The Cure For Climate Crisis Anxiety

Climate-crisis anxiety denial is everywhere. But this week it’s impossible to ignore our worries; With the country melting I can no longer distract myself from my fears about global heating. But speaking to activists has shown me how to counter this terror

Zoe Williams, 18 July 2022 (UK Guardian)

“…All over the world, as governments broadcast warm words to a warming planet, corporations are planning and lobbying for fossil fuel projects which, if they get off the ground, will sail us casually past our carbon targets…[Stopping this might lead to legal] avenues, direct action, political routes, or everything all at once…Climate anxiety is associated with gen Z. They have grown up learning about the crisis from primary school…[and, in secondary school, studying] back-to-back disaster scenarios…[and reading more about when] they take to TikTok…

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…[but] older generations use denial to avoid] the discomfort of admitting you’re petrified…Climate-crisis anxiety denial, though, is everywhere…but people who are constructively fighting the climate crisis seem to be a lot saner. One might think, intuitively, that full-on immersion in environmental politics would be a recipe for a nervous breakdown, and certainly those who are closest to the data are the least likely to make idiotic Panglossian remarks. But a steely calm settles over people when they know they’re doing everything they can…

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I’m thinking of Rupert Read, one of the early “Extinction Rebels”; Tessa Khan, who is a veteran climate lawyer; Greta Thunberg, who really doesn’t enjoy being mobbed and is mobbed wherever she goes; Vanessa Nakate, one of sunniest people I’ve ever met, who is in round-the-clock discussions about mass starvation…The answer to terror, and I’m not preaching, I’m just saying this to myself out loud, is to do more.” click here for more

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