Earth and Mind

Welcome to Psychology and Climate Change. Scientists are documenting how climate change is altering our environment. Policy makers are analyzing how it will affect the global economy. I am observing how changing environments--and changing personal relationships to the environment--are affecting ordinary people right now, for better and worse. That means you. Our altered relationship to earth and nature - accelerated by climate change - is having an effect on how we feel, what we think, and how we behave, for better and worse. Soon we will all have to choose whether to act or be acted upon. My clinical practice, my anthropology fieldwork and my own encounter with wilderness landscapes have instilled in me an understanding of how psychological sustainability will help us choose and create ecological sustainability.

On Peoples' Minds:
Its been another mild winter in New York City so far. Just today someone told me the following, "Every once in a while I remember what Winter used to be like when I was a child. This Winter feels alot like last winter, but dramatically different from the winters of my childhood. I try and focus my mind so I don't have to recognize that fact. So much focusing causes me to shut out important experiences."

In The News: Permission granted to shoot wolves

Why is this news - far, far away in Wyoming - bad for people everywhere? Whether you are a creationist or an evolutionist you know that we are all linked either as God's creatures or by some shared DNA. How we treat living creatures, especially vulnerable ones sets the tone for what kinds of people we will become, and how we will treat each other. Hey, come to think about it --- this action is all about solving problems by slaughtering them. Not a good thing. The earth has its limits. We have to compromise, learn to work together. We can't just kill off what doesn't fit into our consumptive needs. Look at it this way. There are more wolves than there used to be, and it might take some creative problem solving to secure the safety of wolves, livestock and other wilderness species. From a psychological point of view, the best way to deal with anything difficult is to make it a part of your life. The growth and development that result from integrative problem solving is good for you, your community and the earth.


Psychological and ecological sustainability tip of the day: Figure out how to solve problems without resorting to power moves to annhilate the threat. We can't get rid of garbage by digging bigger holes, can't get rid of probelms by making them not exist, can't protect animals by killing off the dangerous ones.