When feelings met climate change
Today we’re exploring an interesting intersection - climate x psychology
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Explain like I’m a memer
Braving the 48-hour rollercoaster of the Drake Passage, on sea-sickness drugs, during my voyage to Antarctica last year, I struck conversations with co-passengers from 37 nations trying to understand what really drove us all nuts to voluntarily go head first in one of the roughest waters in the world1.
“....I felt helpless while I experienced eco-anxiety…”, said someone from the UK on the ship. “Sorry, what… ego-anxiety?” I wondered. Is the world running out of first-world problems to develop whimsical anxieties now, was my follow on thought. After I figured it wasn’t ego-anxiety but eco-anxiety, I enquired what it meant.
“An elite, first-world problem for sure”, I said to myself.
No doubt my knowledge about climate change and its intersections was only superficial, at best.
But as I’ve delved deeper, one thing has become certain - climate change is all pervasive. Hence, I found merit in exploring the different aspects of life it affects, beginning with, arguably, the most complex - human psychology.
Let’s get started with figuring out what my friend from the UK was feeling.
What is eco-anxiety2?
A feeling of being doomed by climate change.
It is a feeling of distress caused by the thought of climate change and its catastrophic effects on everyday life, landscape and ultimate survival. It is not the same as feeling generally worried or concerned; it’s an exponentially heightened version powered by fear of a nearer end of life. Climate anxiety is often accompanied by a feeling of helplessness. It can manifest
mentally as disturbing thoughts & visualizations such as an extreme heatwave wiping off life from Earth or a flood destroying homes and livelihoods,
physiologically as shortness of breath or a high heart rate, and
behaviourally as changes in social relationships or approach to work & life.
Welcome, Climate Doomers.
Trivia: Google searches for “climate anxiety” soared by 565% in 20213
What causes this anxiety?
Mass distribution of fear through a continuous media stream instead of a constructive narrative.
As I wrote in my first post, mainstream narratives on climate change are strictly doom and gloom so much so that they have already affected how we instantly visualize this phenomenon - a dystopian world! While there’s no denying that climate change is a serious matter and a potential crisis if not tended to now, there’s been a lack of constructive information dissemination. Media outlets have chosen to feed off our fears through sensational headlines and reports which talk about the problems (heat waves, floods, fires), grim scenarios (Amazon forest wipe out, death of coral reefs, ice-free Arctic) and context-lacking stitched information. Take this headline from The Guardian for example - We have 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe, warns UN. This statement misleads people into thinking that it’s 12 years or nothing (remember the hoax of the world ending in 2012?). The reality of this piece of information was that as per a UN report, scientists estimated 12 years of outer limit for corrective action for the best case climate scenario. No surprise, many people I know have stopped consuming the news.
What mindset shifts and behavioural changes can climate doom cause?
The feeling of being doomed engages a strong sense of powerlessness.
Eco-anxiety could be thought of as a loop of (over)thinking and spiraling into a state of paralysis. With fear riding high, there’s no sight of hope reinforcing the belief that no amount of action can ever make things better4. Hence, no incentive for climate action which pushes the Climate Doomers into inaction.
Taking the above idea further, it may be safe to say that Climate Doomers, especially the younger ones, are more likely to have a conflicted relationship with the idea of a ‘future’ which directly affects their present choices and actions - education, skill building, relationships, gratitude, kindness…”Is there even a point in going to college?” I have personally come across some who believe there’s no point in reproducing given how grim the future looks, or rather for the lack of any ‘real’ future. Studies have also linked the stress caused by anxiety to violence and criminal activity5.
Some Climate Doomers also believe that official studies by experts on climate change downplay the harsh reality by a large measure, hence, any content coming from them is misleading.
Who is the most affected?
People who experience climate change first hand are the most vulnerable to eco-anxiety since it is easier for them to ‘validate’ the grimness of climate change which inturn induces tangible fear. In an extreme case of eco-anxiety, an Australian teenager who saw the effects of drought where he lived, refused to drink water to avoid contributing to it6.
Among those who may otherwise be privileged to not experience climate change first hand, millennials and GenZ are the most vulnerable owing to their large social media appetite. The more they read/see online, the more they spiral. A person on Tiktok posted a video saying “Since about 2019, I have believed that there is little to nothing we can do to reverse climate change on a global scale”7.
What is the antidote to this anxiety?
Optimism is at the core of climate doom’s antidote.
Participate in shared activities for climate action
A sense of belonging to something larger than self has always brought humans together in action. Becoming part of community initiatives such as waste segregation, replacing single use items (carry bags, disposable cutlery, bottles etc.) with reusable materials (cloth bags, steel/collapsible cutlery, sippers etc.) and using toxin free cleaning agents can help curb anxiety.
Seek solution oriented content
Look for sources which don’t just amplify the problem but also elaborate on the actions being taken across the world. Start with reading and subscribing to Anticlimatic ;)
Creators like Sonika Bhasin, wormrani and zerowasteadda guide people on living low waste lifestyles through social media. For a dash of humour, search for climate memes.
Additional read:
Climate change anxiety in 4 of the top global emitters: China, India, Japan, and the US
For more context, read my post - Antarctica: Journey of a Lifetime
eco-anxiety = climate anxiety = eco-grief = climate doom
Optomism, yes. OPTOMISING our shared resources. Encouraging others to action. THINK "What can I do to turn this round?" Change behaviours. Stop buying oil. Don't buy Chemically treated processed food wrapped in plastic. Grow your own. OK; so this is hard for some of us, bot not impossible to start.
Trickles lead to waves don't they ?
This is happy-clappy BS. If your goal is to feel better, join a group of optimists doing good things. It can’t hurt. But if your goal is a clear-eyed assessment of reality, read the data. Scolding those who read the data and conclude we have no time to save most of us is neither helpful nor kind.