Ecoanxiety

A report from the American Psychological Association and ecoAmerica called "Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impacts, Implications, and Guidance" details the mental cost of large-scale change.

Changes in climate affect agriculture, infrastructure and livability, which in turn affect occupations and quality of life and can force people to migrate. These effects may lead to loss of personal and professional identity, loss of social support structures, loss of a sense of control and autonomy and other mental health impacts such as feelings of helplessness, fear and fatalism. High levels of stress and anxiety are also linked to physical health effects, such as a weakened immune system. Worry about actual or potential impacts of climate change can lead to stress that can build over time and eventually lead to stress-related problems, such as substance abuse, anxiety disorders and depression, according to research reviewed in the report.

It's not easy learning to contemplate and live with what Guy McPherson calls our terminal diagnosis. The awareness comes and goes. For the most part I ignore it and go on looking at the future as if nothing much will change.

Update (May 21):  Viewing McPherson's video, he doesn't seem like a crazy person. It's not without controversy, but there are indications warming is happening faster than expected.

Update (May 23):  Scott K. Johnson disputes the notion of near term extinction. It could be we've already lost control, but it could play out over many decades or centuries. Or do I just selfishly want my "full" retirement?

Update (May 24):  Methane hydrate is now being mined by China and Japan. They may not be as much of a threat as previously thought. But Bruce Melton presents several forms of circumstantial evidence for abrupt climate change.

Modeling can't tell us when abrupt climate change is beginning, at least not to the satisfaction of the consensus community that creates our climate policy. So, how do we know if we are in the early stages of an abrupt shift? It sure seems that we are warming a lot faster than before. Is this an abrupt change? Are there things other than temperature that we can use to imply that we are changing our climate abruptly?

[As one example], in a stable climate, the number of new high temperature records should be the same as the number of new low temperature records (1 to 1). From 1900 to the 1990s in the US, the number of new high vs. low temperature records was between 0.77 to 1 and 1.14 to 1, or really close to 1 to 1.

In the 1990s the ratio increased to 1.36 to 1; high records outpaced low records by 36 percent. In the 2000s the ratio was 2.04 to 1 -- twice as abundant. In the previous 365 days to April 1 (no joking), globally we saw 5,996 high temperature records and only 814 lows, or a ratio of 7.4 to 1. This is 700 percent more highs than lows, or seven times more. Not only is this number meaningful, the short amount of time that we have gone from stable to big-gulp radical is meaningful in an abrupt climate change way.

Update (June 8):  It's not just environmental concerns that cause psychological problems.

Update (September 11):  Eve Andrews offers this advice for handling climate anxiety.

You feel what you feel, you do what you can, and you try not to carry the weight of every errant carbon molecule on your shoulders. Everyone else is carrying that weight, too, whether they’ve dealt with it or not — and most are just as lost as you are. You help them figure out their thing that they can do, rather than tell them what they should be doing. You try to be patient.

And doing all of these things, is what will keep you from giving up hope.

Update (January 17, 2018):  s.e. smith elaborates on the mental health impact of climate change.

Update (April 17, 2018):  Neville Ellis and Ashlee Cunsolo document the loss that certain populations are already experiencing.

We do not see ecological grief as submitting to despair, and neither does it justify ‘switching off’ from the many environmental problems that confront humanity. Instead, we find great hope in the responses ecological grief is likely to invoke. Just as grief over the loss of a loved person puts into perspective what matters in our lives, collective experiences of ecological grief may coalesce into a strengthened sense of love and commitment to the places, ecosystems and species that inspire, nurture and sustain us. There is much grief work to be done, and much of it will be hard. However, being open to the pain of ecological loss may be what is needed to prevent such losses from occurring in the first place.

Update (February 19, 2019):  Nicole Pajer offers suggestions for handling ecoanxiety.

Focus on what you can control — and turn that into action
Flip off the television for a little while
Get prepared
Move your body
Turn your attention to the now
Reframe negative thoughts into something more productive
Schedule time to worry (yes, really)

Update (February 17, 2020):  I think concern about climate change has been growing the past year or so--and it's lead to  greater local activism. I'm not sure it's the greatest source of all my anxiety, but I think it is there. Two recent articles highlight the idea that we need to help each other deal with this trauma and that we need to be especially concerned about what children are exposed to.

Update (February 27, 2020):  Hayley Smith reports on the increasing concern with eco-anxiety. Therapist Andrew Bryant has a site devoted to the topic, Climate and Mind.

What truly separates this form of anxiety is the immensity of it. There’s no finality. Instead, we’re constantly subjected to new information that can re-trigger the grief, because there’s always more news about the environment or the planet that reminds us that it isn’t over, and that there’s worse to come. It’s an ever-increasing fear.