Eco-anxiety how it affects us and our wellbeing
This post was written by a student. It has not been fact checked or edited.
I have picked Eco-anxiety because people stress about it and I believe that it is affecting us and our world. Also, Climate change affects us by thinking what will happen next to us, to our world. Eco-anxiety is not just making people stress it makes them worry in lots of ways. In this essay, I will present to you positives and negatives of Eco-anxiety and their aspects.
Firstly, across the world Eco-anxiety has increased dramatically due to the extreme heat waves,global warming and climate change. Unfortunately, in 2022 the office of Nation statistics found out that 62% of people in the UK were afraid that rising temperatures were going to affect them by 2023! Additionaly, people may get panic attacks wich leads them to BIG problems in life.
One of the main positives about Eco-anxiety is that it motivates people to change the world. Instead of being scared they are brave and go out to the world and make a change People start to stop climate change by saving energy at home, riding a bike instead of using a car, Avoid products with lots of packaging and use less hot water too.
In my opinion, Eco-anxiety has affected the world massively. People say that it can cause a sensation or even depression. They may express a strong sence of guilt about the situation of the planet. People suffer from eco-anxiety as the devastating events on earth can seriously affect people leading to them becoming eco-anxious people. However, many people don’t care about this and just continue to do things that affect our planet.Eco-anxiety is real and therefore people must be informed about it before they even expierience it.
Comments (4)
I agree with this comment because i can relate to it. Today, there are many problems with the world which were caused by us. For example, places who used to have a lot of ice now are melting away. This is also affecting the wild life there like polar bears. Furthermore, i think that this is a very important topic to talk about because we need to shape this world for the next generation and we need to make sure that it is still habitable for us and the future generations.
I strongly agree with you and can relate to it as well. Nowadays eco-anxiety is growing globally as a discussion topic. Many people are facing it including me. Whenever I hear about death and catastrophe due to natural disasters like wildfire, floods, hurricane, droughts, etc. I get chills in my spine. It makes me wonder, “how natural these actually are? Is there anything we humans can do about it?” This brings to mind the title of Alistair MacLean’s famous novel, “Fear is the Key”. Fear can truly be a bilateral key to environmental issues. Hearing about climate change fills my young mind with fear and gives me horrendous thoughts about the future. I am sure this is similar for a lot of other people. Now there are two ways a person can act in this scenario. Fear may motivate you to go plant a sapling, reduce plastic and reuse paper and motivate others to prevent a foreseen future and take actions yourselves, the World has seen many such great examples such as Greta Thunberg, who realized the need of the hour and started working on it, but that isn't enough. If we truly want society to prosper we must join hands and work on it together because climate change is a real issue and it is happening today, it’s not just the future so stop procrastinating, for it is the actions that we make today that affect the future. It isn't that tough, coming from the cleanest city of India I myself have seen public policy and mentality prompt achievement towards the global goals when the people united.
On the other hand we need to realize that not all humans are the same. So, is it okay to keep scaring everyone into achieving global goals? We need to look upon both sides of the coin, we need to imagine how a child whose mind has not even properly been molded yet would react when he hears that he may not have a future and that his family and his planet are on the brink of chaos and disarray. Not just children, such news and fear can have a very deep and negative impact on adults as well. This is not just imagination, there have been several examples of the wrong impact of eco-anxiety. In a clubhouse discussion in central India, it was found that almost all the participants didn’t want to have kids, because they thought the planet was on its way to ruins. Most of them were deeply disturbed looking at the visuals of wildfires, landslides in hilly areas and floods. They described having sleepless nights and a feeling of fast approaching apocalypse hanging over them.
In Kerala, a 21-year-old student had a “full blown anxiety attack” when he read the Environmental Impact Assessment draft notification of 2020.
Hello humble_sheep, i really admire your standpoint, it explains the problems of eco-anxiety which are very vital in the present world.
Eco-anxiety has arisen as an important issue in contemporary society, ignited by amplifying environmental dilemmas like extreme heat waves, climate change and global warming. Some researchers have noticed an increasing trend in anxiety levels, with a significant portion of their population, approximately 62% in the UK, raising concerns about the imminent effects of climate change. This anxiety often displays in devastating panic attacks and a ubiquitous sense of concern about our future. However, among the disadvantageous effects, eco-anxiety habits some benefits which act as a potent catalyst for positive change, inspiring people to take proactive actions towards environmental conservation. Actions like energy conservation, sustainable transportation, and renewable consumption patterns are increasingly uplifted because individuals endeavour to control their carbon footprint. As well, the effects of eco-anxiety have caused people to enter depression, due to guilt experienced through the negative effects of global warming. Lastly, increasing awareness about eco-anxiety is sonificant to strengthen individuals to face and address this persistent issue before its negative effects become even more widespread and critical.
I agree that eco-anxiety is a big issue and needs to be discussed more often. Eco-anxiety is a big impact on our well-being, and we should acknowledge it as much as possible. We should work harder to resolve climate change and news reporters should balance news about climate change more. I think when we turn on the news and hear about climate change, there's more of the negative news than the positive. This has affected the world massively. I also agree that this can be a positive because it can push people even more to help with climate change, and I think everyone should set goals to reduce how much they use or do something to help climate change issues like air pollution, which is one of the biggest climate change issues worldwide. There has been many wildfires in lots of places, and this also connects to the heat that climate change causes.