Climate Anxiety Reaches High Tide
Article by Irisa Teng, TPT Staff Writer
Climate anxiety, also known as ecoanxiety, is a new phenomenon due to the rising awareness of the imminence of global warming. Sarah Lowe, a clinical psychologist and an associate professor at Yale School of Public Health, defines climate anxiety as “distress about climate change and its impacts on the landscape and human existence,” and like any other anxiety disorder, it “can manifest as intrusive thoughts” and can significantly disrupt an individual’s life. In 2017, the American Psychological Association joined hands with the environment-focused non-profit ecoAmerica to define “eco-anxiety” as “a chronic fear of environmental doom.”
While climate anxiety has not been published as a diagnosable disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC) identified six unique categories to measure the types of “audiences” of the American people, in relation to public engagement efforts. These are called the “Six Americas,” and they comprise the Alarmed, the Concerned, the Cautious, the Disengaged, the Doubtful, and the Dismissive, ranked from the most motivated to the least concerned.
In 2012, YPCCC applied this metric specifically to the public’s opinions on global warming and found that only 12% of Americans identified as Alarmed, 55% of Americans identified as either Concerned or Cautious, and 23% identified as either Doubtful or Dismissive. Revisited in 2022, the amount of Americans that identified as Alarmed jumped 14 points to 26%, while 43% identified as either Concerned or Cautious. The percentage of people that identified as either Doubtful or Dismissive decreased only one point, to 22%.
A YPCCC study done in April of this year found that “Gen Z and Millennials (60%) are more likely to be either Alarmed or Concerned about global warming than Gen X (53%).” As a significant portion of Gen Zers are teenagers, they go through these troubled times of rising water levels and rising levels of ecoanxiety in high schools and universities.
As mental health issues rise, it’s expected that the demand for therapists and solutions to these issues will similarly rise to meet them. While a 2019 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 70% of teens said “anxiety and depression” was a “major problem among people their age in the community where they live,” the non-profit health policy research organization KFF found that only 34% “of schools provide outreach services.” Outreach services, which involve mental health screenings, are one of the most effective practices for finding accurate support and treatment options for students.
Of the limited numbers of counselors, there are even less who are climate-focused, if any at all. There is no significant data of a nationwide climate-focused school counselor network or initiative, although the National Association of School Psychologists adopted a resolution in 2021 to “support efforts to reduce the harmful effects of climate change on children and youth.”
Outside of schools, the Climate Psychology Alliance North America compiled a list of only around 100 “climate-aware therapists” in a “dictionary” for people to refer to. They define climate-aware therapists as professionally-trained psychotherapists who recognize that the climate crisis is both a global threat to all life on Earth and a deeply personal threat to the mental and physical well-being—the sense of safety, meaning, and purpose—of each individual, family, and community on the planet.” Most therapists are not trained in dealing with the climate crisis.
Maybe in the future, schools and therapists will be more readily equipped to defend this wave of climate anxiety and fear of global warming. However, at this moment, our resources are low.
Sources