The Age of Climate Anxiety

As the existential crisis deepens, & governments and corporations fail to act, people, especially young people, are becoming crippled with climate anxiety. 8/20/23

350 Chicago Monthly Speaker Series

Our next talk will be in just a few days at Adler University at 7:00. Marilee Feldman will speak live and on Zoom about how to cope with climate anxiety. Click on the image below and register:

In September, Lauryn Boyd from the US Department of Energy will speak on Enhanced Geothermal Systems: a way of gaining geothermal energy that is not restricted to certain geological locations. This technology could provide heat to millions of American homes, as well as be a source of clean, endless electricity. Look for more information about this webinar event, which will be coming soon!

IL EPA next window for EV rebates 11/1

Illinoisians who buy an electric passenger vehicle will receive a $4,000 rebate, and those who buy an all electric motorcycle will receive a $1500 rebate. To be eligible, the vehicle must be exclusively powered and refueled by electricity, plugged in to charge, and licensed to drive on public roadways. To learn more and submit a rebate application, visit the Electric Vehicle Rebate Program webpage after October 18, 2023: https://epa.illinois.gov/.../electric-vehicle-rebates.html

Cook County Power Purchase Agreement

Cook County has just agreed to purchase a significant amount of renewable energy supporting the construction of a new solar power site in Illinois. Cook County entered into a power purchase agreement (PPA), which will take effect in 2025 as part of a broader agreement with Constellation and Swift Current Energy, where the county will receive Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) to match the energy use at 18 Cook County buildings: including health clinics, office buildings, highway maintenance facilities, etc., which represents enough energy to support 24% of Cook County's asset portfolio. The agreement also provides funds for green job training, new construction jobs, and ecological habitat preservation around the site.

The Age of Climate Anxiety

by 350 Chicago, 8/20/23

At my lowest point, I was lying face down on the sofa not sure how on earth I could ever get up again. Crippled by a feeling I couldn’t even fully explain to my family and friends. 

Four years earlier my concerns about climate change led me to get a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies. After graduating I started to work as a campaigner for an environmental non-profit in Germany. For over a year we worked relentlessly to inform people about the crisis, sent out thousands of  mass emails urging voters to seize their power in upcoming elections, organized public protests to influence political negotiations, met with politicians and tried to figure out how we could further help the region speed up the transition towards a more sustainable future. Always aware that time is ticking and that the window to get emissions down is closing. Then, on February 24, 2022, Russia attacked Ukraine and time stood still on that day in the office. With all the challenges lying ahead, a new war in Europe causing its countries to rearm felt like a death blow on so many levels. I had experienced insomnia before and I knew what it felt like to occasionally feel helpless in the face of the complexity and the magnitude of the climate crisis and its devastating consequences. Weather extremes, natural disasters, food and water insecurity, violent conflict, war and the possibility of social collapse. Seeing this war play out however, made me spiral into paralysis. Much later I realized that it was fueled by an anxiety I shared with many and that more and more people are predicted to experience as the climate crisis unfolds. 

Climate anxiety, as defined by clinical psychologist Sarah Lowe, is distress about the impacts of climate change on humans and the landscape. It 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”. Physiological consequences, such as shortness of breath and heart racing can occur in a person suffering from climate anxiety, as well as behavioral consequences impacting social relationships or one’s capability to perform at work or school. Yet, researchers emphasize that climate anxiety is not primarily a disease but an understandable reaction to a world in turmoil. Pathologizing it can lead away from focusing on social causes and possible social responses to climate change. 

The “element of futurity” is what sets climate anxiety apart from frontline experiences of climate change. “When you’re seeing, live, your people drowning—that’s not climate anxiety”, says Isabella Tanjucto, who grew up in the Philippines, one of the nations most at risk to rising sea-levels. Some argue that the phenomenon of climate anxiety is thus “only for the privileged”, meaning people who haven’t experienced existential threats before and who are last to be impacted by climate change. Yet, one of the largest and most international studies on climate anxiety to date has found that it affects children and young people from a wide range of countries and income levels, as well as “differing levels of direct exposure to severe effects of climate change”. Being asked about their feelings, almost 60 percent of respondents, aged 16-25, said they were “extremely worried” and more than 45 percent reported that their feelings about climate change negatively impact their daily functioning. In the US one in ten Americans experiences at least one feature of climate distress, such as intrusive thoughts, feeling nervous, anxious, down, depressed, or hopeless. However, it is the groups of Hispanics/Latinos and younger generations of adults who researchers found to be most likely to experience serious levels of climate change-related anxiety. 

While climate anxiety can lead to serious mental health consequences, Anthony Leiserowitz and his team at the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication have found that it can also inspire individuals to take action. Not only are Americans who have experienced at least one feature of climate distress more likely to discuss issues surrounding climate change with family and friends, they are also more likely to take climate action than those who have not experienced distress. According to Leiserowitz, climate action can further “help individuals cope constructively and address climate change at the same time.“ Overall, researchers are at odds about the question of whether climate anxiety is primarily motivating or paralyzing and for whom. More research is needed and individual differences and experiences need to be considered. 

On my own journey within the last year, I have learned that I can’t outrun my anxiety and that I don’t have to. Feeling grief and distress in the face of breaking heat records, raging wildfires, ocean temperatures rising to abnormal temperatures and politicians unwilling or unable to act is a rational and empathic response. Only if I allow myself to feel these feelings, I can then process and channel them into action. Starting to do the internal work necessary to build resilience and continuing to find ways to constructively engage in climate action has helped me feel better, as well as being open about my struggles and finding a community of people sharing similar concerns. I still feel anxious, but I’m no longer paralyzed. I’m ready to take action - and I hope you will join us. 

If you want to learn more about the mental health impacts of the climate crisis and psychological responses to it, come join 350 Chicago’s next Monthly Speaker event with Marilee Feldman, who will speak about how to cope with climate anxiety, on August 24, at 7:00 pm at Adler University, or via Zoom. RSVP here and tell others about it. If you seek an opportunity to act, meet us at our next general meeting, join our mailing list, or find other ways to become active on this site. You are needed and we look forward to meeting you!

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