![]() ![]() She adds, 'As a society working with a rapidly shrinking timeframe, the threat even greater than the climate crisis is how powerless we feel in the face of it. However, on coming across the phenomenon of eco-anxiety through an article in The Guardian, featuring Force of Nature's founder Clover Hogan, Sacha found the opposite to be true: that tuning into your discomfort is a key step in being able to take sustainable action. Sacha says, 'I had always learned that to make a meaningful impact in a tough world, to even scratch the surface of time-sensitive crises like environmentalism, medicine, health and development, you had to backburner your feelings and vaccinate yourself against emotional attachment.' Sacha Wright is a Research and Curriculum coordinator at Force of Nature, working with the organisation on their mission to empower people to turn their climate anxiety into action. This may stem from a greater presence of the climate crisis in the news cycle and social media feeds, but also the fact that the physical effects of climate change are being felt with increasing intensity in many parts of the world. We also don't yet know the scale of eco-anxiety, though research reports that around 45% of young people feel climate-related anxiety and distress affects their daily lives and ability to function normally.Įxperts are recognising that eco-anxiety is having a growing impact on people and communities. ![]() The long-term effects of this anxiety aren't known, but potentially add to the many ways climate change impacts our health. A response like this to the possibility of a sixth mass extinction event is more than reasonable.Ĭlimate anxiety is not considered a diagnosable condition, but mental health experts recognise that climate change can trigger a psychological response. It is our 'internal alarm bells' telling us something is wrong. Is eco-anxiety a mental illness?Įco-anxiety is rational. ![]() Almost 60% of those that feel affected by climate-related anxiety on a daily basis attribute those feelings to their national governments. There is also an overwhelming sense of frustration and betrayal among Gen Z at perceived inaction by those in seats of power. A study of 10,000 people aged 16-25 revealed 92% in the Philippines feel that the future is frightening, compared to 56% in Finland. For those living on the frontlines of climate-related disasters, facing extreme floods, wildfires and drought, for example, the distress can be magnified. But only 26% feel that they know how to contribute to solving the problem.Ĭlimate anxiety isn't experienced in the same way by everyone. ![]() Youth non-profit organisation Force of Nature finds that over 70% of young people feel hopeless in the face of the climate crisis and as many as 56% believe humanity is doomed. Young people globally are experiencing sky-rocketing eco-anxiety, as they see the window to fix the planetary emergency closing, but often feel powerless to enact meaningful change. This phenomenon is known as climate anxiety or eco-anxiety, often defined as a chronic fear of environmental doom, a worry for what might happen if the world does not take action to avert disaster in time.Įco-anxiety affects people of all ages but particularly those experiencing climate impacts first-hand and those who have the most to lose in the face of environmental catastrophe. It can be uncomfortable, overwhelming and paralysing. Watching our natural world change, sometimes combined with feeling personal guilt or witnessing climate indifference and elected powers failing to act with the pace required, can evoke a variety of emotions, from anger and frustration to dread, powerlessness and hopelessness. It is nothing new to say the world is experiencing a human-caused climate crisis or that we're facing unprecedented levels of biodiversity loss due to human actions. For many of us, living in a time of climate change has an overwhelming impact on our emotions and the way we feel. Communities around the world are already experiencing the first-hand impacts of the climate crisis. Every day we are faced with the harsh reality of our changing world through reports of the latest scientific data and stories from around the globe. ![]()
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