Podcast Summary: "How Climate Change Is Impacting Our Mental Health"

The Political Scene | The New Yorker
Host: David Remnick
Guest: Dr. Lisa Van Susteren, co-founder of the Climate Psychiatry Alliance
Date: May 22, 2023

Overview

This episode explores the significant and growing impact of climate change on mental health, particularly among young people. David Remnick speaks with Dr. Lisa Van Susteren, a psychiatrist who specializes in the psychological effects of climate disruption, about how climate anxiety manifests, how it differs from past existential threats, and how the mental health community is responding. The discussion also covers important lawsuits—Juliana v. United States and Held v. Montana—where youth are seeking legal accountability for government climate inaction, and the unique emotional burdens shouldered by younger generations.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Real Voices: Everyday Climate Anxiety

Timestamps: 01:28–03:05

• Perspectives from Different Ages:
  • Young people voice fears over looming climate calamities, food security, and whether to have children at all.
  • A grandparent worries about the prospects for future generations.
  • Firsthand account: a young person recalls the traumatic impact of Hurricane Sandy and how seeing devastation as a child shapes lifelong fear.
• Quote: “I try not to be alarmist, but I feel like there’s some sort of apocalypse that’s awaiting around climate change... calamity can come at any time.” (Young Person 1, 01:28)
• Quote: “I think we're getting towards a point where we're not going to be able to reverse the damages... is this a world I want to bring [kids] into?” (Young Person 2, 01:55)

2. Mental Health Crisis: Beyond the Pandemic

Timestamps: 03:05–05:20

• Climate Change as a Mental Health Stressor:
  • Remnick notes that America faces a mental health crisis from many sources: the pandemic, social media, but increasingly, climate change.
  • Dr. Van Susteren asserts that young people, already destabilized by COVID-19, are uniquely vulnerable to climate distress.
• Quote: “Kids will disproportionately feel the cumulative effect of climate instability.” (Dr. Van Susteren, 04:24)

3. Measuring Climate Anxiety

Timestamps: 05:20–06:44

• Challenges in Quantification:
  • Anxiety is difficult to neatly separate into categories, but large-scale surveys give indicators.
  • In a study across 10 countries, three-quarters of kids are worried about the future due to climate, half report daily impacts, and over half feel doom—two-thirds blame government.
• Quote: “Three quarters of the kids are worried about the future because of climate. Almost half... say it affects their daily lives. More than half say they feel a sense of doom about the future.” (Dr. Van Susteren, 05:37)
• Quote: “Two-thirds of those kids lay the blame firmly at the feet of government.” (Dr. Van Susteren, 06:18)

4. Climate Anxiety Versus Past Existential Fears

Timestamps: 06:44–07:58

• Comparing Nuclear Anxieties to Climate Threats:
  • Remnick recounts Cold War-era nuclear drills.
  • Van Susteren argues climate change is more concrete and visual—fires, floods, storms are tangibly experienced by children, making distress harder to avoid than abstract nuclear threats.
• Quote: “If you're a kid today, you can see a fire, a flood, a storm... This is very something that is extremely visual.” (Dr. Van Susteren, 07:27)

5. Pathologizing or Normalizing Climate Distress

Timestamps: 08:01–10:31

• Direct Clinical Insights:
  • While Dr. Van Susteren speaks with many young people (not all clinical patients), the emotions reported include anger, despair, betrayal, and most poignantly, helplessness.
  • Introduces concept of "pre-traumatic stress": an anticipatory anxiety about future disasters—akin to PTSD, but forward-looking.
  • Stresses the need not to label this distress as mental illness: it’s a logical, even adaptive, response to real danger.
  • But when anxiety becomes disabling, the line blurs towards needing clinical intervention.
• Quote: “We must not pathologize climate distress... It’s a logical response to an imminent threat... it’s a survival strategy.” (Dr. Van Susteren, 09:03–09:21)
• Quote: “I believe we’re all anxious now, whether we know it or not, whether we like it or not, whether we admit it or not.” (Dr. Van Susteren, 09:41)

6. Climate Distress Across Ages

Timestamps: 10:31–11:30

• Difference in Generational Response:
  • Older adults may feel more empowered due to broader agency, while young people experience more helplessness—amplifying their distress.
• Quote: “That helplessness is the worst.” (Dr. Van Susteren, 11:22)

7. Approaches to Coping and Empowerment

Timestamps: 11:30–13:02

• Supporting Young People:
  • Dr. Van Susteren gives age-appropriate strategies for managing climate fears—ranging from reassuring statements for younger children to supporting activism in teens.
  • Emphasizes “secret sauce” to reducing anxiety is empowerment—practical action, solidarity, and age-appropriate engagement.
• Quote: “Empowerment is the secret sauce in reducing anxiety and that feeling of helplessness.” (Dr. Van Susteren, 12:37)

8. The Legal Front: Youth Suits Against Government

Timestamps: 13:02–15:55

• Held v. Montana and Juliana v. United States:
  • Dr. Van Susteren is an expert witness in two landmark cases where youth plaintiffs argue that governmental inaction violates rights to a healthy environment.
  • Montana’s constitution explicitly promises this; the lawsuits catalog both physical and psychological harms to young people.
• Quote: “We are guaranteed a right to life, liberty and property. And those three protections are profoundly being challenged by climate disruption.” (Dr. Van Susteren, 13:54)

9. Recognizing Climate Anxiety in Mental Health Systems

Timestamps: 15:55–16:46

• Towards Medical Recognition:
  • Dr. Van Susteren advocates for legitimatizing climate distress as a medical issue—not necessarily a mental illness, but as a recognized condition, which would enable insurance coverage and structured support.
• Quote: “We can create a way not to suggest that a person is mentally ill, but rather struggling with a very real issue... that can exacerbate pre-existing conditions.” (Dr. Van Susteren, 16:20)

Memorable Quotes

• “Kids will disproportionately feel the cumulative effect of climate instability.” (Dr. Lisa Van Susteren, 04:53)
• “Not to think of [climate anxiety] as a mental illness... it’s a survival strategy.” (Dr. Lisa Van Susteren, 09:03–09:21)
• “Empowerment is the secret sauce in reducing anxiety and that feeling of helplessness.” (Dr. Lisa Van Susteren, 12:37)

Notable Moments and Timestamps

• 01:28–03:05: Real voices sharing their personal climate fears
• 05:37: Results from international youth climate anxiety survey
• 09:03: Discussion on pathologizing versus normalizing climate distress
• 12:37: Guidance on empowering young people as a way to alleviate climate anxiety
• 13:35: Legal context and constitutional arguments in youth climate lawsuits
• 16:20: Argument for insurance and professional recognition of climate anxiety

Conclusion

This episode provides a nuanced look at the intersection of climate change and mental health—highlighting how feelings of doom and helplessness are spreading among the young, and how therapists are working to respond. It distinguishes between disabling clinical distress and logical, collective anxiety, urging action and empowerment as remedies. The discussion also signals a key shift: recognizing climate anxiety not as a pathology, but as a predictable—and reasonable—response to the existential threats facing the younger generation. Dr. Van Susteren’s clinical insights and involvement in landmark climate litigation underscore both the scale of the problem and the urgent need for systemic solutions.