Climate trauma is real. Could nature be the cure?
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 17 January 2023
⏱️ ? minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As California works through the devastating consequences of catastrophic flooding, today on “Post Reports” we look back at another climate disaster and ask if survivors can find healing on the very land that holds the scars of climate change.
Read more:
From deadly flooding to destructive wildfires, Californians have been coping with the perils of climate change for years. More than four years after the Camp Fire destroyed the town of Paradise, one study on the fire’s aftermath said survivors experienced PTSD at rates on par with veterans of war.
Research increasingly shows that victims of climate change disasters are left with deep psychological wounds — from anxiety after hurricanes to surges in suicide during heat waves — that the nation’s disaster response agencies are ill-prepared to treat.
But in the burned and battered forests near Paradise, a small program run by California State University at Chico is using nature therapy walks to help fire survivors recover.
Today on “Post Reports,” climate reporter Sarah Kaplan explains how the program is testing a fraught premise: that the site of survivors’ worst memories can become a source of solace.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, it's Martin. |
| 0:03.8 | Before we get started, I wanted to let you know that today's show deals with suicidal |
| 0:07.4 | thoughts and other mental health struggles. |
| 0:10.2 | So please take care when and with whom you listen. |
| 0:13.2 | All right, here's the show. |
| 0:16.7 | The road to paradise is this like long stretch called the Skyway. |
| 0:23.2 | And as you're driving along it, you start to see this kind of devastated landscape, |
| 0:30.7 | you know, the ground is bare and the trees are these blackened skeletons. |
| 0:39.3 | This is Sarah Kaplan. |
| 0:41.0 | She's a climber reporter for the post. |
| 0:43.2 | And back in September, she went to Paradise, California. |
| 0:46.6 | More than four years ago, a huge wildfire called the Campfire destroyed the town. |
| 0:52.4 | You know, you'll drive past where there once was a house and now it's just a stretch of |
| 0:57.2 | grass with a mailbox. |
| 1:00.3 | Even the trees that are still standing, they all have these kind of blackened, charred |
| 1:04.8 | trunks. |
| 1:07.5 | Sarah came to Paradise not just to see the devastation of this town, but to see this one special |
| 1:13.4 | patch of land, Paradise Lake. |
| 1:15.9 | I mean, literally we sort of just turn a corner and pull into a forest and it sort of miraculously |
| 1:26.0 | had not been touched by the fire. |
| 1:28.9 | And so there are these tall, ponderosa pines. |
| 1:33.6 | And the air, you can feel how much cooler the air is under the trees and it smells so good. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Washington Post, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Washington Post and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.