It is time to grieve – climate anxiety’s underlying feeling.
The one word or phrase I would use to describe the themes that have surfaced in therapy this week is “existential angst” and “climate anxiety.” We have a sensation that our world is rapidly changing around us, and it’s been difficult to adjust.
And the world has changed – dramatically. Globally, we have collectively been through a collective trauma – COVID impacted everyone, everywhere. This worldly event highlighted to us that large-scale global catastrophes are possible, and actually can (and did) happen. As this information has settled into our collective unconscious, other threats we’ve ignored for years begin to loom in our minds.
These other threats are climate change and the rapid loss of biodiversity within our own lifetimes. I was born in the early 80s, and since then, 69% of biodiversity has disappeared. That is two-thirds of all species that have disappeared from our planet. This is a staggering loss, and if we allow ourselves to feel that, it is truly devastating. This fact is so astonishing that our minds and souls shy away from it. But no matter who you are, whether an environmentalist or just an average oil worker, this loss is enormous and has a profound impact on all human beings.
Our human systems are intricately linked with nature. We perceive the world through our senses – what we see, smell, hear and touch. We are designed to be sensitive instruments of our environment. Our nervous systems are hardwired for perception. When someone frowns or smiles at you, a series of chemical reactions impacts your experience and emotional response. Being in nature bathes our systems with chemical and energetic information that decreases our stress response and has a physical impact on our bodies.
Humans are part of the natural world.
To separate the human from the natural world is one of the greatest crimes against humanity I can imagine. How can we possibly act with empathy and responsiveness when we are living in a psychotic world that is out of touch with itself?
Our disconnection from the natural world is the clear reason for our decreasing levels of human well-being. Depression, anxiety, addiction and burnout dominate our societies because we have been separated from what makes us human – the part of us that belongs to the natural world. Ultimately, underneath our rising mental health crisis lies a collective unease at what is happening to nature. The more we pretend it isn’t happening and spend our time being indignant about politics, sports, and other meaningless things, the more the underlying problem persists. That problem is unfelt grief, and perhaps shame at our own acquiescence.
Don’t you feel it, niggling at your conscience every time you buy an unnecessary item, get on an airplane, drive to work when you could take the train, or throw something out you bought only a few months ago, and you know it’s going to a landfill?
That unease has a small whisper of shame. Because we all could have done more. We could have insisted louder for change, and implemented personal changes that would have made a difference. Even now, as the rise of AI technology threatens to push our ecosystems even further off the ledge, we still do nothing.
The reality is that it’s too hard. It is too hard to live outside of societal pressures and dress in used clothing that isn’t stylish. It’s too hard not to succumb to the consumerism that drives our society. It is too challenging for politicians to enact the necessary laws to save the world, and setting limits on their citizens to require ecological change would be an unpopular choice, likely costing them their jobs.
And it’s too hard for corporations to give up profit and competitive advantage to make products that last longer and decrease the environmental load. It is too difficult for shareholders to relinquish their share of the profits and demand change.
It all just seems too hard, but the cost to our future and to future generations will be staggering.
It was much easier for us all to stick our heads in the sand and pretend. We pretend climate change isn’t happening. We pretend our personal decisions don’t have an impact on the collective whole. We pretend that only a small group of evil people’s inaction caused the problem. We sat comfortably around, blaming others – anything to avoid the chasm of shame that lives within, knowing we are all part of the problem.
After we were done pretending, we got distracted. We were distracted by social media, which encouraged us to focus on achieving a thinner, wealthier, or more beautiful lifestyle and creating more exciting lives. We are still distracted.
But the reality is that the world, as we know it, is irrevocably changing.
And it is changing at such an alarming rate that we can no longer ignore it. We are beginning to feel it. I feel that colossal loss every time I go hiking and see only one or two rare birds, if I see any at all. I read the nature signs erected back in the 90s, inviting you to listen to the bird song all around. I look up, hopefully, and a single bird chirps.
However, I am a therapist, and within that realm of influence, I believe it is time to start asking people – how much of your anxiety includes the hidden grief of climate change?
If we can begin to let ourselves feel this grief, resolve our shame at our own inaction, we might summon the energy and passion to change our collective destiny.
If you’re feeling anxious about our changing climate, please reach out for support.
