Eco-anxiety explained

Eco-anxiety explained

"Eco anxiety" as a term is growing both in usage, and in the number of people recognising themselves as “eco-anxious”. After a summer of climate-related crises, the blistering IPCC report and the upcoming COP26, the world can seem like an unsettling place and issues we face are daunting to say the least.

The impending effects of climate change are a lot to take in and an emotional reaction to all this uncertainty is perfectly normal. Anxiety about all this ecological change is exactly that - eco-anxiety - and whilst it is uncomfortable, at least it demonstrates an awareness of the reality of our situation.

What is eco-anxiety?

In 2017, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) described eco-anxiety as “a chronic fear of environmental doom.” According to a 2020 Washington Post poll, 57% of American teenagers said that climate change scared them with as many as 52% saying that it made them angry.

Most often, eco-anxiety manifests as a feeling of helplessness and worry. It can also come out as anger, profound melancholy, fatalistic thinking, or even shame over our daily carbon footprint. When it gets out of hand, it can cause depression, panic attacks, sleep problems and appetite changes.

Whilst eco-anxiety is not currently listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - meaning that doctors do not officially consider it a diagnosable condition - mental health professionals do use the term eco-anxiety within the field of ecopsychology, a branch that deals with people’s psychological relationships with the rest of nature and how this impacts their identity, well-being, and health.

Eco-anxiety is not a personal, psychological problem. It is a mental state related to specific events - or potential events - resulting exclusively from climate change. Once aware of these issues and your feelings around them, you can then at least do something about it. Writing for Friends of the Earth, psychotherapist and lecturer Caroline Hickman said “...when you look at it like this, eco anxiety can also be seen as being "eco empathetic", or "eco compassionate".

The most challenging part of living with eco-anxiety isn’t the issue of identifying the state - it’s actually coping with its implications.

what you can do as a first step

If you feel like eco-anxiety is getting the better of you, taking positive action will ultimately make a difference. But firstly learn how to reduce and control any climate-related anxiety that creeps in.

Talk to somebody about what’s on your mind. You’re not alone. Have a chat with your friends or confide in a family member.
Recognise feelings of anxiety and grief as reasonable and a natural reaction. You aren’t alone in your feelings. Find comfort in the fact that millions of people across the world will be feeling exactly the same as you.
Use these feelings as motivation to act and focus on what you can control. A small peer-to-peer study of UCL students demonstrated that whilst 56% young people think about the effect of climate change on a daily basis, 81% of the respondents also think that their current lifestyle is not eco-friendly enough to stop climate change. The gap in thought vs. action is enormous and something we can all do something about. ‘Think global but act local’ sums up everything we can do on an individual level to help with climate related change.

what you can do when you are ready to take action

Educate yourself about climate change solutions. Don’t focus on the doom and gloom. There are so many small acts of positive action you can take. We’ve listed a few below which will seem obvious on an individual line by line level, but taken as a whole they could represent a major shift in your personal footprint in the world:

Choose local, seasonal foods where possible.
Reduce food waste by planning meals in advance, using your freezer, and being creative with leftovers. Soups, pasta sauces and frittatas are easy to make with odds and ends and veg that’s past its best.
Use a compost bin for unavoidable food waste.
Try growing your own herbs or vegetables, and boost biodiversity at the same time; you don’t even need a garden. You can grow things like tomatoes, chillies or salad leaves on your windowsill.
Try to eat plant-based foods more often, such as lentils, pulses, tofu and mycoprotein. If you eat meat, try to reduce the amount you eat (especially red meat) and do your research into where it was sourced. (A study by food producers Abel & Cole demonstrated an 83% reduction in the carbon footprint of their lentil shepherds pie vs. their regular, meat based shepherd’s pie)
If you eat fish, try to buy it from sustainable sources or local fishmongers.
Have a reusable water bottle, coffee cup and cutlery for when you’re out and about to help reduce the amount of plastic you use.
Be sure you recycle all recyclables you can (even in 2020, up to 80% of what we throw away can be recycled)
Buy clothes from second-hand shops, swap with friends or mend older garments.
Walk, cycle, run or use public transport instead of driving. Car share where possible when car journeys are unavoidable.
Take fewer international journeys on planes and use trains where possible.
Research where your investments go (such as pension funds) to make sure they align with your values. (There is approximately £3tn invested in pension funds in the UK alone and so if just a portion of that is moved into sustainable, ethical businesses, the downstream effects will be enormous).
Use your washing machine at 30 degrees, switch off any lights you aren’t using, turn down your heating and switch to a green energy supplier or tariff

Stay committed to active climate protection and use your voice and money to drive change. Anyone can make a difference, no matter how small. And if everyone on the planet made even the tiniest change in their lives, it would amount to a great deal. But we all need to remember that there is a limit to how much individual efforts can achieve - climate change is a global, political issue and that means that the biggest results depend on world leaders, corporations, and entire industries. Joining initiatives like Race to Zero, the Better Business Act and organisations like GreenPeace, Friends of the Earth and us here at ESGmark® will continue to galvanise you personally whilst ensuring that our voices are collectively heard and the power of our money is collectively recognised.

Through the ‘E’ in ‘ESG’, ESGmark® actively engages with companies to help fight climate change. As part of the ‘S’ for ‘Social’ we also believe in robust mental health policies, guidelines and support for staff members who might be suffering from eco-anxiety. Start with our blogs on a burnout-free work place, finding the bright side or bringing the ‘S’ into the spotlight. We have an open door policy at ESGmark® so if you or anyone you know is suffering from eco-anxiety, please get in touch.

You can also contact The Samaritans who are there to listen 24/7.