At its Monday, September 23, meeting, the Vermont Climate Council reviewed public feedback from Vermonters about their experiences with climate impacts, which pointed heavily to the mental health implications of climate change.
Mad River Valley resident Alice Peal, who sits on the Waitsfield Planning Commission, participated in the conversation as a member of the Climate Council. Peal chairs a subcommittee called Rural Resilience and Adaptation.
The public feedback under review was collected by the state’s Climate Office, as part of a larger public engagement strategy.
Vermont Commissioner of Health Mark Levine said the public commentary conveyed that Vermonters have “a tremendous anxiety” about living during a time that’s inflicted by natural disasters, housing insecurity and the high costs of living – all of which intersect.
Levine said he sensed a lot of anger and frustration in the comments – due to perceptions of governmental institutions, as well as with the overall situation more generally.
Fear, anxiety, depression, confusion, a reduced sense of security: Climate Council members listed the emotional toll of climate events like flooding, or even the inability to spend time outdoors in certain parts of the state due to an increased risk of blood-borne pathogens transmitted by mosquitos.
The VDH also points to another emotional response – grief, which can ring especially true for people with emotional connections to their local environments. “For example,” the VDH writes on its website, “a lack of snow and ice cover in winter, or the presence of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) on Lake Champlain, can be depressing for those with nostalgic memories of earlier, more pristine versions of these environments.”
“Whether we give it a discreet DSM diagnosis like anxiety, or whether we just listen to people’s frustration – at times anger, and at other times just confusion about things, they’re not in a good place,” Levine said during the council’s meeting.
The relationship between the state and the public, in light of mounting mental health concerns, was a topic of concern at last week’s meeting.
Levine said he sensed a divide between what takes places in Climate Council meetings and what’s happening for Vermonters on the ground. He said the council could do better to clarify a message that the state is concerned with their struggles.
June Tierney, a member of the Climate Council and Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Service, agreed. She said she feels a disconnect between how the state is communicating about climate change and the immediacy of peoples’ experiences. While the council frames their efforts around “reducing emissions,” public commentary under review at the meeting showed that Vermonters are framing climate change solutions in very different ways, she said.
“When you’re going to reach people, or go to meet people where they are, you also have to be sure you speak their language. And I’m not sure we do.”
The council tends to leverage scientific data and expert forms of knowledge in their initiatives. At the September 23 meeting, the council also voted to amend the state’s Climate Action Plan to include a metric for estimating, in dollars, the economic damages that would result from emitting one additional ton of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in a given year – known as the “social cost of greenhouse gases.” This amendment follows new recommendations put out by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine last year.
These damages include potential losses in agricultural productivity, property damage, disruption of energy systems and negative human health effects. Fifteen states are now using this measurement in their planning, according to the council.
Peal said that a public health taskforce she sits on is working to identify health issues that are not yet included in the Climate Action Plan – a report written in 2021 that outlines steps to reduce the effects of climate change.
