Facing climate change in Aspen means focusing on mental health
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Facing climate change in Aspen means focusing on mental health
Aspen Ideas Festival workshops focused on emotional responses to extreme weather. Experts stressed importance of operating within an individual’s “zone of tolerance” Study: 85% of Gen Zers are worried about climate change, 67% believe humanity is doomed, and 52% don’t want to have children because of it. At both Aspen workshops, attendees reported seeing high levels of inspiration and motivation when asked to give a closing word that summed up their reaction to the event.“If we think back about what people said as their closing word, there was so much along the lines of (being) inspired, motivated, hopeful,” said Leslie Davenport, founder of the Climate Mental Health Network. “I love that we were creating a safe place for people to explore these difficult themes, and the outcomes were uplifting by way of the participants’ own words,’ she said of the workshops at the Aspen Ideas festival on Saturday and Sunday. The Aspen Times is home to 16,000 readers who get their news straight from the source.
The Lake Christine Fire burns near Basalt on July 3, 2018.
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
When you take a breath, you’re not just breathing air. You’re breathing sky.
This was the way Leslie Davenport opened her workshop, “Burned Out: Navigating emotional responses to extreme weather,” at Aspen Ideas Festival this past weekend during a breath work exercise. It was her way of highlighting how significant the external world is to the internal experience.
As climate changes and becomes more extreme, which is being felt across the Roaring Fork Valley, many might be experiencing a range of emotional reactions — from anger to anxiety, despair to betrayal, and guilt to grief. This, Davenport said, is normal.
“It’s how we’re wired,” she said. “As climate impacts increase … so does emotional distress.”
She emphasized the connection between human emotion and the landscape — the same way one can find awe, calm, or comfort from a beautiful sunrise or sunset, they can find sadness and loss from seeing wildfire or hurricane destruction.
And whether someone has experienced extreme weather directly (by losing loved ones, homes, pets, community, etc.), indirectly (suffering from wildfire smoke, losing a multigenerational home where someone grew up, experiencing longterm drought, etc.), or vicariously (reporting on or researching extreme weather, being inundated by information, etc.), the impact to mental health can be critical regardless.
According to Sarah Newman, founder and executive director of the Climate Mental Health Network who presented with Davenport, research came out last year on the historic 2018 Paradise, California, Camp Fire that found cognitive brain changes in people both directly and indirectly impacted by that fire.
“It’s unprecedented,” Newman said of this shift in perspective of impact.
Other data she presented included a 2024 study of 16,000 Gen Zers from all 50 states that showed 85% are worried about climate change, 67% believe humanity is doomed, and 52% don’t want to have children because of it.
And it didn’t appear to be a partisan issue — the study reported 93% of those identifying as Democrat, 87% of those identifying as Independent, and 74% of those identifying as Republican all said they were worried about climate change.
Newman noted while Gen Zers are disproportionately worried about climate change, it also affects all age groups.
Data additionally confirmed that when temperatures go up, outside of what is considered “normal,” it’s correlated with a rise in aggression and conflict, as well as an increase in suicides.
But not all is lost. At both Aspen Ideas Festival workshops, one on Saturday and one on Sunday, Davenport and Newman reported seeing high levels of inspiration and motivation when attendees were asked to give a closing word that summed up their reaction to the event.
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“If we think back about what people said as their closing word, there was so much along the lines of (being) inspired, motivated, hopeful,” Davenport said. “I love that Sarah and I weren’t presenting solutions; we were creating a safe place for people to explore these difficult themes, and the outcomes were uplifting by way of the participants’ own words.”
She stressed the importance of operating within an individual’s “zone of tolerance,” meaning the space between hyperarousal (feeling emotionally reactive and out of control) and hypoarousal (feeling numb or dissociative). Those who aren’t able to find their zone of tolerance typically trend toward denial or doomsday mentalities, both of which result in inaction.
The key to staying in that zone of tolerance and establishing emotional resiliency is what Davenport and Newman call “toggling.” This means learning how to move back and forth between feeling difficult feelings and engaging in self-soothing and self-care like creative endeavors and time in nature.
“It is somewhat personalized,” Davenport said. “I think the most important thing is that ability to recognize: What does it look like for you when you are moving towards that place of being outside your window of tolerance? And what are those tools that in those moments you can bring to (help) yourself?”
For both her and Newman, working on emotional awareness and emotional intelligence is critical for everyone as the climate continues to change and extreme weather events continue to occur.
“I don’t feel like we live in a very emotionally accepting or emotionally intelligent culture,” Davenport said. “What concerns me is, without having some skills as the world warms … it’s going to be so much harder to participate, engage, and know what to do with ourselves internally and externally.”
Newman is committed to continuing to “mainstream” the conversation about how climate change impacts mental health and ensuring that people know having climate emotions are valid.
“Please talk about it,” she said. “Don’t feel any shame.”
For more resources, visit climatementalhealth.net/resources .
Source: https://www.aspentimes.com/news/facing-climate-change-in-aspen-means-focusing-on-mental-health/