It’s no wonder why “climate anxiety” is becoming a household name.
Everyone from academics to Instagrammers is publishing papers andsharing postson the topic.
There’s even a call to measure and standardize it.
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“This anxiety can be paralyzing, leading to inaction.
What Is Climate Anxiety?
Also referred to as eco-anxiety, climate distress, and climate change anxiety.
It describes anxiety “related to the global climate crisis and the threat of environmental disaster.”
What would that social justice look like?
Ray says it starts with recognizing how racism and oppression are intertwined with climate change.
Why Anxiety, Not Action?
In the end, the implications of it all can seem insurmountable, even hopeless.
The tendency for institutions such as government and industry to resist change doesn’t help, either.
Examples of environmental injustice abound.
But pessimism can actually hurt efforts for change.
“The way climate change is talked about, even at a very young age, is so damaging.
It itself is part of the problem.”
But when anxiety becomes maladaptive, it can get in the way of these very things.
She’s seen how climate anxiety results in regressive, authoritarian, or isolationist responses that can do harm.
“Many people are using the climate as another excuse for closing borders,” she says.
“We cant fight climate change with more racism,” she writes.
We need to channel grief toward collective liberation.”
“Will the climate-anxious recognize their role in displacing people from around the globe?
… How can we ensure that climate anxiety is harnessed for climatejustice?”
There are groups to support, sustainability habits to practice, and conversations to have.
But perhaps the stepping stone to reducing climate anxiety, she writes, is to start asking different questions.
“Instead of asking ‘What can I do to stop feeling so anxious?
‘, ‘What can I do to save the planet?’
and ‘What hope is there?
‘, people with privilege can be asking ‘Who am I?’
and ‘How am I connected to all of this?'”
The answers, she says.
will show us how we are all interconnected on this planet.
National Institute of Mental Health.Anxiety Disorders.
Scientific American.Climate Anxiety Is an Overwhelmingly White Phenomenon.
United States Environmental Protection Agency.Environmental Justice.
