Americans Anxious About Climate Change

April 20, 2022 – When Rachel Lendner, a 52-year-old well being educator based mostly in Teaneck, NJ, heard that this February was the warmest in historical past, her coronary heart skipped a beat.

“I’ve a bodily response of tension to listening to about local weather change,” she says, partly as a result of she is a mum or dad. “What are we doing to this planet?”

A new poll from the American Psychiatric Association (APA) finds Lendner is not alone in her worries. The nationally representative poll done between March 19 and March 21 of this year shows that 51% of the 2,210 Americans surveyed are anxious about climate change and its impact on future generations.

“When you read about an ice shelf the size of the island of Manhattan breaking off Antarctica, it’s a very tangible, dramatic representation of climate change’s impact,” APA President Vivian Pender, MD, said in a news release. “But there are so many unseen mental health impacts as well, whether it’s in the anxiety over our children and grandchildren’s future, or the trauma to those who are physically displaced by fires or violent storms.”

Widespread Mental Health Effects

Each month, the APA does polls focusing on a topic affecting mental health, Pender told WebMD. “APA’s position for many years is that climate change is a public health problem with widespread mental health impacts,” she said.

Most people polled (58%) said that climate change is already impacting the general health of Americans, and 48% said that it affects the mental health of Americans, although more were worried about the impact of climate change on the planet than on their mental health (55% vs. 39%, respectively).

People were divided on how news about climate change affects their mood, with 42% reporting it affects them “some” or “a lot,” and 43% reporting “not much” or “not at all.”

“Some amount of anxiety and discouragement in relation to the climate crisis is a normal response,” Pender said. She advised “assessing your behavior,” especially if you have a mood condition, because you might be “a little more affected than others by some of these climate events.”

For example, if you are feeling more cranky or angry, using alcohol or drugs more often, not sleeping well, or don’t have much of an appetite, “it’s important not to dismiss those feelings and changes but to do something about them,” she mentioned, both by checking along with your major care physician or a psychiatrist.

Young Adults More Anxious

Anxiety ranges had been even greater in younger adults aged 18-34 years. Of this group, 66% had been anxious in regards to the impact of local weather change on the planet, 51% had been frightened about its impression on their psychological well being, and 59% had been frightened about its impression on future generations. People on this age group had been additionally extra prone to imagine local weather change is already affecting Americans’ bodily well being (64%) and psychological well being (57%).

There could also be many causes younger individuals reported extra nervousness than their older counterparts, Pender mentioned. “Talking about psychological well being is extra acceptable within the present period, with social media connectedness amongst younger adults, so they might be extra keen to specific their emotions of tension.”

Young individuals, particularly teenagers, additionally “are typically extra idealistic and take into consideration what’s necessary in life.”

The fixed use of social media by younger individuals “means they’re on the web extra, on their telephones on a regular basis, so that they’re extra linked with individuals to speak about how they’re feeling, they usually’re extra linked with the information, and are capable of comply with minute-by-minute any occasion, together with local weather occasions, which can be occurring world wide,” Pender mentioned.

Women had been extra seemingly than males to really feel anxious when occupied with the potential impression of local weather change on future generations, a discovering that Pender didn’t discover stunning. This “could need to do with the variety of girls typically frightened about their kids and their future,” she mentioned.

Among all of the individuals polled, 53% imagine local weather change is attributable to human exercise, 16% imagine the trigger just isn’t but decided, 13% imagine it’s attributable to one thing apart from human exercise, 8% don’t imagine in local weather change, and 11% don’t have any opinion. Democrats had been significantly prone to really feel anxious when occupied with the impression of local weather change on future generations (69% of individuals polled).

A ‘Public Health Emergency’

David Barg, a 52-year-old businessman based mostly in Cherry Hill, NJ, says he’s “anxious about the truth that different persons are anxious about local weather change,” as a result of he believes it’s “fully exaggerated and it’s pointless for normal individuals to fret.”

While he says local weather change is happening, he predicts no “dire penalties taking place within the subsequent thousand years.”

In distinction, Lendner could be very involved. “I really feel that people who find themselves denying there’s an issue with local weather change produce other political beliefs that scare me, they usually make me very anxious,” she says. “When we start talking about the political climate, I have physical feelings of anxiety that the world is a scary place.”

Personal experience may affect people’s views on climate change. People in the Northeast and Western regions of the U.S. reported being more worried about the impact of climate change on the planet (57% and 58%, respectively), rather than the Midwest and South (50% and 54%, respectively).

People living in the West have faced weather disasters, such as wildfires, which may contribute to their concerns.

“It’s one thing to be prepared for any climate event, but it’s another thing to live through a climate-related disaster, which can be very traumatic and cause grief – especially if a person has lost a loved one or lost their home or there are financial losses,” Pender said. She encouraged people who have had these traumas to seek help in dealing with them.

In a news release, Elizabeth Haase, MD, chair of the APA Committee on Climate Change, described climate change as a “public health emergency.”

“We can’t neglect mental health when we call it out,” she mentioned. “Our care for the planet is our care for ourselves, and by taking action, we help ourselves with its mental health effects.”