Eco-Anxiety: Friend or Foe?
This week, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a new report on the state of climate science. Clocking in at nearly 4,000 pages long and citing around 14,000 studies, it paints a grim picture of what is on the horizon for humanity and our planet.
Writing with a level of certainty generally uncharacteristic of scientists, the authors of the report state that it is “unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land.” They also argue that recent extreme weather events around the world can indeed be linked to climate change, and that these events will only become more frequent in the coming years unless carbon emissions decrease—and fast. UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called the findings “a code red for humanity.”1 In short: climate change is here, humans are responsible, and urgent action needs to be taken in order to avoid more dire consequences.
Against a backdrop of heatwaves, forest fires, and flash-floods occurring around the globe, it is becoming clear that in addition to the impact these catastrophes have on our physical health, they are also taking a large toll on our mental health. Needless to say, natural disasters have acute psychological consequences for people who experience them firsthand, including trauma, shock, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). After Hurricane Katrina, for instance, suicide and suicidal ideation more than doubled in affected communities, over 16% of survivors met the criteria for PTSD, and nearly half of them developed an anxiety or mood disorder.2 As the frequency of extreme weather events rises, so will the prevalence of these symptoms.
More recently, however, researchers (and therapists) have also seen a rise in a different kind of climate-related anguish. Eco-anxiety, defined as chronic fear of environmental doom, is being witnessed both in people who have been directly impacted by climate change and those who are more removed, but still concerned about the current state of climate (in)action and the future of the environment.
Amidst this rise in mental distress, one open question is whether increasing levels of eco-anxiety could come with a silver lining: spurring us to take action on emissions. Researchers are currently attempting to determine whether this emotional response is advantageous or mostly harmful, and what variables can make the former outcome more likely. Although research in this field is still in its early stages, few would dispute that this topic is of the utmost importance.
References
- Root, T. (2021, August 10). Five key excerpts from the United Nations’ climate change report. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/08/10/ipcc-report-un-takeaways/
- Clayton, S., Manning, C. M., Krygsman, K., & Speiser, M. (2017). Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impacts, Implications, and Guidance. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2017/03/mental-health-climate.pdf
- American Psychological Association. (2020, February 6). Majority of US adults believe climate change is most important issue today. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2020/02/climate-change.
- Verplanken, B., Marks, E., & Dobromir, A. I. (2020). On the nature of eco-anxiety: How constructive or unconstructive is habitual worry about global warming? Journal of Environmental Psychology, 72, 101528. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101528
- Stanley, S. K., Hogg, T. L., Leviston, Z., & Walker, I. (2021). From anger to action: Differential impacts of eco-anxiety, eco-depression, and eco-anger on climate action and wellbeing. The Journal of Climate Change and Health, 1, 100003. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joclim.2021.100003
- American Psychological Association. (2021). Speaking of Psychology: How to cope with climate anxiety, with Thomas Doherty, PsyD, and Ashlee Cunsolo, PhD. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/research/action/speaking-of-psychology/eco-anxiety.
- Cunsolo, A., Harper, S. L., Minor, K., Hayes, K., Williams, K. G., & Howard, C. (2020). Ecological grief and anxiety: The start of a healthy response to climate change? The Lancet Planetary Health, 4(7). https://doi.org/10.1016/s2542-5196(20)30144-3
- Cunsolo, A., & Ellis, N. R. (2018). Ecological grief as a mental health response to climate change-related loss. Nature Climate Change, 8(4), 275–281. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0092-2
- Wray, B. (2021, June 9). Recap: Why activism isn’t *really* the cure for eco-anxiety and eco-grief. Gen Dread. https://gendread.substack.com/p/recap-why-activism-isnt-really-the.
- Hamilton, J. (2020). Emotional methodologies for climate change engagement: Towards an understanding of emotion in civil Society Organisation (cso)-public engagements in the UK (PhD thesis).
About the Author
Maria Fomina
Maria is a Summer Associate at The Decision Lab whose main interests lie at the intersections of health and behavioral science. She has recently completed an undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto, majoring in global health and psychology, and minoring in immunology. Before joining TDL, Maria helped start Doctrina, the educational program of Pendance film festival. In her free time, she does translations for the Rylkov Foundation for Health and Social Justice, an NGO promoting a humane drug policy in Russia.
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