How Climate Change Is Impacting Our Mental Health

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2023

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In June, a first-of-its-kind lawsuit will go to trial in Montana. The case, Held v. Montana, centers on the climate crisis. Sixteen young plaintiffs allege their state government has failed in its obligation, spelled out in the state constitution, to provide residents with a healthful environment. The psychiatrist Dr. Lise Van Susteren is serving as an expert witness and intends to detail the emotional distress that can result from watching the environmental destruction unfolding year after year. “Kids are talking about their anger. They’re talking about their fear. They’re talking about their despair. They’re talking about feelings of abandonment,” she tells David Remnick. “And they don’t understand why the adults in the room are not taking more action.” Dr. Van Susteren is a co-founder of the Climate Psychiatry Alliance, a network of mental-health providers concerned with educating colleagues and the public about the climate crisis.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:12.5	This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. I try not to be alarmist, but I feel like there's some sort of apocalypse that's awaiting around climate
0:22.6	change. I fear for people who are living below sea level. I fear for people who are very dependent
0:30.7	on agriculture. And I can just go to the grocery store. So I have a little bit more time. I have a
0:37.3	stable income. But, I have a stable income,
0:39.1	but, I mean, calamity can come at any time.
0:43.1	I think we're getting towards a point where we're not going to be able to reverse the damages
0:48.3	to the climate that we make, and I'm, yeah, I'm a little bit worried to see what the consequences of that might be in the future,
0:57.3	especially when I'm thinking about, you know, do I want to have kids?
0:59.7	Is this a world I want to bring them into?
1:02.5	Is it going to be safe for them?
1:04.1	I really don't know.
1:06.3	I realize that mankind is a tough species to be part of,
1:13.6	but we're doing it to the earth, and we have to change.
1:19.6	I have grandchildren, so I think about what their lives will be like
1:24.6	when mine is no longer here.
1:26.6	And it doesn't seem to me that things are happening
1:29.7	quickly. I mean, I lived in Staten Island for Hurricane Sandy, and that was like, it devastated
1:36.8	that borough in New York. And it was just because of like lack of preparedness for, because of the
1:42.1	climate was changing and like the sea walls were rising and people were like, they were drowning in their own homes because of the climate was changing and like the civil was rising and people
1:44.5	were like they were drowning in their own homes because of floods and like I don't know seeing
1:49.0	that as a kid was just really impacts you in June a case known as Held versus Montana will go to court
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WNYC Studios and The New Yorker, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.