Robin Cooper, MD

We are psychiatrists who are deeply committed to addressing the devastating impacts of climate change on mental wellbeing and its differential impacts on vulnerable minority groups. Some of us came to this project steeped in knowledge and information but from a relatively privileged and comfortable place. The process of bringing together the voices of the various authors in this series, each contributing their rich and varied cultural experiences, has deepened and enriched the awareness of our interconnection.

These conversations have been challenging, but these are some of the difficult conversations we must have as a profession and as a society. Those of us who have been buffered from the devastating impacts of climate change and environmental degradation by our privilege, wealth, and class must recognize that this protection is ultimately an illusion. We are all bound by our shared vulnerability and must face our shared humanity.

We must address racism and climate change together. Hop Hopkins of the Sierra Club 

: “It’s no exaggeration to say that racism and white supremacy harm all of us, because in addition to robbing us of our humanity, racism is also killing the planet we all share." He elaborates by saying, “we will never survive the climate crisis without ending white supremacy …You can’t have climate change without sacrifice zones, and you can’t have sacrifice zones without disposable people, and you can’t have disposable people without racism.”

The articles in this series have highlighted both the tribulations and resiliency of communities of color. In particular, the Indigenous voices speak to the need for rematriation: the renunciation of the current patriarchal, fractured systems and a return to Indigenous wisdom that recognizes the unity between all living beings and the continuity between prior generations and future descendants. This embraces the essential awareness that we are all dependent on the earth as our only sustainable home.

The nonprofit organization Crear Con Salud in Puerto Rico has demonstrated resiliency, community empowerment, and local leadership as it overcomes passive reliance on a distant, unresponsive, neglectful government. Voices from Black communities remind us to confront the hard reality of climate change and its intersection with racism by exposing the daily experiences of communities tarnished by environmental pollutants. The Asian experience opens our eyes to experiences beyond our own borders, challenging our American-centric view. This section underscores both the profound impacts of the climate crisis on Asian countries as well as the huge contribution of emissions by Asian nations. We have much to learn from each other as we move forward.

These varied experiences illuminate our shared burdens. Like a woven tapestry, individual-colored threads bind together in a whole that is stronger than the separate fibers. The challenge is to both honor and acknowledge individual community experiences, and to simultaneously join together in a collective effort.

Climate change is a universal threat endangering the entire world. It is not a problem for any one group but a problem for us all. We must find common ground from our shared values, emphasizing equality, respect, and compassion for all, with a forceful commitment to collective climate action.

An essential step must be to address the current homogeneity of groups combating climate change. We cannot sustain the current situation of predominantly White-dominated climate change groups and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color)-dominated environmental justice groups focusing primarily on local issues. Our efforts must establish collaborative ways of working together. As mental health professionals committed to understanding deep emotional wounds and addressing complexities of relationships, we have the tools to assist in bridging the current gaps.

As this series has illustrated, climate change is a devastating existential threat that can also exaggerate pre-existing inequities and health/mental health problems. Yet it also opens the possibility of repairing centuries of embedded structural racism. The solutions that emerge from our shared values must hold to the fundamental principle that climate justice is social justice, and social justice is health and mental health justice. This inevitably will include reparative justice: the possibility of repairing damages inflicted by unequal social, racial, economic structures, and climate disruption.

The Biden/Harris administration has committed itself to addressing both the legacy of our racist history and our reliance on extractive fossil fuel-based economy. One of President Joe Biden’s first actions was to sign an executive order returning the United States to the Paris Agreement. In choosing his appointments, Biden has mobilized stellar leaders who embrace equity, strive to correct massive wealth disparities, and implement climate solutions.

Policies that address climate chance will have either direct or downstream health and social benefits for us all. But particular policies and regulations that have important impacts on communities of color include restrictions on oil and gas drilling on public lands, infrastructure projects with creation of green jobs, emission and toxic exposure regulations, and housing policies including improvements in substandard housing, transportation, and health access. There are signs that the new administration will integrate climate and environmental justice into policy planning across all levels of government, from community and local to state and national.

The business community is also moving forward, with several large corporations setting goals for carbon neutrality. Since a large percentage of emissions are due to the transportation sector, the dramatic steps taken by the domestic and foreign auto industry—setting net-zero carbon emissions goals and shifting production to electric vehicles—is 

 Other businesses are following suit, with Apple leading the way by pledging carbon neutrality by 2030. Additionally, Apple sustainability leader, Lisa Jackson, MS, is spearheading climate justice initiatives by putting equity and climate justice at the forefront of programs directed to support Black and Brown 

 Business leadership at this level can set the stage for others to follow.

Additionally, the growing attention to creating sustainable operations within the health delivery system is one of the ways of getting 

Mental health care professionals have important roles in creating solutions. The following recommendations are numerous and applicable across many domains. No one action, plan, or policy can address the enormity of the problems, but all in combination could decisively improve the future prospects of our communities.

While direct patient/individual recommendations are essential, climate change and the associated racial inequities are not individual issues. They must be addressed at broader systemic and community levels.

. It is important for us to examine and process our own feelings and confront our implicit biases about race, cultural differences, and climate. This is not a fleeting look but requires consistent self-reflection.

To care for diverse patients, we must incorporate culturally and linguistically appropriate material for patients with specific emphasis on climate-related mental health threats. Clinicians should integrate assessment of risk into discussions with our patients before predictable climatic events. The newly created 

 project is one attempt to expand the network of therapists and empower them to address climate related emotional issues (

We must develop ways to assist the growing group of individuals struggling with climate-related emotional difficulties and eco-distress experiences. We can offer our shared knowledge and emotional support skills and strategies. These include emotional regulation tools, group emotional supports, and integration of nature-based engagement activities into clinical suggestions for calming and sensory-affective modulation. This is particularly important for children, both for emotional regulation and to instill a sense of stewardship of the natural world.

Community/systems of care/public health model

. Our mental health system does not have the capacity to meet the increasing needs posed by climate change. We need to rethink our systems of care, expand, upon the current one-to-one treatment approach, and develop new models that focus on building the skills, resources, and social connections that are essential to prevent extensive psychological, emotional, and behavioral problems associated with climate disruption. This paradigm shift is founded on the awareness that emotional and psychic responses are not solely an individual issue, but are derived from real economic-political problems that call for social change.

There are many ways to lend emotional support to those who experience the inequities and racial disparities of the climate crisis. The Groundswell Climate Collective (GCC) is one such creative project that can be a model for 

 The GCC is committed to sharing the voices of people of color and developing community resilience. They utilize visual arts, writing, poetry, and other creative projects in efforts to prioritize youth engagement.

Additionally, we must develop collaborative relationships with other health providers, especially primary care, pediatrics, and obstetrics/gynecology. Psychiatrists can also serve as consultants and resources for paraprofessional and community leaders.

Table 2. Community and Climate Justice Groups

Fostering resilient communities is essential. Resilient communities are networks of local groups that develop emotional support and enhance community empowerment. Community Resilience relies upon strong social networks and attachments, a spirit of cooperation and altruism, trusted community leadership, and strong partnerships among schools, community organizations, faith groups, and health institutions. Providing adequate resources is essential, especially for underserved communities, and may require advocacy for funding sources (

Public health advocacy and policy: a call to action.

 There is no time to waste. Increased global temperatures have risen annually since mid-20th Century, and the polar ice caps are melting at an 

 Since the impacts of climate change on mental health are substantially influenced by social factors, influencing outcomes requires engagement in public policies. We must advocate for better governmental regulations, new laws, and funding of governmental and institutional activities as well as collaborative international agreements and treaties aimed at stopping climate change and eradicating racism.

Our professional organizations must be our voice in advocacy. Professional organizations can provide the tools and training to develop advocacy skills, and their political action committees can advocate for climate-friendly policies directly. Taking an important step, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) has recently allocated resources and attention to the climate crisis, establishing the Committee on Climate Change and Mental Health. However, there is more work to do. We must connect our organizations in order to strengthen our movement and increase its effectiveness.

Table 3. National Health and Climate Groups Committed to Equity and Environmental Justice

There are many national health organizations that focus on climate change and health with an equally strong commitment to addressing environmental justice, equity, and the impacts on vulnerable populations (

We began this series with the Persian poet Saadi’s words, which is inscribed on the United Nations Building. They remind us of our duties to each other we mobilize to address structural racism and climate change.

The sons of Adam are limbs of each other,

Having been created of one essence.
When the calamity of time affects one limb

The other limbs cannot remain at rest.
If thou hast no sympathy for the troubles of others
Thou art unworthy to be called by the name of a human.

Climate change and structural racism threaten us all. We must recognize our interdependence and interconnection with the entire world population and join collectively to face this existential threat. It is through effective collective actions that we can create a more fair, equitable, and sustainable future for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren.

is clinical associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco.

is in the psychiatry and behavioral sciences in the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. 

is Clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of California, Davis, and received the Kung Po Soo Award from the APA in 2015 for contributions to understanding Asian American patients with mental health issues. 

is the Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha Medical Director, a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center attending physician, and President of the APA Hispanic Caucus.

is a practicing psychiatrist at Garnet Health in New York. 

is a child and adolescent psychiatry fellow at Northwell Health. 

is a psychiatry resident at Garnet Health Medical Center in Middletown, New York.

 is the first woman Navajo psychiatrist to provide Indian Health Service clinical care in New Mexico and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. 

is Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Garnet Health Medical Center and is on the editorial board for Academic Psychiatry.

To see more on race and climate change, see 

The Tangled Roots of Racism and Climate Change.

General motors intends to lead the auto industry and the world to a net-zero-carbon future

. LinkedIn. January 28, 2021. Accessed May 7, 2021. 

. Climate.gov. March 15, 2021. Accessed May 7, 2021. 

Articles

Climate change is a devastating existential threat that can exaggerate preexisting inequities and health/mental health problems. As mental health professionals committed to understanding deep emotional wounds and addressing complexities of relationships, psychiatrists have the tools to assist in bridging the current gaps. 

Next Steps: Solutions and Recommendations For Healing

Vikram is a 38-year-old, married, Hindu South Asian immigrant father of 2; an otherwise healthy male patient who was referred by a local community leader. Vikram presents to the office on an extremely hot August afternoon for his first visit. He reports enjoying the drive into the city despite the traffic, heat, and smog, as he lives in a rural area. When asked about why he was referred, Vikram says that he has experienced disturbing suicidal thoughts. His local guru advised him that it would be helpful to meet with a professional, so he is only here for talk therapy.

He is self-employed as a farmer and is stressed by the effects of this past summer’s severe drought, which led to poor crop yields and lower income. He is from a farming region of northern India and moved to Kentucky for a better life 20 years ago with his wife when confronted with similar droughts. As the sole wage earner in his family, he is feeling overwhelmed and hopeless. Suicide, which betrays the Hindu belief that human life is precious, is disapproved of by his religion. Revealing any mental health struggles evokes a stigma for himself and would contribute to the suffering of his family. Yet if his crop yield does not improve, he fears he will be unable to provide for his family—another source of shame for him. Confronted with sparse resources, he fears he will have to relocate and leave his small, tight-knit immigrant community and find other ways to support his family.

Vikram asks, “What should I do? I thought I was getting away from such problems by moving here. I do not know if I can do it again. All I know is how to be a farmer. Are you going to prescribe me medicine? How does talk therapy work? We do not have this in my country.”

Unfortunately, Vikram’s case is not unique, and is similar to the crises faced by farmers in Asia. The approach to this case presents many questions: what role can psychiatrists in the United States play in addressing the issues highlighted by Vikram’s experience? By considering this question, we hope to open some possible avenues for action, reducing the impact of climate change and creating a viable future for our next generation.

The Impact of Climate Change on Asian Populations Globally

and is the largest landmass in the world, covering 

 The 2 largest countries in Asia, China and India, collectively have 3 to 4 times the population of the United States, and 

Clearly, understanding the impact of climate change in Asia and the contribution of Asia to global CO

 emissions is an essential part of understanding and slowing the impact of the international climate crisis. When Americans maintain an ethnocentric view of the world, it limits their understanding of the global context and the role they play in a world-wide problem.

As to historical context to the US-China relationship, in the 19th century, Congress passed the 1882 Chinese exclusion act, which precluded Chinese from immigrating to the United States. Other legislation, since repealed, prohibited Chinese individuals from becoming naturalized citizens, reflecting the concurrent fear of Asians referred to as the “yellow peril.” It is not surprising that today there are numerous anti-Asian hate crimes, spurred on by terms for the pandemic like 

Disproportionate Impact of Climate Crisis in Asia

Asia is the continent that has been hit hardest by climate change, both because of the impact of climate-related natural disasters, and due to mismanagement of resources, and other poor economic and political decisions. 

Vikram’s predicament is all too familiar to many farmers across India. Rising baseline temperatures have contributed to years of increased droughts, creating lower crop yields for many farming families. It is estimated that by mid-century, crop yields could drop by 30% in central and southern Asia. India has already had increased, epidemic-level suicide rates.

 As their lands become less habitable and farmers are no longer able to sustain a living, many impoverished individuals are pressured to move in search of limited job opportunities. Waves of climate refugees, often with no urban job skills, are descending on already impoverished urban centers. This creates enormous pressures, aggravates preexisting socioeconomic problems, and causes individual hardship, emotional anguish, community disruption, and hateful, retaliatory violence against new climate refugees.

While 60% of the world’s population lives in Asia, 40% of the world’s climate disasters have occurred on this continent in the past decade, resulting in a disproportionate 

 due to earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, droughts, and cyclones.

 All of these except earthquakes have become more severe and frequent because of climate change. Estimates suggest that by mid-century, South Asian monsoons will be much stronger, dropping 

Taiwan, the small island in the South China Sea, is located between 2 tectonic plates and has a long history of severe earthquakes. As a modern industrialized area with economic resources, the government has developed a complex disaster response and preparedness system that spans the national, regional, and local level. Providing 

 to the general population is integrated into their planning.

 Although not specifically designed as a climate change intervention, these programs show what is possible given governmental support for amelioration of natural disasters, which could include climate-driven disasters.

Other less wealthy areas on the Asian continent are not as well prepared to manage both inevitable natural disasters and those that are aggravated by climate change. Just as in the United States, different communities have disparate capacities to respond and recover from climate-related disasters, with the poor suffering the greatest.

Dr Hwang, along with students and other faculty, participated in required ongoing training for preparation and response to disasters at Yu Ying Elementary School in Su’Ao, Taiwan.

Glacial melting in the Himalayas has been accelerated by increasing temperatures, ultimately increasing the risks of floods and landslides during monsoon season. Long-term, permanent disappearance of glaciers will affect the flow of major Asian rivers, including the Yangtze, Mekong, and Brahmaputra. The Mekong River starts in China and flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and lastly Vietnam. An estimated 60 million individuals within these countries 

 for water, rice crops and fish, and transportation.

 The Mekong Delta is considered the Asian breadbasket, producing half of Vietnam’s rice and accounting for one-third of Vietnam gross domestic product. Recent political decisions to dam upstream areas of the Mekong River highlight both the human contributions to natural disasters and the impacts that extend past political boundaries, with policies of one country affecting downstream countries and communities. Damming and limiting flow to downstream countries further threaten communities dependent on the river and leads to downstream decreased rice and fish yields.

 The low-lying deltas in the southern parts of Asia produce 88% of the world’s rice supply and are at risk of disappearing.

Lower flows in combination with sea level intrusion contribute to 

 in outflow areas of the Mekong Delta, resulting in a decrease in fishing yields, as well as loss of farmable acreage.

 The Vietnamese government has predicted that by 2030 there will be 

 in the Mekong delta due to intrusion of saltwater, coastal erosion, and flooding.

Glacial melting also increases sea levels, putting many coastal cities such as Bangkok, Manila, Saigon, Jakarta, Surabaya, Yangon, and many others at 

risk of loss of coastline and increased risk of tsunamis

 These chronic changes are no less important than the acute events. In fact, chronic sea level intrusion is likely to create 

 of farmable and habitable land, land that currently is home to 72 to 187 million individuals.

 This potentially creates a problem of mass population displacement. 

As of 2017, China, India, and Japan surpassed the United States as the 

 Despite phasing out coal plants, the United States continues to have the highest per capita rate of emissions and continues to be in the top 3 countries, along with China and India, for coal power production. China currently has the largest number of coal power plants, representing half of the world’s coal use, and has quintupled its coal production between 2000 to 2019. It shows little sign of slowing down. India, the third largest producer of coal, has had the second largest increase in coal-producing capacity since 2000. Other Asian countries, including South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the Philippines are heavily 

 for energy, with expansion of coal plants planned.

We must also consider the effects of human-induced air pollution on human populations. Cities in India, Pakistan, and China are listed in the top 15 worst places for 

 Estimates are that air pollution kills an excess of 1 million annually in India and 1.25 million annually in China.

 Prenatal exposure to more air pollutants is associated with increased rates of autism, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, depression, developmental delay, reduced IQ, and decreased brain white matter surface.

 has now officially listed air pollution as a contributor to dementia.

I, Dr Hwang, can relate to these air quality issues, because I lived in Yilan, Taiwan in 2015 and directly experienced air pollution while driving my 125cc scooter to and from Su’Ao, inhaling the emissions from the multitude of cars, motorcycles, scooters, and trucks in heavily congested urban traffic. I, like most of my fellow commuters, wore a mask to reduce the impact of breathing in these toxic fumes. However, the masks, though somewhat effective at screening out particulate matter, always had the residue of soot and did not eliminate the foul taste and smell of the diesel exhaust. Now, when I visit cities such as Los Angeles or walk behind the industrial zone of Nashville, I am reminded that air pollution is still an issue domestically. The human contribution to climate change is a local and a global issue.

The burning of coal is a major driver of 

 Commitments for phasing out coal use are being made by some countries, and both India and China are developing policies for reducing coal. These efforts are helpful, but insufficient and must be accelerated. International agreements are urgently needed to move from coal to clean energy sources and assist low-income Asian countries to develop alternatives.

Scooters in Taiwan parked near local park.

Returning to the case of Vikram, we are faced with the issue of what we can do as psychiatrists to respond to these urgent crises. Climate effects do not stop at political boundaries and neither should our efforts to address climate change. How can psychiatrists in the United States contribute to solutions for the Asian continent facing such a devastating disaster? Ideally, psychiatrists can ally with local community leaders and provide a comprehensive formulation using the Cultural Formulation Interview that takes into account societal, cultural, familial, and other factors to best capture the nuance in individual psychopathology and assist patients like Vikram who are suffering the emotional burdens.

 But we must also focus on broad systemic issues.

In the light of the profound severity and urgency, psychiatrists and mental health practitioners must act, utilizing our individual agency to create a collective voice to influence policy regarding climate change. We can engage the American Psychiatric Association by strengthening collaborations between the Climate Caucus and newly formed Committee on Mental Health and Climate Change with the Global Mental Health Caucus. We can bring these issues of international disparities to the newly formed Task Force on Social Determinants of Health to broaden the view to the international threats of the climate crisis and contribute to broader socio-political solutions. Advocacy cannot stop domestically in the United States, but rather must be a global effort.

Finally, the current anti-Asian sentiment and recent violence against Asians, unleashed due to the pandemic and fueled by former administration’s racist rhetoric, hurts all parties involved. The recent hate crimes against Asian-Americans are an assault on all humanity. Underlying unconscious racist attitudes contribute to the problems confronting ethnic minorities in the United States, whether that be COVID-19 or the climate crisis. When we focus only on our own nation, we miss opportunities for urgent and robust international collaborative action, and ultimately we all suffer. The costs are enormous—the costs are human lives everywhere in the world.

is a year 2 psychiatric resident at Vanderbilt University

is clinical associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco

is a retired health sciences clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at University of California, Davis School of Medicine.

To see more on race and climate change, see

1. Szmigiera M. Distribution of the global population by continent 2020. Statista. April 6, 2021. 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/237584/distribution-of-the-world-population-by-continent/#:~:text=As%20of%202020%2C%20about%2059.51,total%20population%20by%20continent%20here.and%20occupies

2. National Geographic Society. Asia: Physical Geography. Accessed May 17, 2021. 

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/asia/

3. The Nations Online Project. Countries of the world by area. Accessed May 17, 2021. 

https://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/countries_by_area.htm

4. Carleton TA. Crop-damaging temperatures increase suicide rates in India. 

5. United Nations Office for Disaster Reduction. Asia-Pacific suffering 80 percent of global losses due to disasters. October 2012. 

https://www.un-spider.org/news-and-events/news/un-asia-pacific-suffering-80-percent-global-losses-due-disasters

6. Brown O. Migration and climate change. International Organization for Migration. 2008. Accessed May 17, 2021. 

https://olibrown.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/2008-Migration-and-Climate-Change-IOM.pdf

7. Tso YE, McEntire DA. Emergency management in Taiwan: learning from past and current experiences. 2007. Accessed May 17, 2021. 

https://training.fema.gov/hiedu/downloads/compemmgmtbookproject/comparative%20em%20book%20-%20em%20in%20taiwan.pdf

8. Sasipornkarn E. A dam-building race threatens the Mekong River. Deutsche Welle. August 16, 2019. 

https://www.dw.com/en/a-dam-building-race-threatens-the-mekong-river/a-50049206

9. Soukhapon A, Baird IG, Hogan ZS. The impacts of hydropower dams in the Mekong River: A Review. 

10. Eyler B. Science shows Chinese dams are devastating the Mekong. 

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/04/22/science-shows-chinese-dams-devastating-mekong-river/

11. VnExpress. Vietnam’s Mekong Delta to receive nearly $400 million to combat climate change. December 1, 2016. Accessed May 17, 2021. 

https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/vietnam-s-mekong-delta-to-receive-nearly-400-million-to-combat-climate-change-3507275.html

12. SCMP Reporter. Explained: How climate change will affect Asia. 

https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/explained/article/2189340/explained-how-climate-change-will-affect-asia

13. Wong PP, Losada IL, Gattuso JP, et al. Coastal systems and low-lying areas. In: 

Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Contribution to Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

. Cambridge University Press; 2014:361-409. 

https://archive.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg2/WGIIAR5-Chap5_FINAL.pdf

14. Le Quére C, Andrew RM, Peters GP, et al. Global carbon budget 2017. Global Carbon Project. November 2017. 

https://www.globalcarbonproject.org/carbonbudget/archive/2017/GCP_CarbonBudget_2017_eps.pdf

15. Evans S, Pearce R. Mapped: The world’s coal power plants. 

https://www.carbonbrief.org/mapped-worlds-coal-power-plants

16. 15 most polluted cities in the world. Earth.org. January 7, 2021. Accessed May 17, 2021. 

https://earth.org/most-polluted-cities-in-the-world/

17. Chatterjee P. Indian air pollution: loaded dice. 

18. Calderon-Garciduenas L, Torres-Jardón R, Kulesza KJ, et al. Air pollution and detrimental effects on children’s brain. The need for a multidisciplinary approach to the issue complexity and challenges. 

19. Perera FP. Multiple threats to child health from fossil fuel combustion: impacts of air pollution and climate change. 

20. Livingston G, Huntley J, Sommerlad A, et al. Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2020 report of the 

21. Rice D. Coal is the main offender for global warming, and yet the world is using it more than ever. 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/26/climate-change-coal-still-king-global-carbon-emissions-soar/3276401002/

22. Lewis-Fernández R, Aggarwal NK, Hinton L, et al, eds. 

DSM-5® Handbook on the Cultural Formulation Interview.

 American Psychiatric Publishing; 2016. 

How might droughts and monsoons in India and China lead to problems in American clinics?

Global Problems Call for Global Solutions: Climate Change in Asian Communities

The poem “No Sympathy for Other” is inscribed on the face of the United Nations Building. The words were written by the Persian poet Saadi more than 800 years ago:

We are interconnected. The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has made that crystal clear.

The same is true for the worldwide crisis posed by climate change. Each crisis dramatically reveals the preexisting fractures in our society. Communities of color are first and most profoundly impacted by both COVID-19 and climate change and are least able to 

 The roots that link climate change and COVID-19 are neither inherent to the virus, nor to the dynamics of global warming. The profound disparities are driven by social determinants and the socioeconomic and political structures embedded in our society.

As early as the mid-1970s, scientists began warning the world community about threats of climate change. Most of their predictions fell on deaf ears. Yet their predictions have been remarkably accurate. What the scientists did not accurately predict was just how quickly we would be facing the consequences. The impacts are not in faraway places, nor in the distant future. No longer can we turn a blind eye as the fury and frequency of climate-driven disasters intrude on our lives.

We are forced to face multiple crises simultaneously: the pandemic, climate change, and the effects of racism. The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a massive international health crisis and fueled economic decline, in which escalating poverty and disparities of wealth are inescapable. Rightful rage about centuries of simmering structural racism has ignited a movement demanding urgent racial justice.

Nightly news broadcasts reporting on the daily death toll of COVID-19 keep us attuned to the presence of the pandemic. Since the climate disasters occur more episodically and are spread across different locales, it is all too easy to let concerns recede into the background. How much can we face at one time? Nonetheless, we cannot afford to ignore the climate crisis; physics and Mother Nature will not wait. We ignore this at our own peril.

Structural racism refers to the laws and regulations, the resulting systems, and the cultural practices and norms that result in differential access to 

resources, opportunities, power, and wealth

 These are core sociopolitical issues that are embedded in American history and current society. The legacy of inadequately addressed racism has created the current intolerable disparities in our society, including marked disparities in health outcomes for communities of color. These structural components combine with the climate crisis to exacerbate the differential impacts that climate-driven events and disasters have on poor individuals and communities of color. Climate events act as threat multipliers, adding to and exacerbating current dangers.

Although we Americans are not unique in our capacity for racism, our history is built on genocide, slavery, colonialism, and the annihilation of what, in psychoanalytic language, is often called “the other.” Founded on principles of the Doctrine of Discovery and Manifest Destiny, European settlers saw the New World through 

 They hardly questioned the belief that what was here was for their taking. Progress was to exploit the land, expropriate the homeland from native occupants, and to extract the most out of African slave labor. Marching through time also meant the annexation and colonization of Brown communities. Later in 20th century, our foreign policy was dictated by securing alliances and controlling puppet governments for access to greater wealth and power. Examples abound in our efforts to control emerging countries in Central America and Southeast Asia.

Although the accumulation of wealth has been the preeminent economic driver of American imperialism, there are profound connections between psychic mechanisms and industrial capitalist growth. Enabling this quest for wealth, deeply embedded unconscious intra-psychic processes have allowed us to hold at arms’ length the historical suffering inflicted by genocide, slavery, and colonialism. These are the very same mechanisms in play when it comes to ignoring the destruction and aggression inflicted today on the communities that are most dramatically impacted by climate disruption.

Additionally, these same unconscious processes underpin our attitudes and our relationship with the natural world; destruction and aggressive plundering of our environment are all too common. We are left with damaged, scared, soiled places all the while feeling nostalgically perplexed about what has happened. What has gone wrong? How did the natural world, which previously brought solace and psychic restoration, begin to bring pain and mourning for the past? Note the new concept of 

, describing that deep melancholic grief when experiencing the change to our natural environment, 

Psychoanalyst Melanie Klein describes primitive paranoid-schizoid states that shed light the intra-psychic mechanisms operative in this realm.

 Only the “I” exists, and “the Other,” the mother, only exists as an extension of the desires and needs of the voracious infantilized self. Since there is no “other,” we are unable to experience other humans as brothers and sisters.

This infantile state also allows us to view the earth as nothing other than an inexhaustible source of supplies that exist for our pleasures. This has allowed us to take from Mother Earth endlessly and deny any limits on consumption.

Just as we have plundered the earth with willful disregard for the consequences, we have discounted the suffering of those who are most affected by climate ravages. Primarily, psychic defenses must minimize the suffering of people of color and keep our minds in a detached, distorted, intellectualized sphere. The false belief that African Americans do not experience pain in the same way that Whites do is an example of 

 To retain our emotional comfort requires us to unconsciously experience “the other” in 2 dimensional and dehumanized ways, or worse, as nonexistent in our minds.

We are also faced with a modern psychological epidemic within 

 Just as hysteria was the dominant psychic disorder during Freud’s time, we are now facing a modern epidemic of narcissism: a preoccupation with the individual or the self.

Narcissistic qualities are efforts to manage underlying, often unconscious feelings of inadequacy, inferiority, and insecurity. Such fragile states are managed through an inflated sense of superiority, self-aggrandizement, and a sense of entitled attitudes and behaviors. This requires undervaluing others to sustain the delicately inflated sense of self, often resulting in disregard for others and 

Such narcissistic qualities in individuals can be extended to broader manifestations seen in our socioeconomic-political groups. Isabella Wilkenson, the first woman of African-American heritage to win the Pulitzer Prize in journalism, builds on ideas of narcissism as she reframes the issues of racism through the lens of a 

 As on the fixed rungs of a ladder, each knows his specified place in the caste hierarchy. For example, the decades of socioeconomic losses of the white underclass and working classes have threatened their previously more stable place in the caste hierarchy. Struggling with the greater economic disparities and insecurity have threatened whole communities. Reacting against mounting pressure for justice from communities of color, some white communities collectively manage these threats with the compensatory sense of superiority and entitlement. In the effort to keep out the pain that would come with loss of status, the downtrodden find solace in collective grandiose fantasy. Desperate attempts to restore the threatened equilibrium have unleashed the current white supremacy movement, along with its violence.

Psychoanalyst Donna Orange, PhD, PsyD, has linked racism and climate change with unconscious 

 She describes these processes as states of “exaggerated entitlement,” reflecting attitudes of cultural superiority. The psychic states of denial and disavowal (knowing facts about climate change but experiencing the self as buffered from impacts) are dependent on this irrational sense of specialness and superiority which, she argues, is rooted in centuries of colonialism and slavery. Orange elaborates that we have been “morally numbed,” which contributes to our failure to deal with the climate crisis in general, and specifically the impacts of climate on communities of color.

The retreat to regressive psychic states in face of fears is not only ineffective in creating needed social solutions, but it also comes at great costs. Relying on fragile, unstable psychic structures cuts us off from the full range of feelings. Emerging from paranoid-schizoid position and narcissistic states allows for greater, more nuanced capacities to tolerate real limits, experience our common-ness, and recognize our dependency and interconnections with others and the natural world.

I suggest that we are all too vulnerable to regressive states when confronted by the magnitude and repeated assaults of climate disasters, and we must use our more mature selves to face the dual impacts of structural racism and climate chaos. It is tough to see, feel, and hold sympathy for the troubles of others. But as Saadi’s poem reminds us, we are “created as one essence,” and our “limbs cannot remain at rest” when others are in pain.

I reside in the traditional territory of the Ramaytush-Ohlone-Muwekma Nations and honor the ancestral community that inhabited and cared for this land. It is this dedication and awareness that inspired me to lead this series.

This collection of articles will highlight the specific ways various communities of color have been uniquely impacted by climate disruption. While the specific stories may be idiosyncratic, the shared interconnections cannot be lost. The final article will address some shared solutions.

We must rise to the challenge Saadi issued in his poem centuries ago, when he challenged us to be worthy “to be called by the name of a human.”

The impacts of climate change on human health in the United States: a scientific assessment

. US Global Change Research Program. April 4, 2016. Accessed April 15, 2021. 

2. Bailey ZD, Feldman JM, Bassett MT. How structural racism works - racist policies as a root cause of US racial health inequities. 

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People

4. Albrecht G, Sartore GM, Connor L, et al. Solastalgia: the distress caused by environmental change. 

Introduction to the Work of Melanie Klein

6. Hoffman KM, Trawalter S, Axt JR, Oliver MN. Racial bias in pain assessment and treatment recommendations, and false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites

Narcissism: the science behind the rise of a modern ‘epidemic.’

. March 11, 2016. Accessed April 15, 2021. 

New insights into narcissistic personality disorder

. February 29, 2016. Accessed April 15, 2021. 

10. Orange DM. Climate and Justice. Lecture presented at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. April 1, 2019.

Climate Crisis, Psychoanalysis, and Radical Ethics

. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group; 2017.

Powerful psychic defenses are keeping humanity from facing a number of interconnected crises. How can these psychic defenses be overcome? 

Robin Cooper, MD

Articles

Next Steps: Solutions and Recommendations For Healing

Global Problems Call for Global Solutions: Climate Change in Asian Communities

Introducing a New Series: Racism and Climate Change

On Climate, COVID, and Race

The Impacts of Extreme Heat on Mental Health

Divestment in Fossil Fuels: A Preventive Public Health Strategy