The climate crisis is political violence: What can Psychology do?

Abstract

The text seeks to reinterpret the climate crisis not merely as an environmental or technical issue, but as a form of political violence rooted in economic, social, and colonial structures that perpetuate historical inequalities. Dominant discourses frequently frame climate change as a primarily scientific or technological problem, thereby obscuring its foundations in structural injustice and asymmetrical power relations. Extractivist capitalism and colonial legacies have engendered structural violence against both the biosphere and the most vulnerable communities, particularly in the Global South. This violence is expressed through environmental degradation, the dispossession of territories and cultures, the deterioration of mental health, social exclusion, and the normalization of unsustainable lifestyles. Drawing on Martín-Baró’s liberation psychology, the text argues that the discipline must be repoliticized and take an active role in confronting this violence, moving beyond exclusively individualistic approaches—such as pathologizing collective emotions (e.g., eco-anxiety) or promoting recycling behaviors. Psychology, it suggests, should instead cultivate critical consciousness and foster collective action to transform the structural conditions that generate suffering.