AlterNet carried a story a few years back about APA report,’ Psychology and Global Climate Change: Addressing a Multi-faceted Phenomenon and Set of Challenges’ …bit of backstory below and full download open source…with disturbing new IPCC findings currently being released, we thought it well worth another look…

 Janet Swim, a social psychologist at Penn State, suggested the APA (American Psychological Association) create a task force to examine the relationship between psychology and climate change, two topics that weren’t readily connected for many APA members, let alone the broader climate science community.

“When I first thought about this, I had a limited range of what psychology could do,” Swim said. “I had no idea we’d end up with a 240-page report.” 

“Just as one might puzzle over the collapse of vanished regional civilizations like the Maya of Central America, the Anasazi of North America, the Norse of Greenland, and the people of Easter Island,” the report reads, “future generations may find it incomprehensible that people, particularly in industrialized countries, continued until well into the 21st century to engage in behavior that seriously compromised the habitability of their own countries and the planet.”

APA synopsis of Section 3: What are the psychosocial impacts of climate change?

Although they cannot be described with certainty given current research, the cumulative and interacting psychosocial effects of climate change are likely to be profound. Heat, extreme weather events, and increased competition for scarce environmental resources, compounded by preexisting inequalities and disproportionate impacts among groups and nations, will affect interpersonal and intergroup behavior and may result in increasing stress and anxiety. Even in the absence of direct impacts, the perception and fear of climate change may threaten mental health. However, there is reason to believe that positive consequences are also possible, as people take collective responsibility for a shared problem.

::: simply press image below to access report in full & pdf :::

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