Starting to panic about climate change

[DorothyL]

I keep reading how climate change is getting really bad and how we're reaching the tipping point/point of no return. It keeps me awake at night and makes me feel so anxious and worried for my children. I struggle to feel happy because I keep thinking that we're literally facing the apocalypse. How can I deal with this?

when in fact the arctic ice has INCREASED by at least 50% in the last four years!!

Where on earth are you getting your (non)information?!

I know signing petitions can seem lame, but if you have a few seconds to spare: a call from Avaaz to protect 50% of the planet's diversity.

here

Loving the icecap statistic! It's common
Knowledge we're overrun with ice caps.

Jesus.

OP, I found this book in a charity shop recently about facing the sense of despair with hope and engaged activism, though I've not read it yet, it comes with full 5 star reviews on amazon.

www.amazon.co.uk/Active-Hope-without-Going-Crazy/dp/1577319729/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1481586485&sr=1-3&keywords=joanna+macy

Also look at Dark Mountain, which is a network of writers/artists etc and the response to the coming collapse and unravelling of ecological systems through creative arts.

'Live simply so others can simply live' is all we can do as individuals, but why not do something to change at a collective level too... do an OU degree in environmental sciences, become a political activist, turn your hand to writing etc. Read as much as you can. Get out into nature and listen to what it wants from you. Look for the light amidst the despair.

Just woke up and it's immediately on my mind again. I feel physically sick with worry.

"Those of you say who say we're fucked, how do you get through the day?"

The same way we get through the day knowing we are mortal and will most certainly live a maximum of 95 years, the last 10 of which will likely be in bad health and incapable of caring for ourselves.

You do realize that will happen far sooner than global warming apocalypse?

For goodness sake op stop reading this thread, get an appointment to see your GP and start getting help with your anxieties. Your issues are far more to do with general anxiety than the state of the planet and surprised posters are winding you up more. bees ffs!

Get help ASAP and remember your children need a fun childhood not to spend it and feel anxiety on your behalf.

I grew up with a mum who had crippling anxiety so no driving, no trains, no cinema or friends for tea unless planned a week ahead, no using the phone and she had literally no friends and no job.

It wasn't fun and I nor struggle to control my own anxiety but I will not let it rule me.

In the nicest possible way stop worrying about things over which you have no control and start focusing on things you do.

bees ffs!

Concern about bees isn't a wind-up! It's a serious issue!
bees-decline.org
bumblebeeconservation.org/about-bees/why-bees-need-help/

OP, have you suffered from general anxiety before? I'm just wondering if the climate change worry is a manifestation of more generalised clinical anxiety, in which case it could be worth going to the GP, or if it's a more rational reaction to alarming information that we don't have much control over? Whilst I do worry about climate change and other environmental issues, and have done so for a long time, I have to admit it doesn't keep me awake at night or interfere with my day-to-day wellbeing to the extent that you describe.

bees ffs!

This has to be one of the most ignorant comments I've ever read on MN.

I don't think that telling the OP to ignore her concerns or diagnosing her with an anxiety disorder (and therefore minimizing her concerns) is helpful, personally. I think her concerns are pretty justified and that talking through them on here with like-minded people may make her feel less alone.

I don't know if feeling my fears are perfectly justified helps. In a way it makes it worse.

Where on earth are you getting your (non)information?!

Erm, NASA.

The concern is justified. But if you find it tipping into panic, then
(a) you will be less effective in addressing the problem and
(b) you, yourself, will be miserable.

People aren't suggesting going to the GP to make the underlying problem go away, but to help you continue to be a functioning person (and one who can help in some small way to tip the balance back).

The most helpful thing I ever did for my "world going to hell in a handcart" anxiety was planting and tending an organic garden.

Naturally It has its own frustrations : I nurtured a lot of slugs!

Nothing terrible is going to happen today or even this week, month or year OP so if you're actually waking up feeling nauseous with anxiety then that is out of proportion with the the "threat" and impeding your life and seeing a GP is absolutely the right thing to do.

I find it fascinating that climate change deniers are so very often flippant and unkind. I wonder if they are just whistling in the dark?

OP you really need to separate this into two strands I think; 1) The climate change issue and 2) The strength of your anxiety response.

The danger is you'll get a thread full of people arguing about climate change and not addressing the depth of your anxiety

No matter what's coming in future decades, you deserve to be able to function and live your life today.

Manumission - what do you dismiss as "nothing terrible"? I was at home in Paris last week and people were really suffering from the smog. All I had was runny eyes but plenty of people were hospitalized. Smog kills.

You're not helping bobo.

OP is posting for help with crippling anxiety which is out of line with the IMMEDIATE overall threat posed by climate change.

Where on earth are you getting your (non)information?! Erm, NASA.

That would be the same NASA who say that there is compelling evidence for rapid human-induced climate change? And have data showing that the Greenland ice sheet has been losing an estimated 287 gigatonnes per year since 2002? Yes, it's increased again slightly since 2012 - when the September Arctic sea ice was at its lowest extent in the satellite record - but the overall trend is still downwards.

I just don't agree that her anxiety is out of line. It's because people constantly dismiss the ecological catastrophe of our lives that it has got quite so bad.

LeSquigh - Maybe you need to try to understand NASA a little better:

But Dr Claire Parkinson, a senior scientist at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Centre, says increasing Antarctic ice does not contradict the general warming trend. Overall the Earth is losing sea ice at a rate of 35,000 sq km per year (13,514 sq miles).

“Not every location on the Earth is having the same responses to climate changes. The fact that ice in one part of the world is doing one thing and in another part ice is doing another is not surprising. The Earth is large and as the climate changes it is normal to see different things going on,” says Parkinson.

I'm not dismissing it. But if we were all nauseous and paralysed with terrible anxiety nobody would be able to do anything about it anyway.

YOU are being very dismissive of OP's disabling anxiety and the problems that brings.

Where on earth are you getting your (non)information?!

Erm, NASA.

No. You're not. You're misremembering or misinterpreting what you read. Arctic ice caps are smaller than they've ever been. Antarctic ice caps were bigger this year but it's still a massive net loss globally. So yeah... Al Gore was right on the money.

From this NASA news report:
Antarctica and the Arctic are two very different environments: the former is a continent surrounded by ocean, the latter is ocean enclosed by land. As a result, sea ice behaves very differently in the two regions. While the Antarctic sea ice yearly wintertime maximum extent hit record highs from 2012 to 2014 before returning to average levels in 2015, both the Arctic wintertime maximum and its summer minimum extent have been in a sharp decline for the past decades. Studies showw^ that globally, the decreases in Arctic sea ice far exceed the increases in Antarctic sea ice.

Paris was paralyzed with smog last week.