“Facing Extinction.” This slogan was printed on the shirt I was handed upon arriving at a local pre–UN Climate Change Summit strike. I, like many other Americans, attended a local rally to demonstrate my support of my city’s green participation as well as my individual contribution to environmental activism.
However, I began to ponder the statement’s broad implications. Yes, it was likely referring to the 200 species dying daily from the repercussions of temperatures exceeding the relatively “safe” limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius. It could also have been referring to coral bleaching and coral’s vanishing “chance of recovery” as described by NASA [1], and the domino effect impacting other species as a result of this loss of ocean habitat. It could also have been referring to the wildfire destruction of the Amazon rainforest or the melting of the polar ice caps. Whatever we choose to define climate change by, the message remains clear: eventually, even humanity will suffer grave consequences in this final epoch of the sixth mass extinction.
I was suddenly struck by acute anxiety. The expression depicted on the shirt was no innocent fable; it was a reality. The small kindergartener sitting upon his father’s shoulders was proudly sporting the slogan of an uncertain future filled with certain danger. The poignancy of this realization hit me hard, but I was convinced I was not the only one affected.
As more citizens around the world begin observing and acknowledging the effects of climate change, the mental and psychological impacts of this realization are steadily seeping into everyday life. Recently, psychologists have coined the term “eco-anxiety” to express the prevalent societal and individual fear for the environment. According to what the Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA) told The Daily Telegraph, it cannot be classified as a “mental illness because, unlike standard anxiety, the cause of the worry is ‘rational ‘” [2].
Accountability, powerlessness, and terror for the future of climate-annihilation accumulate to create this phenomenon. Molly S. Castelloe Ph.D. explained in Psychology Today that “Beneath our disassociation and denial of changing climate is fear, perhaps guilt for our own carbon footprint, even a sense of apocalyptic dread” [3].
Furthermore, according to youth counselor Yvette Addo in The Huffington Post UK, adolescents are particularly susceptible to this rational fear. Addo explains that her young clients “Have a massively burdened sense of responsibility for our future.” These children feel “powerless, resentful, unheard and largely fearful” when facing the petrifying threats of climate climate and consequently experience constant anxiety regarding the state of their planet [4].
Greta Thunberg, currently a youth leader in climate activism, mentioned in a Stockholm TEDx talk that after she discovered the reality of climate change when she was eight, she was deeply perturbed that “No one ever talked about it [the future of our environment and survival]” [5]. When Thunberg was eleven, she became severely ill and suffered from an eating disorder because of her apprehension regarding the international community’s lack of action against environmental issues such as humanity’s pernicious dependence on fossil fuels. These symptoms can be reasonably labeled as eco-anxiety, which is characterized by “Panic attacks, obsessive thinking, loss of appetite, and insomnia,” as stated by Castelloe.
On the other hand, although people may be tormented by eco-anxiety through emotional turmoil, not everyone is comfortable with directly confronting their environmental concerns. Instead, Castolloe explains that some individuals attempt to avoid this issue by “Emotionally disassociating from the suffering we inflict on the environment, meaning [they] separate psychic cluster of feelings related to global warming and create an amnesia barrier in order to alleviate mental distress.” Castelloe also warns that “to disassociate is to split consciousness.” In other words, to ignore the psychological impact wrought by the ecological and societal changes caused by climate change is to leave out the indispensable key to the recognition of this anxiety. However, the combination of visible environmental warming and disasters, climate-denying politicians and authors, and the time limit is admittedly a daunting burden that many would prefer to avoid.
Similar to the emotional dissociation, approaches such as Jonathan Franzen’s “hopeless” mindset, exponentially worsen the mental climate crisis. He argues that the indulgences of the population aren’t likely to disappear despite any effort to suppress them; therefore, we must concentrate our hopes on something other than climate change prevention. He recommends accepting our fate by merely preparing for the increased numbers of wildfires, hurricanes, and the other effects of our misconducts [6].
An attitude like Franzen’s that revolves around the idea that human nature won’t be “fundamentally changing anytime soon” results in the feeling of futility, fanning the flames of powerlessness, which in turn propagates anxiety. As stated by Bina Venkataraman from The Washington Post, Franzen’s cynicism and negativity towards climate hope is “more dangerous than denial,” presumably because of the concern that the majority of Americans that are now believers may become fatalistic [7].
On the other end of the climate opinion spectrum are the deniers who live in a fantastical world, unperturbed by the visible symptoms of climate change. While searching for answers to the question of why so many Americans are not “convinced that emissions from human activities bear responsibility” for climate change, California’s Governor’s Office of Planning and Research claimed that many deniers shared common traits. They either had “little or no expertise in climate science,” or they succumbed to an economic bribe from “industries with a financial interest in ignoring climate change” [8]. This “ignorance is bliss” coping mechanism is also apparent within America’s leaders. Oklahoma Republican ex-Senator Jim Inhofe stated, “With all the hysteria, all the fear, all the phony science, could it be that manmade global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people?” Later, he answered, “I believe it is.” Unsurprisingly, according to Before the Flood, Inhofe received “over $2 million in political contributions from the fossil fuel industry” [9].
The fight for a greener society, cleaner air, and controlled temperatures for the sake of our planet may seem bleak, but yielding to negativity and despair will only exacerbate the issue at hand. Therefore, society must encourage climate activism without shifting towards eco-anxiety, apathy, hopelessness, or denial. In an increasingly divided world, hopefully the nations of the world can unite for the common goal of protecting our planet as well as future generations.
[1] Bob Silberg, “Why a Half-Degree Temperature Rise Is a Big Deal,” NASA, June 29, 2016, https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2458/why-a-half-degree-temperature-rise-is-a-big-deal/.
[2] Henry Bodkin, “Parents Told Not to Terrify Children over Climate Change as Rising Numbers Treated for 'Eco-Anxiety',” The Telegraph, September 15, 2019, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/15/parents-told-not-terrify-children-climate-change-rising-numbers/.
[3] Molly Castelloe, “Coming to Terms With Ecoanxiety,” Psychology Today, January 9, 2018, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-me-in-we/201801/coming-terms-ecoanxiety.
[4] Natasha Hinde, “Climate Strike 2019: How To Deal With Eco-Anxiety,” Huffington Post, September 20, 2019, https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/eco-anxiety-climate-change_uk_5d7f7c1ce4b03b5fc886cc16?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHpKYsvRgswQOoLL4cAmvxkoEdjO_hrImzIgR12DBJ3BUwr6CYwt9rGA5Zy0vHEcSDL2p5e5zmLMVqT_jgEZ9Ow1npm-giLcatz9zbggp472H1NyF7PzUk3008VqA19yRA60V_V-poK3htXdZmwqKW_qcVu9-S2dBWq1c1AUxkJI.
[5] Greta Thunberg, “The Disarming Case to Act Right Now on Climate Change,” TED, November 2018, https://www.ted.com/talks/greta_thunberg_the_disarming_case_to_act_right_now_on_climate?language=en.
[6] Jonathan Franzen, “What If We Stopped Pretending the Climate Apocalypse Can Be Stopped?,” The New Yorker, September 8, 2019, https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/what-if-we-stopped-pretending.
[7] Bina Venkataraman, “Why We Still Need Climate Optimism?,” The Washington Post, September 16, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/09/16/why-we-still-need-climate-optimism/.
[8] “Who Are the Deniers?,” Governor's Office of Planning and Research, http://opr.ca.gov/facts/the-deniers.html.
[9] Brendan DeMelle, “Top 10 Climate Deniers,” Before the Flood, October 21, 2016, https://www.beforetheflood.com/explore/the-deniers/top-10-climate-deniers/.
