Many Americans Are Dissociated From the Climate Crisis

Red lights are flashing everywhere. But rather than heed the warnings about the accelerating life-threatening impacts of the climate-ecosystem-biodiversity (C-E-B) crisis, many Americans continue to “dissociate” from what is occurring. Engaging people in real-world resilience-building activities in their communities is one of the most effective ways to heal this form of dissociation.

A new health and climate change report by the medical journal The Lancet documents how the C-E-B crisis is generating “record-breaking threats to the wellbeing, health, and survival” of people worldwide. [i] This is happening because global greenhouse gas emissions reached an all-time high in 2023. In addition, almost 182 million hectares of forests were lost between 2016 and 2022, which reduced the earth’s natural capacity to sequester carbon and diminished biodiversity.

As a result, this year global temperatures will breach the 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) extreme danger threshold for an entire year. This will make 2024 the hottest year in recorded history, likely the warmest in at least 125,000 years, and temperatures will continue to rise. [ii]

The future will thus be punctuated by ever-more-life-threatening storms, floods, heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, and other extreme weather disasters. These calamities will be difficult enough to deal with. However, people will also contend with escalating breakdowns to the ecological, social, and economic systems they rely on for food, water, shelter, jobs, incomes, health, safety, and other basic survival needs.

The annual economic losses generated by extreme weather events alone, said The Lancet, increased by 23 percent from 2010-14 to 2019-23 to a whopping $227 billion last year. This alone is greater than the gross domestic product of 60 percent of the world economies. The disasters and health impacts of the C-E-B crisis are also affecting labor and productivity worldwide, with heat exposure alone creating a record $835 billion in potential income losses.

The stresses and traumas produced by these impacts are amplifying anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorders, and other mental health issues worldwide. They are also increasing substance abuse, interpersonal aggression and violence, and other psychosocial problems. [iii]

Many Americans, however, remain psychologically dissociated from what is happening. This is a psychological protective mechanism people use to separate themselves from and mentally cope with extreme distress. It results from “fight or flight” reactions that are built into the nervous system to protect us from threats.

The process can be beneficial in the short term if it helps people get through troubles and then quickly reconnect with reality. When dissociation persists, however, and people continually disconnect from the real world, it can have very serious consequences.

This is widely occurring now regarding the C-E-B crisis.

Many executives of giant corporations, banks, and Wall Street firms, as well as elected officials, for example, continually dissociate from the C-E-B crisis. Some claim the climate has always changed and that the human-caused C-E-B crisis is a hoax. Others say any damage that occurs will be minor and the price of progress. This thinking allows them to remain blind to the increasingly irreversible damage their practices, products, and policies are generating.

People working in industries that generate large emissions, such as oil and gas, and in sectors that often seriously degrade ecosystems, such as industrial agriculture and forestry, also often dissociate from the C-E-B crisis. The famous quote by the American writer Upton Sinclair helps explain this phenomenon: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

In addition, some people dissociate from the human-caused C-E-B crisis because acknowledging it threatens their religious beliefs. I recently heard this from a religious leader who told me, “Only God can change the climate.” By this she meant a supreme being will decide what happens, not humans.

And, many people probably dissociate from the C-E-B crisis because it is simply too overwhelming for them to think about.

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There are often unpleasant truths about our beliefs, actions, and lifestyles that we do not want to acknowledge. So we disconnect from them, hoping this will make our lives easier. Ignorance is bliss, or so people think subconsciously.

Remaining dissociated from the C-E-B crisis, however, will not be blissful. On the contrary, it will be tragic for rich and poor, young and old, and all future generations.

As with any type of dissociation, to heal dissociation from the C-E-B crisis people need to become grounded in present reality. This can be achieved by developing meaningful connections with others and engaging in real-world issues in their community.

This is the type of work Transformational Resilience Coordinating Networks (TRCNs) do. They can engage residents in hands-on activities that help them see and experience the reality of how the C-E-B crisis is affecting their community, and how building resilience can minimize those impacts and enhance local health, safety, and well-being.

A TRCN’s activities can range from sharing meals to helping residents learn how stresses and traumas can affect their body and mind and activate dissociation. TRCNs also often help people learn “presencing” self-regulation skills, such as simple breathing exercises and methods to detect the bodily sensations that ground them in the present moment.

In addition, some TRCNs engage residents in activities like reducing local emissions, restoring local forests, and strengthening the physical resilience of their community.

Rather than remaining dissociated, engagement in these activities helps residents realize that the actual dread in their lives is not the C-E-B crisis, but being disconnected from their neighbors and disengaged from addressing real-world issues where they live and play.

As the recent presidential election indicates, many Americans feel the nation has made a wrong turn. But remaining dissociated from the underlying causes is not a solution. Our nation must reconnect with reality and aggressively curtail our contributions to the C-E-B crisis. In doing so, we will find that the social, psychological, and economic benefits far exceed the costs of remaining dissociated.