Abstract
Climate change is and has been a prominent topic in the world’s daily lives. We have, are, and will continue to hear about issues and updates regarding environmental change, usually on the negative side rather than a positive outlook. All of these years of perceiving the negative outcomes due to climate change have striked climate anxiety, also known as eco-anxiety or eco-grief, on a very large number of people around the world. Although climate anxiety has not been officially declared as a condition or mental health disorder, there have been more and more patients seen at mental health clinics where they show extreme symptoms of climate anxiety. It is important to understand that simply worrying about climate change is not the same as climate anxiety. There are two main branches of climate anxiety, the apocalyptic branch and the complex feelings branch. The apocalyptic branch is where the individual is very anxious about the idea of death and extinction due to climate change where the complex feelings branch is where individuals feel a sense of guilt, grief, and loss due to what has happened to the world’s environment. As humans of all ages are now very commonly exposed to climate change as a whole, climate anxiety is an extremely important topic to address as it often derives from the lack of actual knowledge regarding climate change. Numerous coping and adaptive mechanisms are available and need to be shared with the world to understand the validation of climate anxiety.
Presenters
Larry BianStudent, Interior Design, Wilson School of Design at KPU, British Columbia, Canada
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
Human Impacts and Responsibility
KEYWORDS
CLIMATE, CHANGE, ANXIETY, ENVIRONMENT, ENVIRONMENTAL, GRIEF, MENTAL, HEALTH
