The climate crisis is getting more serious with each year that passes. In 2018, the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) released its newest report stating, that we only have 12 years to change course and decrease global emissions drastically before a critical tipping point is reached (Watts 2018). This is worrying. Not only for those who will suffer directly from the consequences of climate change, like losing their home or loved ones to flooding, hurricanes and wildfires or experiencing food shortages due to prolonged droughts and loss of natural environments, but it is also worrying ‘for people not yet living directly in the path of climate change’ (Schlanger, 2017).
In 2017, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) released a joint report with Climate for Health and ecoAmerica which outlined the effects of climate change on our mental health. They warn that ‘direct, acute experience with a changing climate’ like the ones I describe above, can trigger severe and sudden mental health consequences (Schlanger, 2017; Manning et al., 2017). But they also state that such existential anxiety can be caused indirectly from ‘watching the slow and seemingly irrevocable impacts of climate change unfold, and worrying about the future for oneself, children, and later generations’ (ibid).
This, they call ‘eco-anxiety’ the ‘chronic fear of environmental doom’ (Manning et al., 2017)
So while the impacts of climate change differ between countries and communities, the stressors that result from it ‘whether experienced indirectly or directly’ can trigger mental health issues such as PTSD, depression and anxiety (Manning et al., 2017).
I recognise that I am no where near as affected by this as people living on the frontlines of the climate crisis, yet I relate to feeling helpless by the ‘uncertainty over what is yet to come’, and fearful of the fact that ‘according to the U.N., we now have less than 11 years to prevent catastrophic climate change ‘ (Nugent, 2019).
Due to the the course I study but also through having personal interest in the this issue, I engage often and deeply with the complex situation of the seemingly inevitable environmental collapse. I stopped daydreaming of a future in which I have the freedom to go, do and be anything that I want. I’m too aware of the possibility that extreme weather events, millions of climate refugees and polluted, dwindling ecosystems might change the way all of us will be able to live our lives. The uncertainty, triggered by political inaction and still widespread denial of the climate crisis frustrates me. I and many others feel out of control and helpless as to what we, as single individuals can do to stop what is unfolding right under our noses (Fawbert, 2019). To deal with these feelings, many people, me included, ‘project into the future, sometimes into apocalyptic thinking’ (Nugent, 2019).
Eco-anxiety is not talked about much yet but with more and more people especially among younger generations experiencing these anxieties, this is likely to change.
Through my photography project I tried to visualise these complex feelings that result from the increasing threat of climate change and environmental destruction.
References:
Fawbert, D (2019) ‘’Eco-anxiety’: how to spot it and what to do about it’, BBC , 27 March. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/b2e7ee32-ad28-4ec4-89aa-a8b8c98f95a5 [Accessed 7 Mar 2020].
Manning, C. S. et al. (2017) ‘Mental Health and Our Changing Climate: Impacts, Implications, and Guidance’. American Psychological Association, Climate for Health and ecoAmerica [online]. Available at: https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2017/03/mental-health-climate.pdf [Accessed 20 May 2020].
Nugent, C. (2019) ‘Terrified of Climate Change? You Might Have Eco-Anxiety’, Time, 21 November. [online] Available at: https://time.com/5735388/climate-change-eco-anxiety/ [Accessed 20 May 2020].
Watts, J. (2018) ‘We have 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe, warns UN’, The Guardian, 8 October. [online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/08/global-warming-must-not-exceed-15c-warns-landmark-un-report [Accessed 21 May 2020].
Schlanger, Z. (2017) ‘We need to talk about “ecoanxiety”: Climate change is causing PTSD, anxiety, and depression on a mass scale’, Quartz, 3 April. [online] Available at: https://qz.com/948909/ecoanxiety-the-american-psychological-association-says-climate-change-is-causing-ptsd-anxiety-and-depression-on-a-mass-scale/ [Accessed 20 May 2020].
