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Climate health is human health
Published in Lester D. Friedman, Therese Jones, Routledge Handbook of Health and Media, 2022
Carol-Ann Farkas, Shoshannah Bryn Jones Square
While the more poetic and evocative term, solastalgia, has not caught on in lay discourse, the more self-evident concept of “eco-anxiety” has. As Clayton explains, climate change “is a real threat, so it is rational to experience some worry; it is ongoing and developing, so simple adaptation to the change is not completely possible; it is uncertain, so anxiety may be a more and more common response than fear” (74). If the cause of eco-anxiety might be relatively novel, its effects on us are not; like anxiety as understood more generally, eco-anxiety affects our mood, energy levels, and cognition, all of which, in turn, affect our ability to cope with stressors. To be anxious is to be in a constant state of fight, flight, or freeze, our endorphins surging, our levels of stress ever-increasing.
Climate change and sexual and reproductive health: what implications for future research?
Published in Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters, 2023
One increasingly documented impact from climate change is eco-anxiety, which refers to mental distress or chronic fear associated with deteriorating environmental conditions.4,5 Eco-anxiety generates an array of feelings, such as anger and fear, powerlessness and helplessness, trauma after extreme climate events,2,4 and solastalgia, which refers to the distress caused by environmental degradation or transformation.6 Adolescents and emerging adults are especially likely to report eco-anxiety and climate-related distress that impact their daily lives.7 Some Indigenous communities, such as Inuit communities in Circumpolar regions, are witnessing rapid climate-related changes. Still contending with the harms of colonialism, which sought to eliminate their culture, languages, and identities, they are rebuilding the link with culture, which involves the relationship to land and resources, while their land is becoming more degraded due to the climate crisis.8 Women, people living in poverty, racialised people and other marginalised groups are more at risk from the effects of extreme climate events due to socioeconomic structures that perpetuate social inequalities,9–11 which can generate more climate-related distress.
Untapped potential of nature-based activities for mental health: need for further research
Published in International Review of Psychiatry, 2022
Judy L. Wong, Richard A. Powell
A growing body of research shows an increasing reaction to witnessing or experiencing current climate impacts and concern regarding apparent inaction in response, manifests as ‘negative cognitive, emotional, and behavioural responses’ (Schwartz et al., 2022), variably presenting as eco-guilt, eco-grief and eco-anxiety (Ágoston et al., 2022). Although not classified as a diagnosable condition, eco-anxiety refers to the chronic fear of environmental doom (Sutton & Smith, 2020). Indeed, there is an increasing recognition of eco-anxiety, its complex psychological responses, and disproportionate impact upon children, young people and communities with the least resources to address the adverse consequences of the climate crisis (Rao & Powell, 2021).
Seeding hope: restoring nature to restore ourselves. Nature restoration as an essential mental health intervention
Published in International Review of Psychiatry, 2022
Catriona Mellor, Stella Botchway, Nicholas Barnes, Sam Gandy
An important aspect to this discussion is the growth of eco-anxiety and despair, to which activities that facilitate nature connection and restoration alongside shared, collective action, could be a meaningful response (Baudon & Jachens, 2021; Schwartz et al., 2022). In addition, we are seeing a growth in ‘green care’ interventions for clinical populations; examples of which include green social prescribing in primary care and nature-based or ecotherapy programmes. However, a detailed discussion of climate anxiety and green care is beyond the scope of this paper.