Dear Reader:
I have previously written on the topic of climate anxiety. When I first wrote about it, the phenomenon was just being identified. Now, according to a climate psychologist whom Molly Peterson interviewed for her 20 July 2022 NYT article entitled How to Calm Your Climate Anxiety, “it has really burst through.”
When we come to know that the US Supreme Court has severely limited the EPA’s regulatory power or that Joe Manchin torpedoed a climate deal, many of us (myself, included) experience anger, worry, insecurity, frustration, and depression. How should we deal with these feelings?
Carl Jung, the Swiss psychotherapist, is famously quoted as saying “We cannot change anything unless we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate; it oppresses.” This says to me that we need to accept our feelings as a rational response to the climate crisis. And then we need to channel our angst into positive action.
If you have anxiety about climate change and you want to do something, but don’t know what to do, I invite you to consider becoming involved with the Climate Change Permaculture Project. Soon, we will launch a crowdfunding campaign to build housing for diverse farmers who will learn about permaculture—a sustainable form of agriculture that can help to reverse climate change. It will be a model for others across the country and around the world. Please consider joining the launch network. Or something else: if you have accounting, law, resource mobilization, construction, mechanical, agriculture, advertising, or human resource expertise, we could use your help. Or if not us, fine, help some other organization that is addressing climate change. Or start your own initiative. But do something because, ACTION IS THE ANTIDOTE TO ANXIETY.
