How Climate Change Is Impacting Our Mental Health

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, David, Books, Arts, Storytelling, Wnyc, New, Remnick, News Commentary, Yorker, Politics

4.2 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2023

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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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

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0:00.0	This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and the New Yorker.
0:13.1	This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, I'm David Remnick.
0:16.3	I try not to be alarmist, but I feel like there's some sort of apocalypse that's awaiting
0:22.0	around climate change.
0:23.6	I fear for people who are living below sea level, I fear for people who are very dependent
0:31.0	on agriculture, and I can go to the grocery store, so I have a little bit more time, I have
0:37.1	a stable income, but I mean, calamity can come at any time.
0:43.5	I think we're getting towards a point where we're not going to be able to reverse the
0:47.9	damages to the climate that we make, and I'm a little bit worried to see what the consequences
0:55.8	of that might be in the future, especially when I'm thinking about, do I want to have kids?
1:00.7	Is this a world I want to bring them into?
1:02.6	Is it going to be safe for them?
1:04.2	I really don't know.
1:06.5	I realize that mankind is a tough species to be part of, but we're doing it to the Earth
1:17.6	and we have to change.
1:19.5	I have grandchildren, so I think about what their lives will be like when mine is no longer
1:25.6	here, and it doesn't seem to me that things are happening quickly.
1:31.4	I mean, I lived in Stalin for Hurricane Sandy, and that was like, it devastated that
1:37.2	burrow in New York, and it was just because of lack of preparedness, because of the climate
1:42.4	was changing, and like, the sea levels were rising, and people were drowning in their
1:46.5	own homes because of floods, and like, I don't know.
1:49.0	Seeing that as a kid was just really an impact here.
	...

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