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Electing to Make America Sane Again: Countering Climate Instability
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Key Takeaways
- Climate change is a major risk to mental health, causing anxiety, depression, and trauma globally.
- 85% of Gen Z in the U.S. express concern about climate impact, affecting their political engagement.
Should politicians be more interested in climate change to improve US mental health?
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PSYCHIATRIC VIEWS ON THE DAILY NEWS
In the long run, adverse climate change may be the most significant risk to mental health globally. Increasing concern is occurring about climate-related anxiety, depression, grief, and trauma. Some of the repercussions are thought to be normal reactions to the weather changes and disasters, whereas for some that can lead to full-blown diagnostic disorders.
The future is our children and they are worried. A new survey concluded that 85% of Gen Z in the United States were moderately worried about the impact of climate, and 57% very worried.1
This future climate concern was across the political spectrum and associated with about 73% likely to vote for political candidates who support aggressive climate policies. However, as long-term political activist Bill McKibben pointed out recently, it is not obvious from our political races that either party is all that concerned.2 The climate has been barely mentioned by the Democratic Party, and even less by the Republicans, despite increasing climate disasters all over the world. A recent United Nations report predicted a global warming increase of more than 5.4°F by the end of this century—twice the last such target rate from a decade ago.
From our clinical work, we are quite familiar with the importance of some issues not being discussed by patients due to guilt, fear, and other diverting psychological measures. The same avoidance can be true of social psychiatric challenges.
Therefore, with a week to go, perhaps we in psychiatry need to lead a deluge of public and psychiatric concern to break through the political silence, then follow that up after the election with whoever wins as well as the opposition.
Dr Moffic is an award-winning psychiatrist who specialized in the cultural and ethical aspects of psychiatry and is now in retirement and retirement as a private pro bono community psychiatrist. A prolific writer and speaker, he has done a weekday column titled “Psychiatric Views on the Daily News” and a weekly video, “Psychiatry & Society,” since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. He was chosen to receive the 2024 Abraham Halpern Humanitarian Award from the American Association for Social Psychiatry. Previously, he received the Administrative Award in 2016 from the American Psychiatric Association, the one-time designation of being a Hero of Public Psychiatry from the Speaker of the Assembly of the APA in 2002, and the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in 1991. He is an advocate and activist for mental health issues related to climate instability, physician burnout, and xenophobia. He is now editing the final book in a 4-volume series on religions and psychiatry for Springer: Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, Christianity, and now The Eastern Religions, and Spirituality. He serves on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times.
References
1. Lewandowski RE, Clayton SD, Olbrich L, et al. Climate emotion, thoughts, and plans among US adolescents and young adults: a cross-sectional descriptive survey and analysis by political party, identification and self-reported exposure to severe weather events. Lancet Planet Health. 2024:S2542-5196(24)00229-8.
2. McKibben B. Could talking about climate change now help Kamala Harris’s campaign? The New Yorker. October 20, 2024. Accessed October 28, 2024. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/10/28/could-talking-about-climate-change-now-help-kamala-harris-campaign
