The 2020 Race Between the Psychiatric Turtle and the Climate Hare

December 1, 2020

Although our 2020 Presidential race is apparently over, our climate race has no end in sight. Can this race be like the parable where the turtle caught the hare?

Although our 2020 Presidential race is apparently over, our climate race has no end in sight. Can this race be like the parable where the turtle caught the hare? In 2020, the climate hare got distracted by the social shutdowns that reduced fossil fuel usage, while us slower turtles in psychiatry started to catch up some in these writings.

All this and more in discussed in this article by Josef I. Ruzek, MD.

In considering that we in psychiatry need a decade of the social in the 2020s, even before the COVID-19 pandemic developed, one of the reasons presented was climate change. This was discussed by H. Steven Moffic, MD in this article.

See Mike Hennessy Sr’s column, The Words We Use, here.

As discussed by H. Steven Moffic, MD, back in the cover story of the February issue of Psychiatric Times, there is hope from a potential collaboration of psychiatrists in Australia and the USA, as well as learning from the traditional environmental wisdom and a Valentine Day-like love of the land by the indigenous populations in both countries. However, so far, Australia’s conservative government has not adopted international targets for reaching net-zero greenhouse emissions by mid-century.

Therefore, Emily Diamond, PsyD, in her article, available here, calls for advances in our intellectual functions, such as combining Computerized Adaptive Testing and Artificial Intelligence.

Among the major global mental health issues needing this approach is “climate changed and related mental health issues,” as listed by Erin Smith and colleagues in their cover story, available here, for the July issue of Psychiatric Times.

Using the figure-ground metaphor, the tireless climate psychiatry activist, Robin Cooper, MD makes a convincing case for tying these challenges together in this posting from June 29, 2020.

The end of the year cover story by H. Steven Moffic, MD for the December issue of Psychiatric Times discusses the climate, among several other challenges that are realistic reasons for cautious optimism for 2021.

Dr Moffic is an award-winning psychiatrist who has specialized in the cultural and ethical aspects of psychiatry. A prolific writer and speaker, he received the one-time designation of being a Hero of Public Psychiatry from the Assembly of the American Psychiatric Association in 2002. He has recently been leading Tikkun Olam advocacy movements on climate instability, burnout, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism for a better world. He serves on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times^TM.