of the world,” says it has reached over a thousand people in four years. Steps in the program range from accepting “the severity of the predicament” to reinvesting “into meaningful efforts.”
Young adults are among the groups most vulnerable to feelings of depression and anxiety related to climate change, said Leslie Davenport, a climate psychology educator and consultant who is a member of a directory of climate-aware therapists.”
End Quote
[…]
The Post report continues:
WaPo Quote:
A nonprofit organization called the Good Grief Network, a 10-step program inspired by the structure of Alcoholics Anonymous whose meetings provide “social and emotional support to people who feel overwhelmed about the state of the world,” says it has reached over a thousand people in four years. Steps in the program range from accepting “the severity of the predicament” to reinvesting “into meaningful efforts.”
Young adults are among the groups most vulnerable to feelings of depression and anxiety related to climate change, said Leslie Davenport, a climate psychology educator and consultant who is a member of a directory of climate-aware therapists.
End Quote
“Mental health professionals help people face reality, because we know living in denial can ruin a person’s life,” Lise Van Susteren wrote in a report by the American Psychological Association and ecoAmerica. “As the climate crisis unfolds, we see people whose anger, anxiety, and depression, caused by the shortcomings of a previous generation, prevent them from leading productive lives themselves,” Van Susteren is also the founder of the Climate Psychiatry Alliance.
The Post also interviewed Katharine Wilkinson, an author and strategist who co-edited an anthology on fighting climate change called All We Can Save.
Wilkinson said that over the past year more than 600 people have signed up to lead book discussion groups she started “as an outlet for climate grief, signaling a growing demand for climate-related support in group formats.”
And Daniel Masler, a therapist in Washington, said in the Post report that requests for climate-related treatment at his practice has grown.
[…]
Breitbart
I don’t know who is most to blame:
- Our FUBAR educational system, that has churned out at least a couple of generations of scientifically illiterate morons.
- A “participation trophy” culture, churning out snowflakes.
- The purveyors of climate crisis porn, masquerading as climate “scientists.”
- The celebrity climate hypocrites (Al Gore, John Kerry, George Clooney, Harry & Me-Again, etc.) jet-setting around the world, trying to scare the Bejesus out of scientifically illiterate morons.
- Greta Thunberg, the poster child for Climate Despair… Too bad her poster isn’t a milk carton… If I have to tell you when I’m being sarcastic, it takes all the fun out of sarcasm!
- The sensationalistic left-wing media exaggerating everything except the truth.
- Fascistic social media platforms suppressing the truth.
- Power-hungry Marxist politicians, hell-bent on destroying capitalism and controlling every aspect of our lives.
- Or the depraved mental health “professionals” taking advantage of these witless fools.
From the article: ““Mental health professionals help people face reality, because we know living in denial can ruin a person’s life,” Lise Van Susteren wrote in a report by the American Psychological Association and ecoAmerica. “As the climate crisis unfolds, we see people whose anger, anxiety, and depression, caused by the shortcomings of a previous generation, prevent them from leading productive lives themselves,” Van Susteren is also the founder of the Climate Psychiatry Alliance.”
I wonder what shortcomings she is talking about? Now they are trying to divide us by generations. Every generation has their smart percentage and their dumb percentage. Before blaming another generation for your predicament, you should probably look a little closer to home. like in your own mind. Perhaps your way of thinking is the problem, rather than it being caused by someone else.
Yes, living in denial can ruin people’s lives, but these people are not living in denial, they are living in a false, scary reality created specifically to scare them to the point of giving up their money and their freedom to their saviors at the UN IPCC.
These gullible people should wake up and smell the coffee. Do a little research. Visit WUWT and calm down.
The truth is out there. It’s just that some people come to depend on other people’s opinions and sometimes they are misled and freakout over imaginary terrors to come.
How does a True Believer psychologist calm the fears of a True Believer patient? The True Believer psychologist would harbor the same fears so would not be able to set the patient’s mind at ease. They would both agree that the solution is to convert the skeptics to their point of view so we can fix the climate.
It gets a little more ridiculous every day.
Exactly! Any good psychologist/psychiatrist worthy of the name “Doctor” (do no harm) needs to 1st determine the degree of negative self talk the patient is demonstrating. How is she exacerbating her own condition with irrational fears? The second task for the good therapist is to determine the level of credulity, tractability and suggestibility of the patient. Van Susteren already knew that the cause of the anxiety is the constant gaslighting from fraudulent climate “science”, not our climate.
I have seen a lot of people upset about a lot of things, but Climate Change is not one of them. I wonder where this poll was taken? A psychiatric ward?
Furthermore, they have not seen anything yet. Just getting to Net Zero will take sacrifice, but what will the next generation say when they discover that most of their electricity will be needed to extract C02 from the atmosphere to restore it to 300 ppm?
What will the next generation say when they discover that extracting CO2 from the atmosphere to restore it to 300 ppm is not necessary or desirable and will have a detrimental effect on the planet whilst having zero effect on climate?
Climate dread is so counter intuitive. Everywhere in life news of reprieve of the dreaded impending terror is welcomed and shouted from the roof tops. Jimmy fell into the well-OhNo-but rejoice! Lassie is off to get the adult. It is the normal response to good news. But not in this “climate crisis”. Good news is choked off, ridiculed, and ignored in order to continue the drum beat of doom. They won’t even listen to there own if they slip off script like Shellenberger or Koonin. I am beginning to think they want everyone in dread and this is the current solution to that purpose so truth is not allowed a hearing.
From the article: “I don’t know who is most to blame”
I know who is most to blame: The Temperature Data Manipulators who have corrupted the the temperature profile of the Earth to make it appear that we are currently living in the hottest time in human history.
This is a total lie, but all the other categories that you listed above depend on this one Big Lie about the temperature profile in order to be able to spread the climate change scare propaganda.
If the bogus Hockey Stick global temperature chart goes away, all the scary scenarios go away.
The bogus, bastardized, instrument-era Hockey Stick Chart Lie is to blame for all these people’s mental health problems.
Expose the lie and they can go back to living their normal lives without fear of a climate disaster. First, we have to wise up the pychologists.
I can add one more very big lie … that this planet has a single climate that can be adversely affected by our behaviors. “Climate change” itself is meant to confuse people. It is not only meaningless; it’s an intentional appeal to ambiguity.
That’s a good list of culprits. I’d say “All of the above” are guilty of peddling dishonest, doomsday propaganda.
As in “the whole nine yards,” Mr. Middleton has identified “the whole nine swine.”
Leftism is a mental illness.
Suffering from TMTOTH(TOO MUCH TIME ON THEIR HANDS).Children are in need of corrective”Snap out of it” metaphorical slap across their faces, in the form of a large volcanic eruption , Earth quake , Tidal wave , Carrington Event level soar flare knocking out all social media services.I wonder if kids in Japan or Indonesia , or for that matter China , worry about the Too much Carbon Drivel?
Great Styx song!
“I’ve got nothing to do, and all day to dot it.”
https://youtu.be/5XcKBmdfpWs
“The Post cited heat warnings, wildfires, and floods in recent years as proof of climate change, which is “suddenly feeling a lot more real for many Americans who have not seen it up close until now, clinicians say, leading many to seek one-on-one therapy.”
One-on-one therapy? So that’s what they call it these days. I’ll bet there’s a few big swinging climatists keen to administer one-on-one climate therapy to the distressed bright young things at these many big parties they hold all around the world.
Readers of the Wash poo Post?
Of course they’re despairing, they read the WashPo for their biased news culled of reality.
Read through and failed to see any reference to how the Washpoo surveyed citizens for their mental situations…
No surveys? All invented feelings?
No surprise from Washpoo propaganda.
Young people are always more susceptible to social brainwashing … it takes several decades for most people to have been fooled often enough to develop a reliable bullshit detector. Some folks never do … and a minority of young people do develop their bullshit detectors early on.
Young people, every generation in human history, believes their parents effed everything up … and that they alone invented sex, drugs, and racy music. Then by the time they are parents of older children, the world looks rather different, and more predictable.
I grew up in the late 50s and 60s when nuclear Armageddon was a very real threat to human existence, and the mass destruction and horrors of the Second World War was still a fresh memory for our parents, and polio and tuberculosis were still ravaging the population … unlike current made-up threats like global warming, genetically modified organisms, vaccines, and other such moronic socialized fears. Life apparently is so g-damned easy and cushy for most of us that they have to invent fake fears, instead of real threats.
I grew up in those 50s & 60s, with fear of the H-Bomb. The H-Bombs are still there, the risk hasn’t vanished, but people don’t worry about them much anymore. They got doomsday fatigue.
Climate doomsday fatigue will set in someday, as well. It’s been thirty years of escalating rhetoric — but nothing much has changed weather-wise. Storm frequency and severity have not appreciably increased or decreased.
Let’s hope fatigue sets in soon, and people can get back to living with less fear.
Just who are these people that suffer from climate despair?!?
Can’t they just obsess over acne or ingrown toenails or the heartbreak of psoriasis or something?
Good lord! I hope their pet hamster never dies. They’ll tie up the su!cide hotline for hours.
Sheesh! 🙄
I had a student, years ago, miss a couple of days of class because her mother called to tell her the pet hamster died.
Color me stunned.
Tell us Dave, if Talos is not responsible for the spill, why is it paying for cleanup in the Gulf?
.
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Hurricane-Ida-Oil-Spill-Busted-Pipeline-Gulf-Coast-16437725.php
.
Feeling guilty?
I’m having trouble seeing how that ties into climate despair, Ronald, but I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.
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On second thought, nahhh…. oil spills have nothing to do with climate despair.
What does Talos have to do with climate propaganda? 🤷♂️
Signed,
Puzzled in Peoria
R. Stein has a problem and he needs to seek one-on-one therapy.
Please do not stress him further.
10-4
Apparently you do feel guilty, for what is the question. Your self loathing and hate are signs you need serious help.
Learn how to read…
https://www.talosenergy.com/news/press-release-details/2021/Talos-Energy-Provides-Comprehensive-Update-Regarding-Bay-Marchand-Response-In-The-Gulf-Of-Mexico/default.aspx
As a responsible operator and the most recent lessee of the block, Talos will pay to halt the leak… Then find the actual responsible party and send them the bill.
It’s the Climate Dark Ages to go along with the Islamic Dark Ages. There is hope for science but unfortunately it may come in China, not the declining West.
The hilarious photo of the illiterate “birthing person” (now anti-woke to say woman) holding an “Eco
WarriorWorrior” sign optimizes the pathetic state of our educational system and why this silly CAGW hoax still is taken seriously by so many young people despite overwhelming empirical evidence showing it’s already a disconfirmed hypothesis…America is now ranked around 30th in the world in math, science and language skills, despite spending the most per pupil in the world on “education”…
US Public schools have become re-education camps churning out illiterate and uneducated kids who are anti-American pro-Marxist “Eco-Worriers”…
Oh, goody…
No nation can survive long with such a failed education system…
I agree with your entire post except misnaming “our education system”. It’s a ‘public schooling system’ intended to subordinate children to the state. Education is an after thought, except were professional schools are concerned, like Law, Engineering and Commerce/Accounting. Education faculties are now actively promoting Marxism and indoctrination techniques (but using disguised language).
Even university: law, business, engineering, commerce, finance, medical departments are being corrupted by Marxist WOKE agendas and churning out little Marxists…
Moreover, China is now graduating 450,000 PhDs and 2.5 million Masters students/year, most of which are in STEM fields, compared to the US which is graduating 200,000 PhDs and 400,000 Masters degrees/yr, many in worthless fields such as Gender Studies, Woman’s Studies, Black Studies, etc….
Leftists have screwed us so royally…
And that is what chills me the most. No wonder China is feeling so cocky and acting so aggressively these days. It’s only a matter of time before they cut off the West from the flow of the cheap goods we’re so addicted to.
Leftists have screwed us so royally…
But like all true believers, they’ve also screwed themselves. The benefits of their derangement are fleeting. Socialism can’t work in the long run.
eco-anxiety:
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/52100/#52106
With regards to hurricane Ida and climate change:
The severe storms and extreme rains in the Northeast were especially caused by the -NAO,
cold upper level trough in Southeast Canada that extended down to the Northeastern US.
It picked up the remnants of Ida and destabilized the air mass.
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/74503/#74533
It may well have done. But the precipitation water content had it’s source in the GoM.
“It may well have done. But the precipitation water content had it’s source in the GoM.”
Yes Anthony. That’s why I dialed in a 7% increase in the rain amounts vs a system from 100 years ago/ 1 deg. cooler, all things being equal.
However, you overlook the fact that oceans cover over 2/3rds of the planet and almost all the moisture everywhere, all the time in the atmosphere comes from them.
Yet it’s only raining or snowing in a small % of that area because it takes areas of rising motion caused by weather systems and wind to generate the rain or snow. A cold weather pattern was the system that caused it this time(-NAO cold upper level trough)
With that being the case, its scientifically dishonest to say that climate change caused this because climate change is caused by global warming and this weather pattern, featured an anti warming pattern(-NAO).
The accurate and honest way to describe it is that climate change likely increased the amount of rains this natural weather system generated by 7%………….based on the 1 deg. C warmer air holding that much more moisture.
The current reporting of the event, gives one the impression that none of it would have happened without climate change. How about 93% as bad without climate change.
Of course damage from excessive rains doesn’t go up linearly with increasing rain totals, so maybe the damage is more than 7% more?
The first 2 inches, for instance, likely don’t cause many issues. Every inch you add to that, causes an increasing amount of damage in some cases but each case is different.
Here’s an article that you will like:
Half of the Year’s Rain Falls on Earth in Just 12 Days
https://www.livescience.com/64129-earth-rain-12-days.html
Speaking of being scientifically honest……….and objective.
For most life on this greening planet, the current climate is a climate OPTIMUM, not a crisis.
That will be the case for at least another 2 deg.C warmer.
There will be slightly heavier rains, some slightly stronger hurricanes and slightly hotter heat waves. That’s all we hear about.
If we took the climate back to where it was 100 years ago, with 100 ppm less CO2 and -1 deg C from where it is in 2021, you would know real fast just how wonderful the current climate OPTIMUM is.
Crop production would plunge at least 20% just from the loss of the CO2(around -1% for every -5 ppm CO2) and the colder temps would cause shorter growing seasons-later planting and earlier killing freezes and yes, more droughts/less rains in the growing season.
Global food supplies would be drawn down to nothing, with the markets going into a rationing mode. Food prices would at least triple, possibly a billion people would starve within 3-5 years.
However, we would have 7% less rain in high end rain events like this lasta one in the Northeast…………..saving, how many lives? Many thousands on the planet in 5 years?
Which one is more important?
Obviously, we don’t have the option of going back to the 1921 climate(than God) but climate change has been much more beneficial than detrimental to life.
The media and governments dwell on the negative impacts of climate change and completely ignore the much more important benefits.
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/62784/#62791
Listening to the Washington Post is like asking Joe Biden for advice on Afghanistan. The Post has lost all credibility since being bought out by the Democrats. Never trust anything they print, they’ve got barrels of ink, but no brains.
Mental health professionals are generally more unhinged than those they purport to treat
IPCRESS works – just st ask griff
David: great list of “doubts” to finish this post! Excellent to stimulate a rational approach to the subject!
This is why I say we’ll all end up on trains.
It’ll make these lunatics “feel better” if we’re all safely in one convenient spot.
The left is throwing fits that they have the right to kill babies using our tax dollars, so driving young kids into suicide is just ducky with them.
Climate Change Terrorists!!!
Yeah, I believe that’s called Climate Bedwetter’s Syndrome (CBS). The cure is actual knowledge about climate, but you know what, part of the syndrome is an extreme aversion to facts and truth, so it is self-perpetuating. The Climate Bedwetters actually prefer wallowing in their hysteria, indeed, they wear it as a badge of honor. Because they “care” so much about the planet and future generations.
Some people just need drama in their lives. Any kind of drama. Climate Change will do until something more dramatic comes along.
The people seeking counseling for “climate despair” wouldn’t last a day in a world without the fossil fuels and petroleum products they rail against.
They will do well in the Taliban re-education camps with arranged marriages. It will only take a few weeks of “adjustment.”