As if the desolation of a Nordic November weren’t enough to spoil the mood of even the perkiest among us, hardly a day passes by without a new report reminding us of the dire state of our planet. The pre-COP avalanche of climate data and warnings is to be expected, of course, as concerned experts and activists are in a flurry to press upon the politicians about to convene in Dubai the urgency of climate action. “The world now only has a 14% chance of limiting warming to the 1.5oC goal,” predicts UNEP in its latest emissions gap report. IEA’s fresh-from-the-press findings put the world short of the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 scenario, even if governments’ climate-friendly pledges do get fulfilled. Not that fossil fuel-producing nations pay any heed to the warnings. They are still on a roll, planning for massive expansions. Meanwhile, most newspapers report about an ominous milestone the planet passed on Friday, as global temperature crossed the feared 2oC above a historic norm threshold.
No wonder climate anxiety is rapidly spreading beyond the at-risk groups of overly sensitive tree-huggers these days. So much so that Sweden’s public health authorities recently felt compelled to take action. For a while at least, those afflicted by fear of environmental doom in the southern region of Skåne could find, among articles on COVID, diabetes and other diseases, advice on how to cope with climate anxiety on the official public health service site, 1177.se. Describing the debilitating condition in some detail, the experts noted that whereas it does not usually require medical treatment, it can lead to mental health problems.
Their intentions were good, I suppose. Yet the reaction to the well-meaning website update was quite vehement. Apparently, treating climate anxiety as a medical condition did not go down well with the Swedish public. “The one who doesn’t get anxious when the world burns is the one who is really crazy,” wrote one paper. Another one called the Skåne initiative for ‘sanity washing’. And just like that, a mere week after publishing the article on 1177.se, it disappeared without a trace.
The question lingers, though. Is climate anxiety simply a natural reaction to an external threat that is, alas, very real, or do we need to think of it in terms of psychopathology? And when does the logical concern about climate change cease to be just a legitimate worry to turn into a paralysing anxiety instead?
In the past twenty years, scholars have discussed several different constructs that are related to climate anxiety, including ecological grief (feelings of longing or sadness based on observed changes in one’s ecosystem) and solastalgia (a feeling of nostalgia for one’s home environment and the way things used to be). Attempts to properly measure climate anxiety, however, have only recently started in earnest. Some studies from the US indicate that as many as 9% of Americans are unable to stop or control their worry about climate change and report feeling down, depressed, or hopeless for at least ‘several days’ out of the last two weeks because of global warming.
There is a catch, though. Climate anxiety tends to affect people who are already anxious about other things. Disentangling all these worries and examining each of them seems baffling for even the best among shrinks. Also, given that the existential threat to humanity posed by global warming is highly realistic, it might not be entirely appropriate for a cognitive behavioural therapist to challenge these particular worries.
That said, what can we do to prevent our eco-anxiety from turning into debilitating hopelessness and despair? Luckily, the experts seem to agree on the best course of action, which turns out to be just that: action. The “therapy” that appears to work best is collective action in a sustained manner. Engaging in a longer-term effort where you establish relationships working with other people and can see the fruits of your hard work in terms of actual changes is good for your mental health.
Let’s hope, therefore, that the convening parties about to descend on sunny Dubai will make the most of the upcoming climate anxiety therapy session. For the sake of the planet as well as our collective sanity.
