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The Wilson Center
Building a Locus of Control: Protecting Yourself From
“Climate Trauma”
January 23, 2017 By Lynae Bresser
With countries declaring drought emergencies and islands facing inundation, it can be difficult to
turn away from the big picture when it comes to climate change. If we are to build a climate-resilient
society, though, we must look to resilience at its origins, says one group of experts: the individual.
The impact that climate change can have on psychological health is emerging as a concern for
some mental health professionals, disaster response officials, educators, and faith leaders. In
November 2016, more than 100 people gathered in Washington, DC, for the first-ever conference on
strengthening personal resilience to climate change, sponsored by the International Transformational
Resilience Coalition. The changing environment is leading to the breakdown of communities in some
places and deteriorating mental health in others, said experts. “Climate trauma” can occur when
either acute or long-term climate impacts cause loss of life or property. The phenomenon is
anticipated by the National Wildlife Foundation to impact tens of millions globally in the coming
years.
To combat these effects, some are calling for more attention to “psychosocial resilience,” or the
ability of an individual to withstand both the psychological and social aspects of stress.
Losing a Sense of Place – and Future
Climate change can lead to disasters and disasters lead to stress. But a unique component of climate
change is the feeling that it is inexorable, that there is no escape.
A study published in the International Journal of Circumpolar Health of the Sami indigenous people
of northern Sweden found that young Sami reindeer-herders were three times more likely to attempt
suicide than other Swedes. Reporting by STAT tells the story of 29-year-old Gustu Marainen who
took his own life after watching his herd suffer under the pressures of extreme weather and
unpredictable temperatures and telling his family he did not see a bright future.
A unique component of climate change is the feeling that it is
inexorable, that there is no escape
In another study, when asked what is required to live a healthy and good life, 93 percent of Inuit
women responded that the ice, water, and land they live on is critical. Record low levels of Arctic sea
ice and temperatures soaring 20 degrees above average are upending these ecosystems and the very
future of the Inuit way of life in every respect.
These effects are not unique to Arctic peoples, who face a more rapidly changing climate than the
rest of the world. A broad survey of evidence published in Epidemiologic Reviews details how
floods prompt rises in disorders like anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress as they threaten
livelihoods around the world.
A study published by researchers from Murdoch University found a similar “sense of
place” was a crucial determinant of mental wellbeing for farmers in western
Australia. They observed a strong connection between homesteads suffering from chronic drought in
the region, where winter rainfall has decreased 20 percent since the 1970s, and heightened risk of
anxiety and depression in farmers caused by despair for the future.
The uncertainty and apprehension dominating the political conversation around climate change
has also proven to be an extraordinary mental stressor for those working in the field. Psychiatrist Lise
Van Susteren told Esquire that many climate scientists and activists are suffering from “pre-traumatic
stress disorder,” caused by the mental preparation for the worst. “So many of us are exhibiting all the
signs and symptoms of post-traumatic disorder,” she said, “the anger, the panic, the obsessive
intrusive thoughts.” Meanwhile Judith Curry, a prominent critic of climate science, recently
retired from Georgia Tech citing the “craziness” of the scientific and political debate.
Prioritizing the Individual
Building resilience to the psychosocial effects of climate change is not impossible though, said
experts at the Conference on Building Human Resilience for Climate Change.
University of California Berkeley Psychologist Rick Hanson said that the way individuals deal with
both positive and negative experiences has lasting impacts on neural structure and function. Because
our brains have a built-in “negativity bias,” which prompts us to over-focus on and over-react to
stressful, harmful experiences, learning to train our brains proactively is especially valuable. By
consciously sensitizing the brain to the positive – to see the glass half full more often – we allow
for the growth of inner resources, such as intelligence and courage, and the building of personal
resilience, Hanson explained. Doing so can even change the brain permanently, re-wiring neural
pathways to think differently.
Making sure individuals have the knowledge to be able to prepare for and respond to a disaster
is another important factor in building resilience, said Anita Chandra of the RAND
Organization. Knowing what is within our power to change and what is not can aid the development
of an “internal locus of control,” which strengthens personal resilience. While physical climate
impacts are, for the most part, out of the individual’s control, taking control of how those impacts
affect us can turn adversity into an opportunity rather than a setback.
Learning to see the glass half full can lead to permanent changes in
the brain
These ideas have been codified into a sort of doctrine called the Resilient Growth Model, said Bob
Doppelt, director of The Resource Innovation Group. By teaching individuals to use
simple methods such as identifying the values they want to live by in the midst of adversity, their
workshops encourage “values-based decision-making” and “adversity-based growth” in the face of
climate change.
Joining support groups is one way people are dealing with the stresses of climate change. Although
no clinical diagnoses of “climate grief” or “climate trauma” exist, Good Grief, a small NGO based in
Salt Lake City, is working to boost community involvement and give people confidence that they can
prepare for and mitigate climate change through peer support. “You’ve vented and gotten some
worries off your chest, and now you have a better understanding of what you can do as an
individual,” Laura Schmidt, founder of Good Grief, told Yale Climate Connections. “When things
got really depressing for them, they could take a break and let their community care for them for a bit
– and then go back out and fight or talk about climate change.”
A Two-Way Street
Mental health issues generally are among the most widely neglected in the world. In Ethiopia, there
are only 50 psychiatrists for 86 million people, leaving about 90 percent of the population without
adequate treatment.
In the United States, more than half of Americans who claim climate change is personally important
to them rarely or never discuss the topic with family or friends, according to a survey by the Yale
Program on Climate Change Communication. The researchers dubbed the phenomenon a “spiral of
silence.”
The good news with so little attention being paid to mental health is that improvements should
theoretically be easy. For many Americans, simply discussing climate change would likely be a
positive change.
Adopting a trauma sensitive community framework can change the way we think, explained Trudy
Townsend, former coordinator of Creating Sanctuary in the Dalles, at the conference. In turn, these
changes can shift communities from “trauma-organized” to “trauma-informed,” in which individuals
have the knowledge to prepare for and respond to disasters and neighbors feel they can rely on one
another.
As individuals within a society build inner resilience, it becomes harder for them to be manipulated
by fear, anger, and “us” versus “them” mentalities generally, said Hanson. As individuals contribute
to societal resilience, it’s likely you will see fewer symptoms of community-level trauma, including
damaged social networks, the elevation of destructive social norms, and a low sense of political and
social efficacy.
The optimal result, said Doppelt, is that we are not only better prepared, mentally and physically, to
deal with climate change, but that climate-related adversities can be transformational catalysts for
communities. After 95 percent of homes were destroyed by a tornado in the small town of
Greensburg, Kansas, in 2007, for example, people banded together and rebuilt the town to run
completely on renewable energy. Such a response is not only a sign of a healthy, resilient
community, but of healthy, resilient individuals.
Sources: American Psychological Association, Epidemiologic Reviews, Esquire, Grist, The Guardian, International Journal of
Circumpolar Health, JudithCurry.com, Murdoch University, National Institute of Environmental and Health Sciences, National
Institute of Health, National Institute of Mental Health, National Snow and Ice Data Center, National Wildlife Foundation,
PNAS, RAND Organization, The Resource Innovation Group, STAT, Scientific American, The Scientist, University
of California Berkeley, University of Guelph, The Watchers, World Health Organization, Yale Climate Connections, Yale
Program on Climate Change Communication.
Photo Credit: Flood victims in Pakistan ride in a U.S. Marines helicopter, courtesy of Paul Duncan/U.S. Marine Corps.