Climate change is upon us, and we can’t run away from it or dismiss it any longer. Temperatures are increasing, glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, and droughts and wildfires are becoming more frequent and damaging. More species are on the verge of extinction, and people are being forced to flee their homes and relocate elsewhere. We are constantly being bombarded by stories of tragic events like these occurring across the world and some of us even have personally experienced the repercussions of global warming. It is impossible to ignore or deny the predicament we are all in. But how do we, as individuals, react to these stories? And what impact can these have on our mental health?
Caroline Hickman, a “climate aware” psychotherapist, scholar and lecturer at the University of Bath, has been researching what influence the climate and ecological crisis have on mental health. Caroline has spent a vast number of years studying children and young people's relationships with the environment as well as their thoughts on the climate and biodiversity crisis. She conducted numerous studies with children and young people from different backgrounds, cultures and nationalities such as British, Brazilians, Americans, Maldivians, Nigerians, and Bangladeshis.
What Caroline found during her research is that children and young people are now suffering from symptoms of anxiety much more often than ever before. Symptoms such as feeling tense or nervous and having a sense of impending danger, panic or doom. The cause for this anxiety is none other than climate change and global warming and it is formerly known as eco-anxiety.
“Eco-anxiety is not a new phenomenon” Caroline explains “but it is increasing rapidly. Previously, people would feel this anxiety if they were working in conservation, environmentalism, and climate science. That’s now coming to the public domain much more, so people are becoming more and more aware and because things are getting worse.”
We can't help but believe that combating climate change is impossible. It might feel like it's inescapable at times, and that any effort we make as individuals is completely futile. We can't help but feel accountable for the extent to which we have degraded our world, as well as for how careless and callous some of our actions have been. As a result, we feel helpless, guilty, and afraid. Eco-anxiety might be triggered by these sensations.
Caroline goes on to explain: “It’s the anxiety that we feel when we think about what’s happening to the environment, and we feel threatened, and we feel our safety and the safety of other people all around us, our way of life and our security is being threatened.”
In the last decade, carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and cement have increased by 10%, the global average temperature has increased to over 1.1 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. Consequently, glaciers are losing enormous amounts of mass every year causing sea levels to rise 1.6 inches over the last decade.
So, it is only natural that the younger generation feels more threatened and scared because they are the ones who are going to live through the real and unimaginable effects of this ecological crisis. They are the ones who have a very strong understanding and awareness of the imminent danger that can and probably will jeopardize their future.
This anxiety is a healthy and normal response. Eco-anxiety is extremely common, especially among younger people, but everyone has a different way to cope with it. Caroline describes the way people use to cope with this kind of anxiety as “fight, flight, freeze”.
This expression usually relates to our body’s natural response when facing immediate danger. This is a stress response that happens when we see a bear or a lion. Climate change might not be as immediate as a dangerous animal lunching at you, but it is something that is currently happening and at any moment we can be victims of it.
The most common stress response is “flight”. Unfortunately, we cannot physically escape the predicament we are in, but we can, in a way, escape it psychologically. And we do so, by either dismissing the issue by claiming it is “not real” or “not as bad as people think”, by ignoring it and continuing with our lives or by simply accepting the fact that there is nothing that can be done, and we might as well accept our fate.
The constant anticipation of a cataclysm can be overwhelming and frightening for some people, and it can worsen the symptoms of anxiety. The feelings of uneasiness, worry and fear of imminent danger can lead to crippling depression. This inability to cope with this enormous pressure is known as “freeze”.
Anxiety over the environment isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In actuality, you should feel anxious because it is, indeed, an imminent threat we are currently facing, and we should choose to “fight”. Taking action and talking to people about your concerns is the most healthy and effective way to deal with symptoms of anxiety.
These complicated feelings often come around in cycles. Sometimes, you may feel compelled to act by recycling, volunteering, donating or something else. Other times the sheer scale of this issue can be too overwhelming to deal with. And often, what happens is you will get too wrapped up in the stress of your own daily life that you forget to care about the future and the environment altogether.
Your fear and your guilt should be your biggest motivation to act now. There are several ways in which you can make a difference regardless of how small and insignificant it might seem. You can become an activist and protest against governments and multinational companies. Or you can choose to volunteer with a non-profit organisation or a cause that you find appealing.
There are more and more young people coming together to fight against climate change by protesting against governments and raising awareness. 6 teens climate activists from Portugal are suing 33 European countries, including their own, to force them to cut down emissions. They argue that climate change risks their future lives and violates their human rights. Greta Thunberg is another great example of a young activist making real changes. The Swedish teenager who became famous around the world for creating the “School Strike for Climate”. She said famously “No one is too small to make a difference”.
“Young people haven’t become numb to injustice” Claire adds: “A lot of young people are still frustrated by this injustice and the fact that it’s their future”
You shouldn’t be ashamed to feel eco-anxiety. You should feel proud. After all, you only feel this way because you care so why not be proud of it? Claire concludes “why not rename it
and call it eco-compassionate or eco-empathy instead? That way you can turn that feeling of concern into a collective action which has a productive use in the world.”