Why calling extreme climate events ‘natural’ disasters is wrong

The release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report back in August triggered global headlines about humanity’s impact on global heating.

But one campaign group is urging people to assess the language they use when talking about wildfires, flooding and other extreme weather events.

With the consequences of global warming are increasingly evident around the world, the campaign for #NoNaturalDisasters is out to challenge the terminology surrounding these phenomena…READ ON

A Neuroscientist and Therapist Explain How Anxiety and Stress Negatively Impact Decision Making

Anyone who’s ever tried to make a seemingly simple choice while stressed or anxious likely knows that both emotional states can seriously hinder sound decision-making. In fact, you might agonize over a choice more than you normally would and still make a not-so-great call in the end. When you consider that stress and anxiety are biologically programmed to help us outrun predators and other threats, you’d think they’d work in favor of making good choices so we could, you know, survive on the savannah.

What, then, explains the link between anxiety, stress, and decision-making that’s not so great?  Below, Caroline Leaf, PhD—neuroscientist and Cleaning Up The Mental Mess author and NeuroCycle app founder—and Sage Grazer, LCSW, therapist and co-founder of mental health startup Frame, describe the ways in which stress and anxiety disrupt the decision-making process and advise on how you can ensure you’re making calls both large and small from a healthy, calm, and well-reasoned place…READ ON