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<\/div>Eco-anxiety is a rational response to ecological breakdown<\/p>\n
Peter Summers\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
WILDFIRES, floods, droughts \u2013 over the past few years, more and more extreme weather events and natural disasters have been attributed to climate change. And things are only predicted to get worse.<\/p>\n
Given this apocalyptic outlook, it is hardly surprising that some people feel overwhelmed by anxiety about our prospective future. But how widespread is this eco-anxiety, and what can we do to overcome it?<\/p>\n
There is no formal definition of eco-anxiety, also sometimes called climate anxiety. The Climate Psychology Alliance<\/a> \u2013 a collection of therapists and researchers interested in the psychological impact of the climate crisis \u2013 describes it as \u201cheightened emotional, mental or somatic [bodily] distress in response to dangerous changes in the climate system\u201d.<\/p>\n It is the anxiety that keeps on giving. \u201cWith ordinary anxiety, the expectation is that with some form of intervention, some form of support, you will recover,\u201d says Caroline Hickman<\/a>, an eco-anxiety specialist at the University of Bath, UK. \u201cBut the thing about eco-anxiety is that it is unresolvable, because the eco-crisis is not being resolved.\u201d<\/p>\n The label \u201canxiety\u201d is overly narrow, says Hickman. \u201cWe use it as an umbrella term to describe a range of emotional responses to environmental breakdown, which includes fear, grief, rage, despair, sadness and hopelessness.\u201d For that reason, some have tried to rebrand it as \u201ceco-distress\u201d, but even that seems inadequate, says Hickman. \u201cI think we should call it \u2018climate terror\u2019 or \u2018climate oh-my-fucking-god\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n Recent research suggests that\u2026<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nIncrease in eco-anxiety<\/h2>\n