Climate anxious? Here’s how you can turn apprehension into action

In recent years, the term “climate anxiety” has gone from obscure to familiar, underscoring a growing awareness of how witnessing escalating climate disasters affects our mental health.

“Climate anxiety,” and the more acute “climate trauma” and “climate grief,” are expressions that, as Dr. Sarah Lowe, a psychologist who researches climate and mental health at Yale University, explains, describe our varied emotional and cognitive responses to a summarize rapidly changing economy. changing environment. A striking 2021 study from the University of Bath underlined the depth of this concern, with half of young people surveyed admitting feelings of fear, sadness, powerlessness and guilt over the ecological trajectory of our planet, with as many as 75% finding the future “frightening”.

Amid this overwhelming fear, the question is: how can we turn our concerns into actionable solutions?

Enter collective action. Lowe’s own studies indicate that working with others toward productive ecological goals channels our concerns constructively and is also therapeutic. “What we found was that fear of climate change was only associated with higher depression symptoms in students who had it not engaged in collective action. For those who engaged in collective action, fear of climate change was actually not associated with depression,” says Lowe.

So how can we take collective action and channel our fear for good? This is what the experts say.

Deeper engagement with our own communities is an accessible, valuable way to begin the process of building social cohesion and resilience to stressors such as natural disasters, says Dr Britt Wray, who studies climate and mental health at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and the author of General Dread, a newsletter about taking action while experiencing climate grief. Communities with strong social ties — “where people learn to follow and lead each other and achieve shared goals,” she says — are much more resilient to adversity than places where ties are weaker. Think about how much easier it is to talk to neighbors you are already friends with, compared to total strangers from down the street.

Dr. Amruta Nori-Sarma, who researches the intersection of environmental exposure and mental health at Boston University School of Public Health, says her studies consistently show that strong community bonds increase resilience during severe weather events, such as extreme heat. In apartments and neighborhoods with strong communities, individuals proactively monitor each other to ensure resources are accessible to all and ensure each other’s well-being.

A growing one research body examines the relationship between social capital and the ability of individuals to promote and coordinate collective action in communities. To harness this power, Wray says, we need to invest in building relationships: for example, by getting to know our neighbors, putting our devices behind us and moving to a shared physical space where we can interact with people, like working together in community centres, public gardens and local markets. This not only protects us in times of adversity, but also has the added benefit of reducing loneliness. “It’s really about doing what people do best,” says Wray. “We are social beings.”

Dispel the silence on the climate crisis with an open discussion

Because the climate crisis is a serious and often politicized topic, talking about it can carry a certain taboo. Those experiencing climate anxiety may fear that they will commit a social faux pas by talking about it, or that they will be dismissed as overly pessimistic.

Still, dispelling the silence around the climate crisis is a great way to engage and engage with those around us, especially since more people on both sides of the political spectrum support pro-climate legislation than most of us assume; Research shows that Americans underestimate national concern about the state of the climate and support for large-scale climate mitigation policies by as much as 80-90%.

While 65% of Americans questioned by Yale University researchers say the issue of global warming is personally important to them, 66% of Americans say they “rarely” or “never” discuss global warming with family and friends. “How can we really organize and step into shared collective goals around something that we do not articulate, verbalize and externalize?” Wray asks. To take action, we must first share our interest in doing that work together. In the words from atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe: “The most important thing you can do to fight climate change is to talk about it.”

Stay informed on international issues and apply what you learn locally

In many developed countries, discussions about eco-anxiety are often localized, overlooking the immediate threats facing other parts of the world in favor of what is looming in our own backyards.

Namra Khalid, a Pakistani cartographer, lives at the forefront of the climate crisis. Crowdsourcing and compiling her data visualization work detailed maps of Karachi helps the city prepare for and prevent future flood disasters. “In 2015 we had a heat wave that killed more than 2,000 people in the city. Last year we had the worst floods in Pakistan. Thirty-three million people became almost homeless,” says Khalid.

For Khalid, tackling the climate crisis is not just a concern; it is an existential imperative. “I don’t think it is an option to channel the climate problems productively or not. It’s a matter of survival. No one else will stand up for us unless we do,” she says.

Khalid’s call to action is twofold: raising awareness and teaching resilience. She urges those in the Global North to be aware of climate disasters in developing countries and advocate for aid and investment in regions facing disasters, as well as to learn lessons from their experiences.

“It is a good point to learn from what is happening here because today (in Pakistan) and tomorrow it will also be a global problem,” she says. By broadening our lens and learning from global experiences, we can better channel our concerns into informed action. We can move from advocating global climate initiatives to preparing for our own local climate challenges. “We live on the same planet,” says Khalid.