Climate anxiety, eco anxiety, solastalgia — whatever you choose to call it, there’s no doubt that the breakdown of the natural world can trigger feelings of doom, worry, and helplessness. Here in Canada, we’re experiencing first-hand the impacts of climate change and it’s disproportionately harming Indigenous, racialized, rural, and low-income communities.
From our health and safety, to our economy and our futures, the climate emergency has become impossible to ignore — especially as the impacts are hitting close to home for so many communities across Canada. Science shows that climate change is fuelling more frequent and severe environmental disasters. Our newsfeeds are filled with extreme weather events and climate emergencies — whether it be news of wildfires tearing across western Canada (including the beloved town of Jasper), a summer of record-breaking global temperatures, or the recent devastation in the wake of Hurricane Helene in the United States.
It’s taking a toll. After the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome, research found a 13 per cent rise in climate anxiety among folks in British Columbia. [1]
Climate anxiety, much like generalized anxiety disorder, can manifest as different symptoms in different people. This World Mental Health Day, let’s take a moment to examine the link between nature and mental wellbeing.
What is eco anxiety?
According to the Mental Health Commission of Canada, eco anxiety can include:
- Obsessive thoughts about the climate
- Guilt related to your own carbon impact
- Anger toward older generations or government officials who haven’t done enough to curb climate change
- Grief and sadness over the loss of natural environments
- Trouble sleeping or concentrating
- Changes in appetite
While it’s not officially a diagnosable mental illness, climate anxiety can be severe enough to impact people’s day-to-day quality of life.
Those most at risk? Young people, marginalized communities, Indigenous people, and anyone living or working on the frontlines of climate disasters.
Ecojustice is representing seven young people fighting the Ontario government for rolling back its climate target.
How many Canadians have climate anxiety?
As eco anxiety is not yet a diagnosable mental illness, it can be hard to put a figure on it. But research has consistently shown that people in Canada are feeling the effects of climate breakdown.
A worrying one-third of people in Canada exhibit symptoms of climate anxiety such as fatalistic thinking (“What’s the point?).
What is the link between nature and mental health?
Much has been written about the Japanese art of forest-bathing (shinrin-yoku) with plenty of studies showing the benefits of spending time in nature. But access to nature is not equal to all. [2]
Across provinces in Canada, PaRx is a nature prescription program that counts more than 13,000 regulated healthcare professionals, including almost 7 per cent of all practicing physicians in Canada. The aim is to make it easier for patients to get outside and experience the green spaces in their local area.
Here in B.C., the car-sharing service Evo is now offering free drive time for people who have received a doctor’s prescription for nature. And while the answer to making nature more accessible is clearly not…give everyone cars, it’s an interim solution until governments invest properly in transit.
How to manage eco anxiety
Maybe we’re not asking the right question. In a 2021 article for Scientific American, the author Sarah Jaquette Ray wrote:
“The prospect of an unlivable future has always shaped the emotional terrain for Black and brown people, whether that terrain is racism or climate change. Climate change compounds existing structures of injustice, and those structures exacerbate climate change. Exhaustion, anger, hope—the effects of oppression and resistance are not unique to this climate moment. What is unique is that people who had been insulated from oppression are now waking up to the prospect of their own unlivable future.”
It’s a sobering realization. Ray, who has written several books on the topic including A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet, suggests turning one’s lens outwards. Instead of asking, “How can I feel better?” she suggests those with privilege ask, “How am I connected to all this?”
“The answers,” she writes, “reveal that we are deeply interconnected with the well-being of others on this planet, and that there are traditions of environmental stewardship that can be guides for where we need to go from here.”
Research shows us that some of the most effective antidotes to climate anxiety are taking action and building community connections. One of the most impactful ways to influence change is through our votes. Engaging in elections (like the upcoming election in B.C.), attending debates, signing petitions and sending letters, asking candidates about their climate policies and — most importantly — voting for climate action can empower us to shape a more sustainable future.
References
[1] The 2021 Western North American heat dome increased climate change anxiety among British Columbians — The Journal of Climate Change and Health
[2] Why We Need To Talk About The Green Space Gap — inform
