Climate anxious? Here’s how you can turn apprehension into action

‘It’s a matter of survival. Nobody else is going to stand up for us unless we do.’ Illustration: Guardian Design/Getty Images

In recent years, the term “climate anxiety” has gone from obscure to familiar, underscoring a growing awareness of how witnessing escalating climate disasters affects our mental health.

“Climate anxiety”, and the more acute “climate trauma” and “climate grief” are phrases that, as Dr Sarah Lowe, a psychologist researching climate and mental health at Yale University, explains, encapsulate our varied emotional and cognitive reactions to a rapidly changing environment. A striking 2021 study from the University of Bath underscored the depth of this concern: half of the youth respondents admitted feelings of fear, sadness, powerlessness and guilt regarding our planet’s ecological trajectory, with a staggering 75% finding the future “frightening”.