At this point, talking about climate change doesn’t bother biologist Camille Parmesan.
She mentioned this after she finished telling me how 40% of species are moving to escape climate change, 60% of species are adjusting their seasonal timing, and many species won’t be able to move or adjust to avoid extinction. And, by the way, the U.S. is being seriously threatened by tropical diseases moving north with the climate.
“I’ve been talking about it for ten years. So it does sort of roll off my tongue, and I really don’t think about it deeply anymore,” Parmesan said.
That’s not to say she’s not emotionally affected by seeing the impacts of climate change. She just tries to avoid seeing them now.
“When I go back into the field, I try to go to the places I know are still in good shape. Intellectually, I know what’s happening,” Parmesan said. But she purposely keeps herself too busy to really think about what the data really means.
A few days before our interview, Parmesan had been invited to give a talk on Capitol Hill, in front of an audience of Congressional staffers and NGO workers. As you’ll hear in EarthSky’s radio podcasts with Parmesan (in the coming weeks), she’s a great communicator on the subject. She didn’t think what she had to say would surprise them. Even the Bush administration acknowledges human-caused climate change.
“Somehow, they hadn’t quite seen the summary numbers,” she said. “But when I started pointing out the large population reductions in polar bears, and ringed seals, and Adelie penguin, and Emperor penguin, and the 30% loss of the coral reefs, they had never put that together. So even people who had read quite a bit – this is what your brain does, is somehow filter the information as being not quite as dramatic as it really is.”
By the end of the talk, everyone was depressed.
At the end of my interview with Parmesan, I was depressed, too. On some level, I already knew everything she told me. I’ve talked to scientists studying dying coral reefs, I’ve talked to more polar scientists than I can remember (thanks, International Polar Year). But like Parmesan said, our brains filter the information. You become a bit hardened against new studies showing dramatic sea ice loss.
But sometimes, it really gets through. A new image, or some new serious impact I had never considered before. And then I feel depressed. I write the scripts, and when friends bring up climate change in conversation, I try to change the subject. But I also try to live my life in a way that reduces my impact on the atmosphere.
I know not everyone acknowledges the realities of climate change. But for those who do, how do you deal with it?
This is such an interesting topic. Part of my job is to read about the effects of climate change in articles everyday. And so I have to look at the myriad ways this is manifesting itself and the impacts it is having on so many species in so many ways.
You are right it is very depressing. I wish I had an answer for you, but it is at least comforting to see that other people see it and care about it. You can’t doom yourself to a life of depression over the issue because that won’t solve it. Maybe new leadership will help…you never know…
I am a biologist and would like to know where 40% & 60% came from. I have a sneaking suspision she does not have “Dr. Dolittle’s” powers.
Quoting from the article I linked in the post:
A newly published synthesis of 866 peer-reviewed studies of the effect of climate change on wild plants and animals has found what its author, Camille Parmesan, an assistant professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin, describes as a “clear, globally coherent conclusion.”
Thank goodness these plants and animals haven’t heard about the so-called climate change “controversy.” If they had, they might decide to stay put … and go extinct.
All kidding aside … what I thought was super interesting about what Dr. Parmesan said was that – as animals are trying to move – they’re encountering barriers created by human roads, fences, fields and so on. It truly is a human world.
Deborah
Hey you guys it is mackinley. Did you know that the sea anemone is related to a jellyfish. It is a proven fact in my 6th grade class. I am wanting to know more about science, think you guys could give me some tips? Thanks if you do.
Sincerly,
Mackinley
I think climate depression depends on the history of the persons problem.at that time i think its snowy,and he will become depressed when snow time comes.
This is such an interesting topic. Part of my job is to read about the effects of climate change in articles everyday. And so I have to look at the myriad ways this is manifesting itself and the impacts it is having on so many species in so many ways.
I think Seasonal drepression is also depends on whats happening in the now,like valentines day and you dont have a partner or date.
climate change *is* happening in the now.
Alcohol once ingested immediately takes effect hence also contributing to panic disorders. Alcohol is most dangerous when a patient is trying to withdraw from its consumption.
I find it truly strange, that since climate change is being proven to happen NOW already, still even people on this kind of websites don’t know how to deal with it. I experienced the same last week, again hearing things I already knew, and putting the picture together in my head. Don’t want to get to depressed, but don’t know how to deal with it in a good way either. Any of you got some new ideas over the last year about it?
Hello,
Thanks for writing this article. I’ve never really known what depression feels like, but the way I feel about climate change feels like it – I have so little hope for the future. I can’t stop thinking about it. I don’t know what to do and can’t understand how society (myself included) can live such selfish, greedy and ignorant lives.
How can I move forward in my life knowing where we are heading?! Its one thing to deal with the impending death of a good friend, but to see the whole world damage itself like this is just incomprehensible. And to live with the media, beloved family and good friends all discrediting climate change is just heartbreaking.
Like Lobke says, i’m open to ideas. What can I do with my life to deal with this…..?
I feel the effects of depression from climate change on a daily basis. I work in the wildlife field and it breaks my heart what we are doing to this planet and its wild animals. My job is to teach people about wildlife and the problems different species face from human impacts. But I get so depressed just thinking about it that I can scarcely do my job some days. I feel like a tape recording, spewing useless facts and information that won’t make a bit of difference, and watching species slowly be snuffed out like a candle in the wind.
Then there is the “weather” factor of climate change. Winters are longer, colder and snowier than before, and where I live (Rocky Mountain West) winter has been dragging on well into May the last few years (it was snowing again today on May 19.) It’s as if even Spring has lost all hope. I think back to better times when wild animals still had a place to live and when May was a warm and beautiful month. And my heart cries out in anguish.
Most people may find the following perspective empty or a silver lining at best, but the effects of climate change is a perspective, a valuation. Gaia will live on on Earth and other planets whether or not most biotic life perishes for millenia. Gaia is making amends for what we cannot. Secondly, we are evolved primates doing the best we can. Possibly we believe we can achieve more than that of which we are capable. We are responsible for the cause, but we have to show compassion and understanding for humanity’s inability to get us out of the situation. It’s easy to see climate change in a depressed light, but there is an enduring truth of science and energy that can provide reassurance. Being abiotic, it isn’t something we may as easily attach to, but it puts the situation in a far broader and reliable perspective.
Thank you soooooo much Jenny. For years, I have been in a state of despair about the planet (whom I love as deeply as my own family) dying, and lately in a state of fear as I feel in my bones that in my own life I may experience famine or other effects of climate change. But you are right, there is a bigger picture. I’ve wondered if perhaps I should go into the sadness and maybe there will be a quietness on the other side knowing that energetically and spiritually it is just change which always has been. Not that I am advocating this as an excuse to give up, but my helping actions seem to be in a spirit of”just in case this makes a difference”, not that it is making one.