Fri, Oct 08, 2021 page6

• Fear of environmental doom weighs on young people

  • The Guardian
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  The climate crisis is taking a growing toll on the mental health of children and young people, experts have said.

  Increasing levels of “eco-anxiety” — the chronic fear of environmental doom — are likely to be underestimated and damaging to many in the long term, public health experts said.

  Writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), Mala Rao and Richard Powell of Imperial College London’s Department of Primary Care and Public Health said that eco-anxiety “risks exacerbating health and social inequalities between those more or less vulnerable to these psychological impacts.”

  Although not yet considered a diagnosable condition, recognition of eco-anxiety and its complex psychological effects are increasing, as are its “disproportionate” effects on children and young people, they said.

  In their article, they point to a survey last year of child psychiatrists in England showing that more than half (57 percent) are seeing children and young people distressed about the climate crisis and the state of the environment.

  A recent international survey of climate anxiety in young people aged 16 to 25 showed that the psychological burdens of climate crisis were “profoundly affecting huge numbers of these young people around the world,” they added.

  Rao and Powell called on global leaders to “recognize the challenges ahead, the need to act now, and the commitment necessary to create a path to a happier and healthier future, leaving no one behind.”

  Research offers insights into how young people’s emotions are linked with their feelings of betrayal and abandonment by governments and adults, they said.

  Government officials are seen as failing to respond adequately, leaving young people with “no future” and “humanity doomed.”

  Their warning comes a week after Greta Thunberg excoriated global leaders, dismissing their promises to address the climate emergency as “blah, blah, blah.”

  In April, Thunberg quoted British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who derisively used the phrase “bunny hugging” to describe climate activism.

  She said: “This is not some expensive, politically correct, green act of bunny hugging.”

  By 2030, carbon emissions are expected to rise by 16 percent, the UN has said, rather than fall by half, which is the cut needed to keep global heating under the internationally agreed limit of 1.5°C.

  Rao and Powell said that it is important to consider what can be done to alleviate the rising levels of climate anxiety.

  “The best chance of increasing optimism and hope in the eco-anxious young and old is to ensure they have access to the best and most reliable information on climate mitigation and adaptation,” they said. “Especially important is information on how they could connect more strongly with nature, contribute to greener choices at an individual level, and join forces with like-minded communities and groups.”

  Separately, new research also published in the BMJ suggests that changing unhealthy behavior could be key to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

  Theresa Marteau of the University of Cambridge said that technological innovation alone would be insufficient.

  Adopting a largely plant-based diet and taking most journeys using a combination of walking, cycling and public transport would substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve health, she said.
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