Internal and external climate (Edited)
“Τhere is a human capacity for good-natured cooperation that is simply not encouraged in modern society. That must change.” Carl Sagan
“My great fear is that, out of enormous human stupidity, all this knowledge that we have built up over the years will be destroyed in some way. We have the ability to prevent disasters on our planet, as long as we sow the seeds we need. Wouldn’t it be terrible for this hearth of consciousness that we have, this hearth of life that exists, to go out while it has the ability to survive? This scares me more. As far as climate change is concerned, is it not terrible, for the temporary gain of some countries, to condemn humanity to disaster while we can prevent it? Humans think about the short term and temporary gains, which, of course, in the long run are not gains, but a loss of their very existence. And this is a good answer to those who ask us why we are interested in physics or astronomy.” (From an interview with astrophysicist Pavlos Kastanas or Astronio in Lifo magazine)
“Fulfillment is like the climate rather than the weather. Over time, we can shift our inner climate toward greater wellbeing. Then, when the storms do come, they aren’t as severe” Rick Hanson
Skies of acrid smoke
Over the last eleven days or more extreme heat has engulfed Greece and temperatures have been breaking record. In some parts of the country the temperature has hit 47C (117F), while the ground temperature in the centre of Athens reached 55C. And then over the last eight days entire tracts of suburban forest around the capital went up in flames. Ash rained down in Athens, and was also, blown further away. By Saturday a huge blaze had burned through forests and houses towards Lake Marathon, which is Athens’ main reservoir, advancing up the slopes of Mount Parnitha, regarded as Athens’ last substantial “green lung”. . One official claimed that “These mountains around Athens are our life support……We’ve taken a huge step back. A vital part of our green infrastructure has gone. With all these trees no longer there, we’ll be faced with new climate conditions and have higher temperatures and likely floods in the metropolitan area of Athens for years to come.” The losses are multilevel. Forests and fields are a home to rich flora and fauna. The fires that have swept across the country and those of other countries around the world do not only burn down trees and houses, creating economic havoc, poverty and post traumatic responses to humans and animals, but also lead to countless innocent domesticated and wild animals to die horrific deaths.
But fires have not been raging around the capital of Greece only, but nationwide. The situation has been evaluated as without precedent in the country, both in the intensity and wide distribution of the wildfires (approximately 586 fire sites within a few days). Fires are still raging around the country as I write this bit today (9/8/2021), despite the effort of firefighters, the help sent to Greece from abroad, and the locals, who have been heroically battling the fires. Titles like “biblical destruction” and “apocalyptic scenes” populate news outlets. Watching the News causes visceral emotions and sensations. Politicians and experts are now finally talking about climate change suggesting that the exceptionally high temperatures have turned the country into a powder keg. Athens is the hottest capital in mainland Europe and meteorologists predict that annual mean temperatures across the Mediterranean will increase by up to 2C over the next three decades.
Further south in the Peloponnese peninsula, fires have destroyed large parts of several states and threatened ancient Olympia, the site where the Olympic flame is lit every four years. On Evia, the island east of the capital, where fires have also rampaged across rugged woodland, firefighters and residents are still fighting a titanic battle to contain the fire and bring it under control. So far, at least 888,280 acres of land have been reduced to ashes throughout the country, according to data from the Department of Geology and Geoenvironment of the University of Athens. According to the data of the European satellite system “Copernicus” (EFFIS) in Evia, the burned area is estimated at 507,950 acres, while it is anticipated that it could even reach 700,000 acres. This is the biggest disaster of all time in Greece from a single fire. Evia is one of the bigger Greek islands linked to the mainland with a bridge. It is not very prosperous and the economy is heavily based on agriculture and tourism. Its biggest asset was its natural beauty: forests, farmland and beaches. The video below on YouTube captures part of the devastation that had taken place a few days ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tecyCKXwNPw&t=400s..
PTSD and natural disasters
Here on the Cycladic island where I reside the sea has provided a cool respite from the heat wave this week. The evening scarlet sun in the sky is surrounded by a smoke like fog. The smoke has been visible in the sky for days and it’s not easy to get away from the reality of what is going on in other parts of the country and the world. I think of what keeps us from responding collectively to the levels of earth destruction that has been taking place for decades. Is it simply that we are apathetic when it comes to issues like climate change? Is it ignorance, disbelief and indifference, or are we also, so overwhelmed by existential fears about the future and a sense of powerlessness that we become immobilized? On a personal level, denial or apathy might sometimes be a skillful psychological response, but collectively we need to allow our grief and fear to motivate and mobilize us.
The more I read and watch things revenant to the fires the more I think of the immediate, but also long term effects on people’s lives: financial and livelihood issues, work prospects, forced dislocation, abandonment of homes and farmland, loss of property, and something that is often not discussed at all – post traumatic responses created by natural disasters. Disasters are traumatic events that can result in a wide range of mental and physical health consequences. Those who experience natural disasters: floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, fires, volcano eruptions, etc, are at risk of developing post-traumatic stress symptomatology. This can manifest itself as recurring flashbacks or nightmares, fearfulness, anxiety, depression, irritability, headaches, nausea or trembling, sleep difficulties or eating issues, chest pain, avoidance, withdrawal, difficulty making decisions, and other health issues, among other symptoms. Research conducted after disasters in the past three decades suggests that the burden of PTSD among people exposed to disasters is substantial. In one paper I looked at it was claimed that research that looked at PTSD survivors between 1980 and 2007 found that those who were the direct victims of disasters were 30% to 40% more likely to have PTSD, compared with the average of 5% to 19% in the general population. There have also been observations of suicide increase after large scale disasters like hurricanes.
Psychosocial stressors associated with the natural disaster are present both immediately after the event, but also as time progresses, intensifying when help isn’t available. While we may initially disassociate ourselves from what is happening and provide heroic efforts, both of which can serve as protective factors, eventually the reality of the destruction and its aftermath do set in and this can create feelings of hopelessness, helplessness and disillusionment. Also, post-disaster PTSD is associated with a range of correlates including socio demographic and background factors, event exposure characteristics, personality traits and social support factors. Various factors can affect how likely it is that an individual would get PTSD, including the degree of physical injury they incurred, the immediate risk it posed to their own life or the life of loved ones, the severity of destruction to their property, whether they experienced loss of family members and whether they were forced to relocate.
The risk of our civilization destroying itself
I also think of how we have as a species, despite our capacity to accomplish unbelievably complex and wonderful things, somehow managed to arrive at this place of indifference, harsh exploitation of and disconnect from planet earth, the home that sustains us all. How did we get so disconnected from the simple truth that we are all part of, and also, heavily dependent on our natural environment?
In relation to our human capacity to cause destruction the scientist Carl Sagan (you can read the whole interview at: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/the-cosmos-an-interview-with-carl-sagan-236668/) says: “Sixth-century Ionia was, to the best of my knowledge, the first time there was a generally accepted view that the universe was subject not to the whims and vagaries of the gods, but to generally applicable laws of nature that human beings were able to understand. There’s a serious danger of our civilization destroying itself. It wasn’t until the 1960s that the first photograph of the whole earth was taken, and you saw it for the first time as a tiny blue ball floating in space. You realized that there were other, similar worlds far away, of different size, different color and constitution. You got the idea that our planet was just one in a multitude. I think there are two apparently contradictory and still very powerful benefits of that cosmic perspective—the sense of our planet as one in a vast number and the sense of our planet as a place whose destiny depends on us.”
He continues: “Life has had 4 billion years to develop through tortuous trial and error. But unlike biological evolution, which is fundamentally a random process and extremely wasteful in terms of lots of organisms dying, we don’t have that opportunity. If we destroy ourselves, it may be a minor tragedy for life on the planet, but it’s certainly a major tragedy for us. So we have to foresee the mistakes and avoid them. We can’t stumble and then say. “I guess next time stockpiling 15,000 targeted nuclear warheads is not a good thing. I’ve learned from my mistake.” I think there’s a serious danger of our civilization destroying itself, and at least a possibility of our species destroying itself. But the destruction of all life on earth is unlikely, and certainly we can’t destroy the planet. There’s a hierarchy of destructibility.”
Relatedness and connectedness of all universal material
On relatedness he says: “The matter we’re made out of was cooked in the center of stars. We’re made of star stuff—the calcium in our teeth, the carbon in our genes, the nitrogen in our hair, the silicon in our eyeglasses. Those atoms were all made from simpler atoms in stars hundreds of light-years away and billions of years ago. It’s an astonishing thing, we’re so tied to the rest of the cosmos. Cosmic rays that are produced in the death throes of stars are partly responsible for the mutations that have led to us—the changes in the genetic material. The origin of life was spurred by ultraviolet light from the sun and lightning, which in turn is caused by the heating of the earth by the sun. The connections are intricate and powerful and lovely. For those people seeking a cosmic tie-in, one exists. It’s not the one the astrologers pretend, but it’s much more elegant, and it has the additional virtue of being true…..
People certainly love their families, then distant relations, then friends; then they have some degree of affection for their community, their tribe. One principal level of human identification right now is with the nation-state. Now, the obvious next identification is with all the people on the planet. But why is that the end? I mean, especially if we understand our common heritage, our genetic relationship to animals and plants. Why not a set of absolutely continuous dissolves, one animal to another? Don’t we have some degree of sympathy and respect for all the living things on the planet? They are our cousins. It’s such an obvious idea…….. It’s the time perspective point again. Most of human history was spent in hunter-gatherer communities. And in these kinds of communities today—there aren’t many of them—you find a degree of cooperativeness, an absence of alienation that is unheard of in modern society. To ignore our social heredity is a serious mistake. There is a human capacity for good-natured cooperation that is simply not encouraged in modern society. That must change.”
Fulfillment is like the climate rather than the weather
Finally, I’d like to share a new episode of the Wellbeing podcast (https://www.rickhanson.net/being-well-podcast-finding-and-maintaining-fulfillment/), on which Forrest Hanson and his dad, Dr Rick Hanson, discuss fulfillment, which they define as the inner “climate” rather than the “weather”. The basic themes they touch upon are: authentic fulfillment in the self-help space; the tyranny of low expectations, but also the pitfalls of constantly chasing fulfillment; the difference between eudemonic and hedonic wellbeing; the importance of nature, individual variation, and circumstance; the upper reaches of possibility; dealing with “low fulfillment” moments and existential dread, and finding meaning and carrying on.