Week 7’s Tuesday Talks/Dining with Dinosaurs event saw one of our own fellows, Dr Emma Lawrance, presenting her work at the crossroads of climate change and mental health.
A ‘vicious cycle’ to a ‘virtuous cycle’
For a topic that can be so heavy for so many of us, it was surprisingly comforting to hear personal notes about Dr Lawrance’s experience and research journey. She gave us ideas for how we can flip from a ‘vicious cycle’ of environmental degradation leading to worsening mental health outcomes, to a ‘virtuous cycle’. This is where, through building a better state of mind, we create resilience and motivation to better protect our environment and address climate change.
We can all do something
A key message I took from the evening was that we must not be discouraged from action by uncertainty about the effects of those actions. We may never see the small contributions that our behavioural changes or advocacy make to such a large collective action problem. But this doesn’t mean that we’re not making contributions, nor that we lack the responsibility to make them. In other words, don’t hold out for seeing what is the very most effective thing to do – instead, act now! We can all do something, at least, within our small sphere of influence.
For example:
- Do you know where your bank or pension fund invests your money? Can you move it to a more environmental option?
- Where do you get your food, or buy your clothes?
- Do you recycle and reuse, where possible?
It’s true that these actions, individually, have minimal effect. But that’s the definition of a collective action problem - it takes a lot of us doing them to see the results! So, let’s try to be a member of a community of people who believe in these actions and who take them.
Discussions
Along similar lines, the discussions at my table centred around the way we define what is within our sphere of influence, and how we avoid feeling guilty about what happens outside our sphere of influence.
At the end of the day, these are structural problems that cause our reliance on fossil fuels and we can’t be held responsible for that. However, we can try to use cars less, switch our diet to vegetarian/vegan, or invest our money in ethical funds. It is empowering (and thus good for our mental health) if we make a concerted effort there!
As stoic philosophy says, it’s not worth worrying about outcomes. The only thing we can do is take action, and that’s where our moral responsibility, and hopefully our happiness, lies.
