Mind, Brain and Planet

S2 EP3: Eco-anxiety - what is it?

• Paul Howard-Jones • Season 2 • Episode 3

Share episode

Do you lie awake at night thinking about food shortages, conflicts over vanishing resources, nature loss and mass migrations? If so, you may be suffering from eco-anxiety.  But how prevalent is eco-anxiety, who is most at risk and is it a disorder? Paul meets experts Ans Vercammen and Panu Pihkala, and talks to Fenella Lloyd about her experience of eco-anxiety amongst young people at Black Mountains College.  

More info on mindbrainplanet.com

Eco-anxiety – what is it? 

Vox pop: “I get really anxious about the environment because I love surfing and the ocean, and when I've seen coral reefs, it's just been so beautiful, even though a lot of them were bleached, so it was already tinged with sadness. I just dread the day when it might all go away. Also, I just really worry about some of the global implications of climate change. We might have really large global migrations. There might be wars fought over critical resources that support life, like water, food fuel. And it's just really scary because I do imagine that if things do get critical, then the world might become a much more violent place.“ 

PHJ: Hello – and welcome to another episode of Mind, Brain and Planet. So that was a voicemail left recently on my website – and thank you to Kalina for that – because it’s spurred me on to explore in more detail this idea of eco-anxiety. A recently published poll of 10,000 young people around the world, found that over 45% reported their feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily life and functioning.  But as a scientist, I like to be sceptical – and when I first heard about eco-anxiety my thought was  - really – is this a thing? Is it very prevalent – is it a disorder – is it unhealthy? I can imagine that amongst people who generally worry, climate change is likely to become one focus for their attention – and when the media puts “eco-“ in front of the word anxiety – well that makes for a better story and a few more clicks online – doesn’t it? 

OK well let’s look at what the science says…..if I search up “eco-anxiety” on my favourite research database, that includes only peer-reviewed research …. the first thing I notice is that there’s so many different words used to describe anxiety about environmental issues – we’ve got “climate anxiety” “eco-worry”, “eco-distress”  - which is a bit confusing and also the other thing that pops out how very recent the research is – this is clearly something that researchers have only just begun to look at  – the last 4 years accounts for 90% of research findings in this area. But research is beginning to shed light on how prevalent it is, what it is, whether it’s a disorder and how it might be addressed, even if researchers are still arguing about what to call it! 

So let’s start with the question of who is most likely to get it… To answer that, I approached Ans Vercammen now at Curtin University in Perth, Australia who had previously been looking at climate distress amongst young people in the UK. 

Ans: Great. Yeah. Hello. I'm Ans Vercammen. I am a senior lecturer in the School of Population Health at Curtin University. And I consider myself to be an interdisciplinary researcher. I have a background in psychology and neuroscience, but I'm also trained in conservation science. 

PHJ: Excellent. So what I wanted to ask you to start with is what climate distress is?

Ans: The concept of climate distress that we're really talking about in this paper, is more that general sort of worry and concern, which has an existential component to it as well, because that's basically what climate change is. It's an existential threat. So it's that assessment of climate change as a threat 

PHJ: Amongst the UK adults, 16 to 24 year olds that you were surveying, most - over 60% had a moderate or high level of climate distressed. I feel that's quite striking, isn't it? I mean, considering that the UK…. I don't really think of the UK as being very badly affected by climate change yet. So did that surprise you?

Ans: I can imagine as a young person when there's this sort of existential threat looming of climate change, that I would be worried. So it doesn't necessarily surprise me that people are concerned about it. And recent research or more recent research with 10,000 young people around the world found very similar had very similar observations where there was a very significant proportion of young people that were quite concerned about climate change. So it's not really a surprising finding.

PHJ: And then we have, we have 10% who are, have high climate distress. What does that mean?

Ans: Yeah. It's, it's difficult to say exactly what that means on a day-to-day basis. It is quite possible. And we know that there is a proportion of young people who experience a greater degree of climate distress that would, could be characterized more as climate anxiety, which has implications on day-to-day functioning. So it may impact on their sleep, it may impact on their relationships, it may impact on their schooling, how they engage with their family, et cetera. We don't know that that is necessarily the case in that 10%. What we do know is that there is a percentage of people who experience that quite intensely and who may have more clinical level symptoms of anxiety that are related to their concern and their worry around climate change. And that is something that we hear from clinicians who see this in practice. So we do know that there is a minority of people who experience this very intensely.

PHJ: So I was quite interested in one of the conclusions that you came to, which was that “distress may be an almost unavoidable correlate of engagement with climate change, even when the effects are distant in time and space”. So what you're saying is that this is the highly predictable response once you begin to understand something about climate change. Is that right?

Ans: Yeah. I would say so. And also, and this is a, this is a tricky thing. We've talked at length about this with colleagues and with clinicians that we don't, we want people to be concerned about climate change to some extent, because that concern and worry is an adaptive response to what is a real threat. I think what we're seeing here with climate distress is a proportionate response to a very real existential threat. So again, it's not surprising and I think it is appropriate to be concerned and worried about climate change. And we also know that the feelings that come with that concern, which can be frustration and it can be anger, they can fuel behavior like climate activism or private sphere, pro-environmental behavior. So that's an adaptive response. So that in itself is, I think, a good thing.

PHJ: Now, what about who amongst this cohort of young people were, were most likely to have anxiety? I know you looked at ethnicity, you looked at rural versus urban, whether younger or older people in that age group were affected - none of those appeared related to distress. So what factors did?

Ans: We know that young women tend to be more concerned and engaged with climate change compared to young men. This may change over time, but that is what we found. We did find that climate distress, that experience of worry and concern and distress was a little bit more common among people who do currently have or have experienced mental health conditions. And that could be because they are more likely to become anxious or concerned when there are threats in their lives. We don't exactly know that - this is, you know, a correlational study, but that's definitely something that researchers have been looking at more trying to disentangle cause and effect. So trying to understand: is climate distress leading to more, you know, wellbeing concerns or mental health concerns, or is it vice versa? Or is it a bidirectional relationship? So things like that still need to be confirmed in further research.

PHJ: But the other thing I thought was really interesting was that the climate distress is actually correlated with how much young people worry about politics. 

Ans: Yeah. We found that very interesting as well. I think it is ….people's level of engagement with climate change, maybe a signal, something a broader civic engagement, a general interest in, in systemic issues and social issues. I mean, climate change isn't an environmental issue, it's a public health issue. It's an equity issue. So I think people who are engaged in that sort of civic manner may have a broader interest and because of that interest, perhaps also have a higher level of distress around the issue.

PHJ: In my imagination, I'm thinking that that’s maybe because young people who are more politically aware are also aware that perhaps not enough is being done. You know, I mean, it's easier to tell yourself, oh, you know, it's being taken care of. The, the grownups are sorting it out <laugh> if you don't actually know what's happening politically.

Ans: Yeah. That's, I think that's a very good point indeed. And you know, we see that a lot of our climate activists are very politically aware, and we know that our climate activists are also very concerned, obviously, about climate change and concerned about sort of social justice issues more generally as well. Yeah, I think you're spot on there.

 

PHJ: It’s understandable and rational to worry more about the environment if you’re younger. It’s estimated being born in 2020 means you’ll have two to seven times more extreme weather in your lifetime than if you’re born in 1960. So to understand more about the day-to-day realities of eco-anxiety amongst young people, I contacted Black Mountains College in Wales which is a community college that specializes in agro-ecological practice. I should say it was more difficult to get a good internet connection to Powys in Wales than it was to Australia and I ended up talking to the student support coordinator there on a mobile phone – so I apologise for the sound quality in places but what Fenella had to say was really helpful in understanding the potential impact of eco-anxiety…

Fenella: Hello, I'm Fenella Lloyd. I'm the Student support Coordinator at Black Mountains College in Powys Wales.

PHJ: Fenella, your role often involves talking to young people and supporting them about issues affecting their broader wellbeing. Do you come across students who have anxieties and worries about climate change and environmental issues?

Fenella: Well…Black Mountains College is a climate education focused organization. So the climate is front and center of our work, and all of our students come in with a desire to be working and addressing climate concerns. So, I think for our students, it's probably pretty universal, but expressed very differently across the cohorts, I'd say.

PHJ: For some of the students, does it become an issue that actually affects their wellbeing?

Fenella: Absolutely. it's, it's impossible to avoid. I think that for some students they're already quite overwhelmed with concerns that are impacting on directly about climate change when they come into the organization. For other students they have an awareness and they want to work in the climate space, but as they develop their knowledge and understanding, I think they become far more attuned and far more sensitive to climate anxiety. The thing that I've noticed is that it's sort of quite universal and hard for people to actually talk about because it feels really big. It feels quite hard for students to know where to start and also to untangle that from their life and their life expectations. And I think life expectations and planning for the future is the area where there is probably the greatest concern.

PHJ: So you get the impression that they're, they're all concerned about it, but for some of them it becomes more problematic?

Fenella: Yeah, I think some of our students find a balance, and for some of the students it becomes far more problematic and raises really, really big questions about the, you know, it's a real existential crisis. They don’t know how to plan for the future, they don’t know how to move forward. It can act as a massive block. And I also think it's like a horrible creeping anxiety that impacts, you know, of course the study for how will my personal life be? How will I find work? How will I perhaps, you know, find community, perhaps how will I find a family? And I think that can become really overwhelming. I see quite a lot of students with overwhelm.

PHJ: Yeah. And also, I mean is there, you know, as a professional, is there enough information out there for you about eco anxiety or climate distress or whatever we, we, we call it? Do you feel there's enough known about it that is able to support you in what you're trying to do?

Fenella: No, I don't think so. I think it's, it's an increasingly understood difficulty and there are, you know, I think I understand that most therapists now do actually have the opportunity to train around climate anxiety, but it is very difficult to know what the wider solutions might be. Because for me, individual counselling for individual students or individual psychotherapy is great, but not accessible to most people. And I would really love to know and have some evidence-based research around what is going to support people's wellbeing around climate anxiety. But there isn't very much at all. We've talked with the students about certain approaches, which may help, but I don't think I know enough for sure.

PHJ: So what are you able to do at the moment?

Fenella: As an institution, we know that the things that support people's wellbeing, their resilience and their mental health are things like, you know, ensuring that we build a community, that students feel part of something, that they feel heard, that they can collaborate, that there are opportunities for peer support, which we know is really, really effective. And to have an open discussion where discussion and classroom space feels safe, but not necessarily sanitized, which is quite a hard balance to find and to have time and space to decompress from some of those conversations and discussions. But I think what I've noticed is when we are working with students to identify how to support them, it's actually really hard to pin down what they feel they need, what they feel would support them best. So there are lots of mechanisms we can use, right? Climate cafes - we can use all sorts of different forms of, you know, potential therapy or counselling, but it's actually really hard to pin down what will support students and what will support their wellbeing best. And that's partly because obviously our responses are individual, but I think there is an awareness of the enormity of the challenge, really.

So eco-anxiety does seem like a real and growing problem for many, particularly amongst young people, but there are still so many questions. For example – should we be thinking about this as a new type of anxiety disorder? One way to try to answer this question is to look inside the brain ……. Scientists in Northern Michigan University used neuroimaging to find out how brain differences amongst young adult students related to their level of climate anxiety. They found those with greater climate anxiety had increased connectivity in the salience network – a network that helps you monitor the environment for information that is emotionally significant and help you select an appropriate response. These results suggest climate anxiety is a “thing” – in the sense that it’s associated a more efficiently wired salience network in the brain. This is also one of the differences seen amongst those with an anxiety disorder but it doesn’t label eco-anxiety as a pathology – because this circuit also operates when perfectly healthy individuals get anxious. And, perhaps more importantly, they saw that differences in this circuit predicted pro-environmental behaviour. Now this study looked at a fairly random sample of young adults, - so can’t say too much about the most eco-anxious of our young people - but, generally, these brain differences suggest climate anxiety was driving an adaptive response – i.e. these climate-anxious brains were working like brains should work – counting against the idea that we should think about climate anxiety as a pathology.

If in general terms, eco-anxiety shouldn’t be thought of as a disorder – how should we think about it? One person who has been thinking very carefully about the meaning of eco-anxiety is Panu Pihkala:

Panu: Hello, my name is Panu Pihkala. I'm speaking from Helsinki. I work at the University of Helsinki with interdisciplinary environmental research specializing in eco-anxiety and eco emotions research.

PHJ: So, Panu, thank you so much for, for joining us to talk about eco-anxiety and I suppose the obvious question that I want to ask straight away is, is what is eco-anxiety? Because I've read various things and I've heard people talking about it, and I get the impression sometimes that people are talking about different things. 

Panu: 

Thanks for asking that’s an important question. Different researchers have slightly different definitions of the term eco-anxiety. And some other terms come very close like eco-distress and often there is talk about climate change related anxiety and distress. So there's many terms around. And anxiety itself, as you know, is a wide-ranging term. And some people use it mainly for the connotation of stronger anxiety states or tendencies to feel anxiety like trait anxiety or even generalized anxiety disorder, if we go more into the mental health sphere. And then emotion scholars sometimes speak of anxiety as an emotion in the sense of a shorter reaction to problematic uncertainty, which then may cause different kinds of reactions in the human being or adult mammals. So there can be stronger anxiety states which are much shaped at least by ecological crisis, and very often eco anxiety manifests as more mild or moderate feelings of anxiety and worry, which are related to reacting to environmental issues. So I would see it as a sort of spectrum of various possible manifestations. Some people would like to reserve eco-anxiety for stronger forms of anxiety but that has some problems also. And I have been arguing at places, for example, this handbook called Climate Change and Youth Mental Health by Cambridge University Press, that people should have the right to use terms which feel suitable for them in relation to their own experiences. So if people prefer to call it worry or fear or even excitement at some points, that's okay. But then in the academic scholarly world, I think we also need common keywords so that people can find research done by others. And none of those keywords is perfect. There's pros and cons in every case. And I've been trying to argue that equal anxiety society can be a useful one, but I'm not saying that it's the, it's the only one.

PHJ: My understanding of your work is that you see eco-anxiety as a process – something we move through in different ways?

Panu: Thanks for asking. I think often people, when they realize something of the severity of the ecological crisis, that causes a long-term process where they are trying to cope with the knowledge and trying to think about what should I do in relation to this kind of world situation? If a person experiences a stronger awakening, and then there may be periods of more intense confusion and distress and so on. For some people it's more like a growing realization over time. And the temporality is slightly different. But then when people try to cope or adapt, and I would argue that transformation is much present there also, then there's different dimensions that can be discerned. And my process model, the heart of it, is really a discussion of three simplified dimensions of action, emotional engagement, and taking care of one's resources, which might be called self-care, for example.

 

PHJ: I think what I’ve learnt is that eco-anxiety - although it goes by many names - is a very real and growing issue. It may not be a disorder – but it clearly can become problematic – and is something we can’t afford to ignore. And Panu’s idea that eco-anxiety is an active process – something calling you to awaken and respond – that seems like a positive way to approach a phenomenon which we’re only likely to see more of in the future. Exactly how we should respond – well we’re going to start looking at that in the next episode of Mind, Brain and Planet.