Acknowledging Climate Change Without Inviting Anxiety

The truth about the climate crisis can easily invite crippling dread and climate anxiety, leaving many of us feeling as if there is nothing we can do individually to slow the climate crisis. This is a major reason that many ignore the seriousness of the climate crisis. There are ways to acknowledge the realities of the climate crisis, humanity part in the environment, and the amount of work required to change the future while remaining calm in the face of the crisis. I am placing this post on managing climate anxiety before I ask you to dive into the devastating truth of the climate crisis so that you have the tools to manage any uneasy feelings. 

For written works I recommend an accessible set of twenty short works from activists, scientists, journalists, and lifelong environmentalists have contributed to the Penguin Publishing Green Ideas Collection. This series is easily understood by the everyday reader, and gives a range of arguments for acknowledging and working to reverse the climate crisis. Penguin summarizes the series on their site in the following words:

"Over the past 75 years, a new canon has emerged. As humans have driven the living planet to the brink of collapse, visionary thinkers around the world have raised their voices to defend it. Their words have endured, becoming the classics that define the environmental movement today. From art, literature, food and gardening, to technology, economics, politics and ethics, each of these short books deepens our sense of our place in nature; each is a seed from which a bold activism can grow. Together, they show the richness of environmental thought, and point the way to a fairer, saner, greener world."

If you would rather stick to the Internet's resources, Harvard Health Publishing breaks down climate anxiety in simple categories. What is climate anxiety? Distress related to worries about the climate crisis. How common is it? More than two-thirds of Americans in a study by the American Psychological Association experienced climate anxiety. Prolonged anxiety in any form affects mental health, so managing climate anxiety is very important. 

Managing Climate Anxiety

1. Let yourself feel. Acknowledging emotions is an important step in figuring out how to improve.
2. Find a way to calm down. Mindfulness, meditation, reading, any action or hobby that gets you away from a screen can all be helpful in calming yourself when experiencing intense climate anxiety.
3. Find someone to talk to. Family, friends, even therapists can be resources when you need to talk about what you are thinking and feeling.
4. Turn your emotions into action. Get out there and do as much as you can to help the environment. Sometimes knowing that you did your best with the circumstances you were given every day is enough to ease climate anxiety.
5. Check out these resources found in the TIMES article 7 Resources to Help You Cope With Climate Anxiety.

The next post is titled Why Should I Worry about Conservation of Native Species and will introduce the impact that the climate crisis can make on a personal level.

Sources:

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/is-climate-change-keeping-you-up-at-night-you-may-have-climate-anxiety-202206132761#:~:text=As%20uncertainty%20and%20a%20loss,lifestyle%20consistent%20with%20your%20values.

https://time.com/6112146/climate-anxiety-resources/