What to do
Recognise what you’re feeling and learn to accept it
It’s important to not judge your emotional response to climate change. Emotions, including climate emotions, are vital compasses with which we navigate through life, and they are precious signals that inform us about what is important to us.
One way to understand climate anxiety – and to accept having some degree of it – is to see it as a manifestation of the adaptive stress response, the physiological mechanism that evolved to help us protect ourselves from danger. A classic example is when the body prepares to respond to a threat (say, a large predator) so that it can react appropriately, such as by fleeing or fighting the threat. When the stress response is transient, it can be seen as adaptive. The problem arises when one is chronically stuck in a stress response because the threat is ongoing, or because one is responding to a potential future threat, and there is nowhere to flee to. This is a scenario that the climate crisis, unfortunately, matches very well.
Climate-related emotions are valid responses to the situation we’re in, and should first of all be treated as such. Having established that, let’s direct our attention towards identifying what, exactly, you are feeling. Naming your feelings is the first step towards being able to manage them, and it can be very helpful in lowering your distress levels.
How does naming emotions help? When an emotion is activated, it can feel as if, in a sense, you are the emotion, rather than simply experiencing and observing it. When you name your emotion, the physiological activation is typically reduced in intensity, and you are able to become curious about the emotion. You take on an ‘observer’ perspective, which creates psychological distance from the emotion, allowing you to stay in the moment more lucidly rather than reacting automatically in ways that could be unhelpful. Sometimes when people feel emotions that, for them, are particularly distressing and uncomfortable, they do all sorts of things to avoid them, including avoiding certain behaviours or engaging in impulsive behaviours. They might also make up stories to match the feeling (eg, ‘If I feel this anxious, it must mean that something terrible is about to happen right now’), which can reinforce and exacerbate the initial emotion.
If you are highly anxious about climate concerns, you might have a difficult time reading or watching the news on climate-related events, since they might trigger intense physical sensations (such as rapid breathing and heart rate or tightness in the chest) or even cause you to have difficulty sleeping, especially if you doomscroll at night before going to bed. Perhaps you avoid climate-related content altogether. Alternatively, you might seek out excessive amounts of information in a counterproductive attempt to reassure yourself that the end of the world as we know it is not yet near, or to try to gain a sense of control by, say, repetitively checking for extreme weather forecasts. While the concern is valid, the associated responses will typically not be very helpful for your emotional wellbeing in the long run and might exacerbate the initial feelings, creating a self-reinforcing loop of distress.
Climate anxiety can also be associated with a range of other feelings, and these are worth recognising as well. You might get upset with yourself and feel intense guilt after adopting behaviours that contribute to carbon pollution, such as driving a car or booking a flight for a vacation – and perhaps you even convince yourself that you are a ‘bad person’. Or, you could feel anger towards family members or colleagues who deny that climate change is a problem, or who engage in detrimental behaviours. You might angrily repost stories of catastrophes hoping that it will wake people up to the devastating effects of climate change, or even get into heated discussions online with people who don’t share the same concerns.
To help you recognise your climate-related emotions, you can check out the climate emotions wheel, based on the works of the eco-emotions scholar Panu Pihkala and created by the Climate Mental Health Network. It’s a handy tool to help you practise labelling all your feelings in response to climate issues (it includes positive emotions – such as the inspiration you might feel in response to climate activism – in addition to negative ones).
It can be helpful to practise naming your emotions when they are intense and strong enough to easily identify. This is usually when there is also a physical sensation involved or a behaviour component (like the urge to do or say something). Once you are more familiar with your emotional reactions, it’ll be easier to catch them even at lower intensities.
Practise techniques for handling your feelings more gently
In addition to naming your climate emotions, there are exercises you can do anywhere, including at home or at work, that can help you build your capacity to handle the more challenging ones.
One useful exercise is diaphragmatic breathing, which promotes a bodily state of calm and relaxation that is incompatible with anxiety and stress. At first, you might want to practise this even when you are not particularly agitated or stressed, just to get the hang of it. Then you’ll be ready to apply it on occasions when climate-related anxiety feels especially paralysing.
To get started, find a quiet and comfortable place if you can. Try to relax your posture as you get into a comfortable position. When you are first trying this exercise, lying on a flat surface can help you notice the movement of your stomach as you breathe. Closing your eyes is optional if it helps you relax and focus on breathing. Place one hand on your chest and one on your stomach as a means to check if you are breathing correctly.
Inhale slowly through your nose, trying to expand your diaphragm as much as you can until you reach your maximum lung capacity, and noticing your hand moving as your stomach inflates much like a balloon. Your chest should not rise too much if you are doing this correctly. You can hold your breath for a few seconds if you’d like. Then, slowly let the air out through your mouth as you notice your hand on your stomach come down. You might want to keep count, inhaling and then exhaling for about four seconds each, just to make sure you are taking your time. To practise, you can try diaphragmatic breathing for 10 minutes twice a day until you’ve got it down.
A different, more routine practice that can be helpful for people with climate anxiety is mindfulness meditation, which involves paying attention to the present moment without judgment. Since anxiety is triggered by future-orientated negative thoughts, it can be useful to actively practise (perhaps once a day) being in the present and creating distance from distressing thoughts by allowing yourself to just observe them.
A simple mindfulness meditation practice can be done by, firstly, finding (once again) a comfortable and quiet place to sit or lie down. You can close your eyes and bring your attention to your breath without counting breaths or worrying about exactly how you’re breathing. Simply notice the sensation of each inhale and exhale, focusing on where you feel the air going and the feeling of air passing through your nostrils. If your mind wanders, which it most certainly will, gently bring your focus back to your breath, without judgment. You can also expand your awareness to other physical sensations – such as the feeling of your feet on the ground if you are standing, or the feeling of the chair pressing against your back if you are sitting – as well as the sounds around you (the fridge humming, neighbours talking, cars honking, birds outside your window, and so on).
Notice and challenge catastrophising thoughts
Oftentimes when someone experiences anxiety or related feelings of panic or fear, they have been engaging in catastrophic thinking, or imagining the worst-case scenario, to the point where their mind and body react as if that scenario were happening. Catastrophic thinking in relation to climate change is very much focused on future catastrophes that could happen, rather than on what has already happened (which might understandably generate sadness and grief).
Imagining worst-case scenarios is not a helpful strategy: it does not provide the mental space needed to properly plan – say, for an evacuation, in case of an actual severe weather event – but rather places you in a condition of heightened emotional vulnerability, which interferes with clear-headed problem-solving and planning. If you find yourself thinking of events that might happen without engaging in actual planning or problem-solving, you might be engaging in catastrophic thinking, also called catastrophising.
For other potential clues that you are doing this, ask whether your thought is non-specific, and triggers anxiety without considering the actual likelihood of something happening. For example: ‘What if crops stop growing and there’s a massive food shortage, and we all die of hunger? How terrible would that be!’ This thought is indeed non-specific (what would stop growing – all crops or some crops?). While technically this could potentially happen, we really don’t know, at this point in time, what the future holds. There are still many possible scenarios that could develop.
A useful technique to challenge catastrophic thinking related to climate change is what’s called the empirical dispute, used in rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT) and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). The scope of disputing, in the context of climate change, is not to deny climate change itself or its devastating consequences, but rather to reformulate distressing thoughts to make them more manageable, so that alternative and more useful beliefs can guide your behaviours.
The idea is to challenge the distressing thought with evidence. Ask yourself: is there evidence to support this catastrophic scenario? For example, while weather patterns and rising temperatures are impacting crop growth, there are various agricultural practices and technologies in place to mitigate such risks. Food scientists are studying sustainable food-system alternatives. Moreover, governments and organisations are working to prevent and address food shortages. Try then to generate realistic alternative possibilities. For instance, consider the possibility of adaptive measures being taken in response to changes in weather patterns, such as irrigation systems or the development of drought-resistant crops.
You could also try another thought-disputing technique, the pragmatic dispute. In doing this, you ask: how does this thought serve me? Is it actually helpful in some way? If your answer is no, then you’ll want to try shifting to a more helpful focus, one that is more anchored in the present. The aim is not only to reduce anxiety, but to be able to better direct your time and effort towards actions that are useful to you and perhaps to the larger community. For example, taming anxiety-provoking and preoccupying thoughts might allow you to redirect your energy to aiding communities in vulnerable areas, such as by helping to combat food loss through food drives and food banks, or helping to plant a community garden for increased food security.
If your challenging thoughts are focused instead on the potential consequences that you fear your past behaviours might have on the planet, considering the bigger picture could help deflate the sense of anxiety or guilt you feel. It is crucial to recognise that significant systemic factors – particularly the activities of the fossil fuel industry – outweigh individual contributions to the problem of climate change.
If you’d like, you can learn more about how to defuse catastrophic thinking in my previous Guide on the subject. While the climate crisis can seem pretty bleak at times, it’s important to recognise that progress is still being made, albeit not as fast as it needs to be. There are people around the globe working tirelessly to tackle this enormous crisis from political, economic, agricultural, social, psychological and spiritual standpoints.
Stop doomscrolling and seek balanced news sources
Excessive exposure to climate-related news can increase anxiety, especially when it is negative, catastrophic news. As the psychologist Per Espen Stoknes has highlighted, doom narratives in climate change communication tend not to motivate people but rather become an obstacle to engagement, triggering a sense of helplessness and even avoidance. Doom narratives will have undertones of hopelessness, with ‘end of the world’ scenarios offered gratuitously, which might include repetitive messages about ‘final warnings’ and it being ‘too late’ for any significant change. In fact, experts instead say that every fraction of a degree in global temperature increases that we avoid can make a difference.
A doom mentality is arguably even more dangerous than climate-change denial, because it promotes paralysis and disengagement from climate action. Balanced news sources won’t avoid the ‘bad’ climate news altogether, but they will also discuss the solutions that are already being employed or that are being developed for the near future.
Becoming more mindful of not only what you expose yourself to, but for how long, can be extremely helpful. Try this exercise: jot down where you get your climate-related news; how many times a day you come into contact with it; how much time you spend reading and scrolling; and, how it makes you feel. If you start to see a connection between doomscrolling and your (negative) mood, it can become easier to decide to reduce it. You can try to limit your scrolling to, say, a maximum of 15 minutes a day and see if your mood improves. If that is still too distressing, perhaps avoid it altogether for several weeks, until you have practised the strategies I described earlier in the Guide and feel more confident about managing your climate emotions. Then see how you feel when you return to reading the news regularly and come across climate-related stories.
Another strategy is to replace some sources with more balanced and solution-focused climate news sources (such as The Daily Climate), or to look out for and follow climate activists on social media who report progress on important causes related to climate change.
Seek safe spaces to explore your feelings
Look for physical or virtual spaces in which sharing climate emotions in a safe and open manner is prioritised. Of course, you can reach out to friends and family and share your feelings with them if you think they would be open to hearing your concerns. Talking about climate change might still seem a bit taboo in some areas, as people underestimate the number of other individuals who are as concerned as they are. The data shows that, in reality, most people are concerned, even if they are not talking about it openly.
You can also choose to attend a free climate café – a type of informal support group – to explore your feelings about climate change in a safe, welcoming and nonjudgmental space with others. Climate cafés are offered locally or online, and some associations, like the Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA), organise them periodically to provide space for sharing feelings, thoughts and experiences. The CPA runs climate cafés in North America and the United Kingdom. In Australia, the organisation Psychology for a Safe Climate also offers climate cafés.
Another very accessible way to explore your feelings with help from others is to listen to climate-related podcasts that are insightful and thoughtful, without being overwhelming. For instance, on the podcast Climate Change and Happiness, the climate psychologist Thomas Doherty and the scholar Panu Pihkala reflect, along with guests, on how to coexist with climate emotions while fostering hope and emotional resilience.
The goal of exploring and possibly sharing your feelings about climate change – whether it be with a friend, at a climate café, or by listening to others express thoughts and emotions that resonate with you – is to increase your sense of connection and support. Sharing painful experiences has been shown to promote bonding and solidarity. Human beings thrive on building networks of support and helping one another, especially in the face of a crisis.
Take collective action and build community
There are various individual actions you can take to help reduce your personal impact on the climate – with one of the most impactful being to adopt more sustainable eating behaviours. However, engaging in meaningful collective action could help to reduce climate anxiety in a more prolonged way. Like the act of sharing feelings, collective action can reduce the sense of aloneness that many people feel, while fostering connections with like-minded others.
To get involved, you can look up local groups, associations or a local chapter of national or international organisations that tackle a climate-related issue that is important to you. You might start by looking up local organisations that make up the Climate Action Network, or by checking out lists of the many other relevant organisations across the globe.
Issues of interest could include:
- Raising awareness about climate change and advocating for local policies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions
- Advocating for governmental climate action plans
- Promoting public transportation, cycling and walking as alternatives to driving
- Advocating for Indigenous populations and lands
- Educating others about waste reduction and promoting recycling initiatives
- Planting trees in deforested areas or urban environments
- Creating community gardens
- Cleaning up natural spaces
It might be tempting to skip the previous strategies and jump right into action. But it’s important to note that, although taking action can alleviate distress by lessening some of the despair and other feelings you might have, difficult climate-related emotions do still need to be acknowledged and expressed. Purposeful action is helpful, but it’s not an antidote for challenging feelings that, sooner or later, will catch up with you. Climate action can also easily lead to burnout if you don’t properly pace yourself, adopt helpful emotional strategies, and consistently seek connection and support from fellow humans.
It’s also important to remember that, while our actions (especially collective ones) can make a difference, you are not individually responsible for the massive scale of pollution and fossil-fuel emissions that are causing climate change. Ultimately, a global social, political and economic problem of such magnitude and complexity requires change on a systemic level – the kind of change that groups of concerned people can encourage. So I recommend keeping this mantra in mind: you are not responsible for the problem, but you can be part of the solution.
