Psychological responses, such as conflict avoidance, fear, helplessness, and resignation, are serious barriers to collective action to mitigate further global warming and to build resilience and adaptation strategies. The mental health impacts of the climate crisis have profound implications. Governments are seen as failing to respond adequately, leaving young people with “no future” and “humanity doomed.” That climate anxiety is not confined to the UK was confirmed very recently by the “largest and most international” survey of climate anxiety in young people aged 16 to 25 to date, which showed that the psychological (emotional, cognitive, social, and functional) burdens of climate change are “profoundly affecting huge numbers of these young people round the world.” Not surprisingly, respondents from countries in the “global south,” who may have experienced or observed climate change, expressed more worry and greater impact on functioning, but significant numbers from all countries reported feeling “very or extremely worried and that their feelings about climate change had affected their daily lives.” Furthermore, it is the first study to offer insights into how young people’s emotions are linked with their feelings of betrayal and abandonment by governments and adults. While the scale of this anxiety is unknown, it is likely to grow worldwide.Ī 2020 survey of child psychiatrists in England highlighted that more than half (57%) are seeing children and young people distressed about the climate crisis and the state of the environment. One study carried out in the US showed high levels of fear among respondents aged 27 to 45 about their offspring struggling through a climate apocalypse and the factoring in of climate change into their reproductive choices. Evidence points to a clear relation between experiencing climate change effects and the increased risks of depression, low mood, extreme mental distress, post-traumatic stress disorder, suicide, and further deterioration in those with a history of mental illness. ĭoes eco-anxiety matter when compared with the more familiar climate change impacts on physical health, such as heat-related stress, asthma and allergies, vector borne illness, and the health consequences of floods and droughts? The true burden of its costs and consequences has yet to be estimated but is likely to be significant and potentially damaging to individuals and society. Although not yet formally considered a diagnosable condition, recognition of eco-anxiety and its complex psychological responses is increasing, as is its disproportionate impacts on children, young people, and the communities with the least resources to overcome the adverse consequences of the climate crisis. Eco-anxiety is growing, and refers to the chronic fear of environmental doom probably first described in 2017 by the American Psychiatric Association. Described by the United Nations secretary general António Guterres as a “code red for humanity,” the report’s alarm bells were “deafeningly loud,” spelling out the irrefutable facts that “greenhouse gas emissions from fossil-fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk, and many of the changes are becoming irreversible.” įor the eco-anxious, more concerning than even this apocalyptic news is the extraordinary level of indifference and banality with which the climate crisis is treated by many others, including those in positions of influence. The world’s climate is changing in every region and across the whole climate system, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group confirmed in its report Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis in August 2021. Levels of eco-anxiety are growing, particularly among children and young people, and are likely to be significant and potentially damaging to individuals and society, warn Mala Rao and Richard A Powell
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