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Chronic climate anxiety. A Potsdam research associate writes how she copes with the psychological despair and distress she suffers because of her perceived approaching climate catastrophe.

Distressed Potsdam IASS research associate Irene Müller. Image cropped from: IASS.

Over at the blog site of the Potsdam Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), research associate Irene Müller writes in an essay titled “How climate scientists feel”:

A catastrophe is rolling our way. A catastrophe that mankind could prevent, and we aren’t succeeding in changing our selfish lifestyles which are partly responsible for this catastrophe.”

Potsdam: hotbed of hotheads

Readers first should note that over the past decades, Potsdam-Germany has become a hot-bed for climate hot-heads, ultra-alarmist institutes and hysteria concerning the future of the planet.

The East German city is also home to the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), which until just recently was headed by Prof. Hans-Joachim Schellnhuber. It also is the workplace for climate alarmism hothead Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf.

All climate scientists working in Potsdam are convinced that climate change is mostly man-made and will soon be lethal. They also believe the vivid visions of a planetary collapse that their models routinely produce. In Potsdam there are neither skeptic scientists, nor lukewarmers – there are only the white-hot alarmist ones.

Their task: produce dramatic and alarmist future climate scenarios.

Aim: German energy purity

And to help implement the long-shot rescue from the claimed coming climate Armageddon, the German government has set up the Potsdam Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, mentioned above. It will assist in ushering Prof. Schellnhuber’s masterplan for the “Great Transformation” of society – worldwide.

The aim of The Great Transformation is to end mankind’s “fossil-fuel metabolism” and to transition it to one of energy purity.

Convinced planet rapidly going to hell

In her IASS blog essay, Ms. Müller writes: “We’ve known for many years that man-made emissions cause climate change. Moreover the number of jet flights is increasing steadily.” Even worse: “In addition to air traffic, also the consumption of goods, automobile traffic and emissions” are rising as well.

All the capitalistic profligacy, she says, means “there will be more storms, and they will be more violent, and that they are coming sooner.” As evidence of this she cites a single tornado that was spotted last May in Germany. Sadly, this is the education level one needs in order to attain a masters degree in Germany.

Ms. Müller earned her masters degree in Sustainability, Society and the Environment from CAU Kiel, Germany, and holds a bachelor in Social Sciences from the Humboldt University Berlin.

Müller then writes there is going to be more heavy rains, flooding, destroyed homes, poor harvests, refugees, droughts, political conflicts, species extinctions, pollution, poisons, pesticides and herbicides and lost ecosystems. She’s convinced the planet is about to collapse.

Coping through meditation, deep breathing

Ms. Müller blames modern society, mainly consumerism and the unending quest for profit, for all the perceived destruction:

This development, narrow-mindedness makes me sad. And angry. Dissatisfied. Crazy! Unhappy!

How does the Potsdam researcher deal with her despair? She writes she tries to distract herself through her work, free time activities, and by practicing deep breathing.

And I’m learning meditation in order to cope with my stress and the conflicts I face. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in.”

Vegetarian diet, no flying, mends her clothes

Müller comments that she expends much effort to protect the climate: “I don’t fly. I eat vegetarian, I mend my clothes, buy fair.” She also does her utmost “to live ‘correctly’, and as climate and environmentally friendly as possible, but it is sometimes pretty darn difficult.”

Later in her essay Müller admits her post is “not purely scientific” and that it describes her “reaction to the perceived scientific facts and observed realities.”

Taxes and restrictions as a solution

The Potsdam researcher proposes high taxes on jet fuel, a vast network of high-speed bicycle paths, doing away with the privilege of company cars and limiting advertising (so that people will be less inclined to buy things).

She says that privileged people living at the expense of the less privileged makes her “angry”.

Vision: Norway as “a green battery for Europe”

For her master’s thesis, according to Müller’s profile, she investigated “narratives in the Norwegian debate around ‘Norway as a green battery’ for Europe”.

Hysterical rantings “part of the problem”

Müller’s hyperventilated ranting was too much for Spiegel science journalist Axel Bojanowski. From the standpoint of climate change and what to do about it, the Spiegel journalist commented about her rant at Twitter here: “Here such essays are part of the problem.”

Master-antimaster

In honesty, Ms. Müller is not really to blame for her distress and despair because she is merely the product of a seriously broken higher education system. Her master’s degree is in fact an anti-master. In her essay she is only regurgitating the Gospel and Dogma put out by the self-anointed Prophets of Potsdam, who run the place and forbid dissent of any kind.

She’s an unfortunate, unwitting prisoner of a cult-like complex, and it’s really sad to see young talent end up like this.

Ms. Müller and the IASS really could consider translating the German text into English, so that the whole world could get a good laugh from it, yet at the same time pause for a moment to reflect where this self-inflicted, echo-chamber-induced hysteria risks taking us. No, it won’t be a green paradise. Quite to the contrary.