We
spend vast amounts of time and personal energy trying to calculate
the most urgent threats posed by climate change. Washington, D.C.
psychiatrist and climate activist Lise Van Susteren, however, says
the most insidious danger may already be upon us. She’s not talking
about heat, drought, floods, severe storms, or rising seas. She’s
focused on the psychological risks posed by global warming.
Van
Susteren has co-authored a report
on the psychological effects of climate change that predicts
Americans will suffer “depressive and anxiety disorders,
post-traumatic stress disorders, substance abuse, suicides, and
widespread outbreaks of violence,” in the face of rising
temperatures, extreme weather, and scarce resources. Van Susteren and
her co-author Kevin Coyle write that counselors and first responders
“are not even close to being prepared to handle the scale and
intensity of impacts that will arise from the harsher conditions and
disasters that global warming will unleash.”
There
is currently no organized discipline for the study of the
psychological risks of climate change, yet it is already taking a
toll on many people who tackle this issue. Surprisingly susceptible
are those who might seem to be immune.
“The
climate deniers? I always say they‘re really too stressed to hear
the truth,” said Van Susteren. “We see this kind of thing in my
work all the time, where people who aren’t ready to hear the truth
about something will simply say it doesn’t exist.”
Text by Jeremy Deaton
