Should we be Losing our Heads Over Climate Change?


Armen Berenson

Professor John Horgan

HST-401

March 22, 2023

                       Image produced with assistance from the program DALLE-Mini


Should we be Losing our Heads Over Climate Change?


We live in the golden age of information with uninterrupted access to media and communication. The internet and social media have revolutionized life in the developed world. Still, they have also put us in an unsavory position where we are perpetually exposed to news, good or bad. 


Harmful practices take place all around us, from individuals driving cars to industries burning tons of coal to medical facilities using thousands of watts day and night, though. Some of these harmful practices are also necessary. Practices like commuting a long way for work only became possible with the invention of the automobile, which runs on fossil fuels and emits carbon dioxide (and in the recent past, lead).


The state of the climate has been a frequent news topic in recent decades. There is overwhelming evidence behind climate change beginning with the first industrial revolution. Since then, growing amounts of carbon in the atmosphere have created a greenhouse effect, trapping heat. This continues to raise the temperature of the Earth, and according to NASA: “The concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere is currently at nearly 412 parts per million (ppm) and rising” (Buis2). We dug our grave and now we must lie in it.


We remain aware of society’s contribution to the destruction of our planet’s natural state. As a result, anxiety surrounding climate change has emerged as a common issue. In a study conducted in Sweeden in 2022, 10 adults seeking help for climate change related emotional distress reported feeling overwhelmed by the huge weight of the problem, struggled to reconcile their personal needs and their responsibility to take action, and reported overall frustration with the lack of action societally and politically (Budziszewska).


Things are grim, people. The concerns reported in that study just scratch the surface of how I would describe my feelings about climate change. It stresses me out to watch gas-guzzling trucks drive by and helicopters cross the Hudson now because I can’t help but visualize the gallons of fuel sloshing around in the tanks of those vehicles, just waiting to create more pollution. It sucks feeling like you’re doing something wrong when you fly in an airplane. As entitled and soft as this sounds, it’s hard to give up the creature comforts we have come to expect in the first world. I love my car, but even though she averages almost 30 miles to the gallon city/highway (not bad for what it is), she runs on gasoline and contributes to global warming every time the engine turns over. I feel terrible when I think about it, but I drive anyway.


What sucks even more than the bad feeling you get when you think about the waste and pollution you produce is the powerlessness you will experience when oil reserves run dry (EIA), and meat becomes unaffordable (Freitas). Then there will be no choice but to change. The question is, do we change now on our terms or do we wait for circumstances to make that change for us?


There are many factors to how the depletion of non-renewable resources plays out. We may find an alternative energy source so plentiful that we can smoothly transition into a new age of clean energy and compromise-free living… but I’m not so sure we should get our hopes up just yet. Huge innovations and revolutionary discoveries are hard to come by. We can’t rely on the chance that innovations in more than one field (carbon capture, clean energy, water filtration, ocean health, etc.) will all occur in time. That being said, timing is key to the reversal of global warming. According to Colin Raymond of NASA’s Jet Propulsion lab in Southern California, “climate models tell us certain regions [hot spots regularly exceeding 95 degrees Fahrenheit] are likely to exceed those temperatures in the next 30-to-50 years” (Buis1).


The combination of powerlessness against a huge issue and a strict time budget is a perfect storm of stress induction. With this growing knowledge comes a huge awareness of the unbearable weight of this issue, and this can create a lot of existential angst in people. Authors of the aforementioned article Magdalena Budziszewska and Sofia Elisabet Jonsson propose an existential perspective on climate change-related concerns. They say that “although environmental worries are legitimate, they sometimes cause severe anxiety and distress so aggravated as to be discussed within the framework of psychotherapy” (Budziszewska). What purpose is there to stress and distress if they do not inspire some change to escape danger or improve one’s circumstances? If stress becomes so great that a person feels paralyzed or disabled by a depressive weight -or worse yet, disengages from the issue completely (I’ll get to why this is much worse than the issue being overwhelming)- then the stress needs to be overcome to let the individual return to their life where they may try to improve their circumstances.


If the individual feels too overwhelmed or becomes too discouraged and ‘checks out’, then nothing good happens for anybody. Not only will that person cease to live a responsible life and improve their habits from an economic and ecological perspective, but to avoid cognitive dissonance (in other words keep their actions in alignment with their beliefs), they might also stop voting for positive changes in climate policy. This is especially hurtful to the cause of improving the environment because the policy is often the greatest contributing factor to improvements in a country’s rate of pollution.


Do acts of international unity towards a world run on clean energy show tangible success? The Paris Agreement is likely the best example of such a policy. The Paris Agreement was introduced in 2015 and adopted by 196 Parties at the UN Climate Change Conference in December of that year. The central goal is to place a hard cap on rising temperatures at 2 degrees Centigrade above pre-industrial levels. I like that goal a lot, it sounds reasonable and achievable; but how do I know this isn't just a sugar pill meant to lull me into a sense of calm?


The UN claims to be tracking progress through an “enhanced transparency framework” that relies on countries reporting their actions are taken and progress in climate change “transparently” (ok, sure…). The chief (self-reported) achievement to date: “Zero-carbon solutions are becoming competitive across economic sectors representing 25% of emissions. By 2030, zero-carbon solutions could be competitive in sectors representing over 70% of global emissions” (The Paris Agreement). “Competitive across economic sectors,” sounds like a bit of cloudy wording to me. I don’t like picking apart legal literature because I’m neither a linguist nor a lawyer, but I can say for certain that being “competitive in sectors” of the economy is not the same as driving sectors of the economy. To me, this document puts on a big toothy smile but says very little about concrete steps we need to take, much less enforce the contract as evidenced by the previous United States president’s smearing of its validity.


There is little for me to go on if I want to argue against the validity of existential angst, as it relates to climate change and uncertainty. The fear is real, and it’s entirely logical. Those feelings are entirely valid. That being said, we can’t let it disable or overwhelm us, We can’t stop innovating, optimizing, reducing, reusing, or recycling. We can’t stop fighting to see better days. If not for us, then for the next generation of human beings and the rest of life on earth.




Works Cited

Budziszewska, M. and Jonsson, S.E. (2022) “Talking about climate change and eco-anxiety in psychotherapy: A qualitative analysis of patients’ experiences.,” Psychotherapy, 59(4), pp. 606–615. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000449.

Buis1, A. (2022) Too hot to handle: How climate change may make some places too hot to live – climate change: Vital signs of the planet, NASA. NASA. Available at: https://climate.nasa.gov/ask-nasa-climate/3151/too-hot-to-handle-how-climate-change-may-make-some-places-too-hot-to-live/#:~:text=Future%20Hot%20Spots&text=But%20climate%20models%20tell%20us,Asia%2C%20and%20Brazil%20by%202070. (Accessed: March 22, 2023).

Buis2, A. (2022) The atmosphere: Getting a handle on carbon dioxide – climate change: Vital signs of the planet, NASA. NASA. Available at: https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2915/the-atmosphere-getting-a-handle-on-carbon-dioxide/#:~:text=The%20concentration%20of%20carbon%20dioxide,it%20was%20near%20370%20ppm. (Accessed: March 22, 2023).

Dall·e mini by Craiyon.com on hugging face (2021) DALL·E mini by craiyon.com on Hugging Face. Available at: https://huggingface.co/spaces/dalle-mini/dalle-mini (Accessed: March 22, 2023).

EIA (2021) Frequently asked questions (faqs) - U.S. energy information administration (EIA), Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). EIA. Available at: https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=38&t=6#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20U.S.%20Energy,for%20liquid%20fuels%20through%202050. (Accessed: March 22, 2023).

Freitas, T. (2022) National Beef says steak prices will continue to soar as Inflation Quickens, Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg. Available at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-03/major-u-s-beefpacker-says-steak-prices-will-continue-to-soar#xj4y7vzkg (Accessed: March 22, 2023).

The Paris Agreement (2015) Unfccc.int. United Nations. Available at: https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement#:~:text=The%20Paris%20Agreement%20is%20a%20landmark%20in%20the%20multilateral%20climate,and%20adapt%20to%20its%20effects. (Accessed: March 22, 2023).

Trump, D. (2017) Statement by President Trump on the Paris Climate Accord, National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives and Records Administration. Available at: https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/statement-president-trump-paris-climate-accord/ (Accessed: March 22, 2023).
Location: Hoboken, NJ 07030, USA

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