Story at a glance
- Climate change-related anxiety has been on the rise in recent years, particularly among younger individuals.
- Researchers sought to determine to what extent these worries could spur individuals to take action against the crisis.
- They found that eco-anxiety can lead to some positive lifestyle changes aimed at reducing individuals’ carbon footprint.
The deluge of climate change-related headlines can lead to anxiety in some readers worried about the fate of the planet. But new research suggests some who experience climate anxiety are more motivated to carry out climate conscious actions in their own lives.
Writing in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, a team of researchers from the University of Bath in the United Kingdom found “climate anxiety may not necessarily be a negative impact of, or maladaptive response to, climate change; but rather, at least to some degree, be a motivating force for effective action.”
The American Psychological Association defines climate anxiety or eco-anxiety as concern about climate change coupled with worry about the future, which leads to “fear, anger, feelings of powerlessness, exhaustion, stress and sadness.”
Previous research has found the condition is more common among young individuals.
In the current study, researchers conducted an online survey in late 2020 and in 2022 among 1,338 individuals from the U.K. public.
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Nearly half of those surveyed (46.2 percent) said they were very or extremely worried about climate change. In 2022, 4.6 percent of respondents had climate anxiety, compared with 4 percent in 2020. Eco-anxiety was more common among younger participants and those with higher generalized anxiety.
In addition, data showed higher climate anxiety was predictive of higher frequency of some pro-environmental behaviors like encouraging others to save energy, buying second-hand items, borrowing or renting items and repurposing items, authors wrote, noting these actions entail a degree of effort compared with more easily achieved actions like avoiding wasting food.
Other green consumer decisions like cutting down on red meat, which has been shown to be highly effective at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, were not associated with climate anxiety.
Furthermore, individual experiences with climate change-related natural disasters were not predictive of climate anxiety. Instead, researchers found media exposure, like images of storms or heat waves on television, was more predictive of eco-anxiety.
“With increasing media coverage of climate impacts, such as droughts and fires in the UK and devastating flooding in Pakistan, climate anxiety may well increase,” said study co-author Lorraine Whitmarsh, an environmental psychologist at the University of Bath in a statement.
“Our findings suggest this can spur some people to take action to help tackle the issue – but we also know there are barriers to behavior change that need to be addressed through more government action,” Whitmarsh added.
The authors conclude the media plays an important role when it comes to influencing perceptions of climate change and eco-anxiety.
“Clarifying what sorts of media content and channels trigger or exacerbate climate anxiety would be a helpful step for future research,” they wrote.
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