A Prescription for Climate Anxiety
This essay is for current (and lifelong) students seeking an antidote to climate anxiety, defined as:
‘Climate anxiety is fundamentally distress about climate change and its impacts on the landscape and human existence. That can manifest as intrusive thoughts or feelings of distress about future disasters or the long-term future of human existence and the world, including one’s own descendants. There is a physiological component that would include heart racing and shortness of breath, and a behavioral component: when climate anxiety gets in the way of one’s social relationships or functioning at work or school.’ — Sarah Lowe, Yale School of Public Health
According to the Climate Change and the American Mind: Beliefs & Attitudes survey on a nationally representative sample of 1085 adults, 64 percent of Americans are at least ‘somewhat worried’ about climate change. In addition, more severe mental health concerns triggered by global warming were reported by almost one in ten Americans:
- 10 percent of Americans reported ‘feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge about global warming at least several days per week,’
- 9 percent reported being ‘unable to stop or control worry about global warming,’
- 7 percent said ‘they experienced diminished interest or pleasure in doing things because of global warming.’
For context, about 19.1 percent of the U.S. population has an anxiety disorder. Climate change-related extreme weather events and knowledge of the social and ecosystem impacts of climate change exacerbates symptoms in this already vulnerable population. The most nationally representative dataset on the prevalence of anxiety disorders in the U.S. is from the 2001–2003 National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R) which included 9,282 respondents. The proportion of the population with an anxiety disorder is higher in younger generations and in the working class without a college degree based on data from the National Comorbidity Study Replication (NCS-R). In contrast, the Silent Generation (born before 1946) suffers the lowest rates of anxiety of any generation but faces other mental health risks outside the scope of this essay.
One of the best ways to deal with anxiety is to identify its cause. Often people are most anxious about something they don’t know about but appears to affect them personally, or perhaps they can articulate their concerns but feel like they have no control over how to address them. Sometimes people are acting on mistaken beliefs and feel anxious or fearful because the world seems unpredictable based on the depth of their knowledge, interests, and/or abilities. A change in focus towards what you know and can control helps to plan effective action.
If a lack of knowledge or an unpredictable world are contributors to one’s climate anxiety, there are many sources of information on climate change to provide more predictability, provide useful context for government policies or economic trends, and to help plan action. Note that an information source, professional, or media platform funded by fossil fuel interests will have the corporate training and economic interest to spread disinformation and suppress scientifically accurate climate change content. The source of information also needs to be matched to the current level of knowledge, role, and responsibilities of the reader. Some media has been shown to exacerbate feelings of anxiety (climate-related or otherwise), specifically stories that highlight problems without a solution. Choose your climate media consumption wisely. Recently, the 5th National Climate Assessment, an inter-agency government report on climate change impacts, risks, and responses was released and these data allows the entire U.S. federal to socialize and integrate the latest trusted scientific knowledge on climate change in the implementation of federal policies. This effort is a huge improvement in government practices compared to when I worked as a contractor in the U.S. Department of Energy in 2005, when the words ‘climate change’ were forbidden for use in any department communications.
Another source of anxiety is the feeling of helplessness about what to do about climate change whether or not it affects you personally. There are many ideas on what to do about climate change, and the above caveats on critical thinking skills still apply. Project Drawdown, based on the book by Paul Hawken, has documented over 90 technology solutions that can be further refined to meet a specific market’s needs. Joining a club, team or company with similar interests to volunteer, learn, or work on climate change are more examples of the collective action approach. For example, Citizens Climate Lobby, founded by Marshall Saunders, trains citizens to educate their peers on climate change, contribute to mass-media on climate change facts and policies, and lobby the U.S. Congress and state governments on specific climate legislation.
Some climate anxiety might be due a feeling of futility even if you are working on a specific climate change solution due to a lack of progress on implementation of a potential solution due to common barriers to R&D adoption when one is in a consulting role within an organization, public or private. Unforeseen risks for a potential technology solution can stall implementation. Not all projects are adequately vetted by all cross-functional partners. Sometimes a solution requires co-development of other innovations. R&D progress often occurs in fits and starts, and the slowest component limits implementation of an entire system. Some potential solutions also pose physical (or psychological) safety risks which slow down or prevent implementation. Partnership, teamwork and collective action are the best antidotes to climate anxiety. In order to maintain your professional integrity, you cannot solve every organizational problem yourself, but you have to find partners who are the best equipped to break barriers for your solution to move forward.
Alternatively, organizations can move toward designing teams that are as self-sufficient as possible and scope solutions so that implementation is fully within the scope of the responsible team. This organizational structure allows each team to take ownership of results to reduce barriers to implementation. Vertically integrated teams have the advantage of designing their own tools to achieve team goals, which should be aligned with the overall organization’s goals. Vertically integrated teams have the knowledge and incentive to build something that works for them, based on their specific knowledge.
Some solutions may face economic headwinds that slow their marketplace success at the current moment. For example, while there has been considerable progress in the cost declines for utility-scale solar panels (90 percent), wind turbine (80 percent) systems, and battery energy storage systems (90 percent) in the past decade, renewable energy technologies are typically financed by homeowners, corporations, or utilities that use them. High interest rates increase the cost of financing these technologies and slows their deployment, despite all the progress in the technology.
Another approach to resolve climate anxiety is to identify and develop more solutions that can attract public and private investment and be deployed and improved upon in the marketplace. The IMF estimates that $5 trillion in global investments are needed annually by 2030, of which $2 trillion will have to be deployed in developing countries in order to meet climate change goals. Approximately 80% of emerging market climate capital will have to come from private investors given the debt-loads and credit ratings of these countries.
So this Thanksgiving, talk about climate change with your family, and brainstorm what you can do to enjoy nature as well as fight for it, either through your own direct efforts or your financial support for climate change-related non-profits or start-ups.
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Disclaimer: Author has a Ph.D. in Engineering & Public Policy, a Bachelor’s degree in Physics, and is not a licensed clinical psychologist or psychiatrist. If symptoms of anxiety negatively affect your work or life, talk to your primary care or mental health provider.
Thanks to Amanda Abraham, MPH for review.
