Climate Action Team Public Health Workgroup Meeting

"Climate Change and Mental Health"

October 18, 2016

Nothing Wrong with Misery: The Climate Challenge Through a Transformational Lens

SUSANNE C. MOSER, PH.D.

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Overview

• What are we facing?

• How do we respond?

• How do we foster hope?

Source: http://cloudsmartz.com/disaster recovery care for employees/

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The Apocalypse…

Richard Tol at IPCC AR5 release: “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”

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… is already here

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When his ship first came to Australia,

Cook wrote, the natives

continued fishing, without looking up.

Unable, it seems, to fear what was too large to be comprehended.

Global Warming

Jane Hirshfield After (2006)

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=&url=http://www.poetrysociety.org/psa/awards/chapbook_fellowship/guidelines/&ei=0uozVcWpGtOxogT1vYCQCg&bvm=bv.91071109,d.cGU&psig=AFQjCNFTHJQuFEL41AeeEIn_G9xmAr4hAw&ust=1429552210923792

GHG Emission Pathways 2000-2100: All ARS Scenarios .-. 140 ... >, --C" - 90:h percentile ~ .... 120 0 u .... ~ 100 '-'

..... - Median

.____-_ ,o_:hp_er_ce_nti_le-o,•'·•'····

111 C 0 111 80 111

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No Time To Lose 450 ppm CO2eq by 2100: By 2050: 40-70% emission

reduction globally

By 2100: near 0 (or below)

Source: IPCC 2014

200 _ ---------------------------------------Warming projected r::r by 2100 (IJ~

0 u .s 150 _ ------------------------=,--::=-------"' Baselines: g ,1.1 - 4 .s·c

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Current Policies 3.3 - 3.s·c

Pledges and INDCs 2.4 - 2.l"C

-·--· -·------ Below 2°C ----- ·----------- 0 --·---------- ·--- -------·--- 1.5 - 1. 7 C

---·----------- Below 1.s•c 1.3 - 1.S°C

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2000 I

2010

- Hi~lUI iLdl e111b,iu11~. incl. LU LUCF

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---- 2°C consistent median and range**

1 .:> ·c consistent median

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(9 www.cli111dtedctio11t1 dtke1 .01 y / Clim.:lte An.:llyt ics/Ecofys/ NewClimate/PIK

How Close Are We to Staying “Safe”?

Source: http://climateactiontracker.org/; status October 2016

http://climateactiontracker.org/

Between the Impossible and the

Unthinkable

“That is where we are: Stuck between the impossible and the unthinkable.

David Roberts, Ted talk (2012)

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pznsPkJy2x8

And so for the rest of your life,

your job is to make the impossible possible.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pznsPkJy2x8

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The Gravity of Experience

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http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAcQjRxqFQoTCJTRurDFiMYCFZKUiAodL5cAfA&url=http://www.citylab.com/weather/2014/12/confronting-climate-change-in-an-alaskan-village-best-cityreads-of-the-week/383892/&ei=2Pd5VZSFDJKpogSvroLgBw&bvm=bv.95277229,d.aWw&psig=AFQjCNFFWFRPmuDwDZYaYHi5-MiCeC7N7w&ust=1434143038262209

Between the Impossible and the

Unthinkable

Photo: Americares.org

Loss of health

Loss of life

Loss of home

Loss of livelihood

Loss of social connection

Loss of sense of security

Loss of well-being

Loss of trust in future

Loss of identity

Loss of hope

Loss of places/sense of place

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What Are We Facing?

Untold suffering

Countless endings

Environmental

Socioeconomic

Psycho cultural

Wide range of psychological responses – entirely understandable

Appropriate and inappropriate expressions of responses

Ill-equipped support systems to assist and navigate the coming transformation

Photos (t b): sacredactivations.com; Joel Sternfield, Shannon Stapleton/Reuters

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAcQjRw&url=http://sacredactivations.com/event/overwhelm-activation-free/&ei=Q_xsVaHDB8LKogTdu4DwBQ&bvm=bv.94911696,d.cGU&psig=AFQjCNEd0E2HQ0YJ84OPsnHGvOb6Aayfqg&ust=1433292215473470

Williams, 2008, EOS Life Work

The Human Geography of

Transformation

Adapted from Bridges (2004)

Truthtelling, accepting,

confronting

Validating, framing

Approaches to Mental Health

“Problems” Common Practice Needed Practice

Normalizing

Mapping, supporting

Empowering

Ignoring,

reacting

Pathologizing

Individualizing

“Treating”

Patronizing

Participating in positive

disintegration

Telling and facing the

truth

Bearing the suffering

Choosing life/grounded

hope

Reincorporation

Commitment

Integrity

Courage and failure

tolerance

Living into the new roles

and responsibilities

Remembering

Fostering Psychological Skills for a

Transformation

Severance

The courage to

transcend cultural norms

Saying yes to change

Failure consciousness

Death consciousness

Being with deep

emotions

Threshold

Photo: http://s2.thingpic.com Reflexivity and asking

the big questions

Source: Berzonsky (2016)

Supporting the Transformation with

Radical Acts of Courage

"To be truly radical is to make

hope possible, rather than

despair convincing."

- Raymond Williams

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Varieties of Hope

Passive Optimism

“Pollyanna Hope”

Active Optimism “Heroic Hope”

Passive Skepticism

“Stoic Hope”

Active Skepticism “Grounded

Hope”

Active Transform’n

“Radical Hope”

Photo: spectrum of the sky (all4desktop.com; Classification: Per Espen Stoknes (2015) & Jonathan Lear (2006)

http://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAcQjRxqFQoTCO_Gy-fKiMYCFQKXiAodXg4A-A&url=http://all4desktop.com/4186329-spectrum.html&ei=if15Va_ePIKuogTenIDADw&bvm=bv.95277229,d.aWw&psig=AFQjCNGF2xmh9vTvJgnAZKYpZ8nRrRQieA&ust=1434144494517147

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• I ~...:..:...... .. L •, L...ullillll Seven Ingredients of Authentic Hope

1. Clear-eyed diagnosis: Where are we at?

2. Vision of a worthwhile outcome: What is achievable?

3. Feasible path: How can we get from here to there?

4. Strategy for setbacks and interim goals: What to do when

the going gets tough?

5. Meaningful role for me: What can I do?

6. Call on my highest self: Who do I most want to be?

7. Doing it together: What will you (others) do?

Photo:villageofhopeuganda.com

https://Photo:villageofhopeuganda.com

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Thank you!

Susi Moser, Ph.D.

Email: promundi [at] susannemoser.com

Web: www.susannemoser.com

www.susannemoser.comhttps://susannemoser.com