How Do You Feel About Climate Change?
Adele O’Hare
Climate change is hard to think about. Not only because it is a hyperobject - a concept that has vitality and cohesion but is so distributed through space and time that we struggle to wrap our heads around it - but also because it is immensely painful to contemplate. Climate scientists engage intellectually with the reality of worsening climate change every day, and when they allow themselves to dip into their emotional experience of this reality, there is a complex mix of painful emotions. Their moving responses to the question “how does climate change make you feel?” are collected online at Isthishowyoufeel.com
Many of us experience distressing feelings such as anxiety, frustration, anger, grief, overwhelm, shame, guilt, and existential dread in connection with our understanding of human-caused climate change. Often these feelings are appropriate to the reality of the threat, and not a sign of pathology. But sometimes a person can be so distressed about the climate crisis that they cannot function or feel any joy. If your distress is intense, you might benefit from talking to a climate-aware psychologist or counsellor.
Silence about climate change is the cultural norm in most social situations, and everyday denial or disavowal of the issue can enter the therapy room. There is a temptation for both therapist and client to avoid, numb, or turn away from the issue. Counsellor Nell Azuri points out that when the therapist is able to recognise, be with, and contain their own distress - by connecting with others, thinking about different perspectives, taking action, and connecting to nature - they can help contain clients’ distress, increase coping capacity, and open up space for creative action on the problem. Therapy for climate anxiety aims not to lessen the fear but to transform it into effective action.
In research I completed for my masters thesis (soon to be published here), experiencing climate change anxiety was one of the characteristics that predicted whether a person would undertake deep behavioural engagement in climate action. The other key predictors were feeling a sense of personal duty to help mitigate climate change for the sake of others, including future generations, prioritising biospheric values around a connection to nature, and holding onto an active form of hope, with willingness to take active steps to respond to the climate emergency.
Janet Lewis and colleagues draw on existential psychotherapy to point out a connection between our collective denial of the full reality of the environmental crisis and our fears about our own mortality. In the words of psychotherapist Irvin Yalom,
“The integration of the idea of death saves us; rather than sentence us to existences of terror or bleak pessimism, it acts as a catalyst to plunge us into more authentic life modes, and it enhances our pleasure in the living of life. ”
Integrating the idea of the threat of climate breakdown means accepting that nature is a source of both danger and solace, life itself is a source of both grief and joy, and that both threats and possibilities coexist as we go forth into and unknown future. Accepting these dialectics, allowing ourselves to feel both awe and dread, can bring about “a newfound accommodation of the self to the vastness of our surroundings”, Lewis suggests.
Above all, you are not alone. For a deep dive into this work, The Work that Reconnects is a supportive framework drawing on deep ecology and the work of Joanna Macy to help you reflect with others and sustain hope and purpose. Emma Brindal and Em Maltby are running a weekend retreat as an extended experience of The Work that Reconnects in September 2024 at Wild Mountains on Yugambeh Country (the Scenic Rim in south-east Queensland).
Blanche Verlie has a book and many resources and links on the difficult task of learning to live with climate change at her website https://www.learningtolivewithclimatechange.org/.
As always, reach out if you need a climate aware psychologist to be with you in the storm.
“One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times.”
