eco-emotions
Eco-anxiety (short for ecological anxiety), also known as eco-distress or climate anxiety, is a challenging emotional response to climate change and other environmental issues. Extensive studies have been done on ecological anxiety since 2007, and various definitions remain in use. The condition is not a medical diagnosis and is regarded as a rational response to the reality of climate change; however, severe instances can have a mental health impact if left without alleviation. There is also evidence that eco-anxiety is caused by the way researchers frame their research and their narratives o
Research
32 papers- Eco-emotions and Psychoterratic Syndromes: Reshaping Mental Health Assessment Under Climate Change.The Yale journal of biology and medicine · 2023
- Eco-emotions as the planetary boundaries: framing human emotional and planetary health in the global environmental crisis.The Lancet. Planetary health · 2024
- [Eco-emotions: The Psychological Consequences of the Climate Crisis].Psychiatria Hungarica : A Magyar Pszichiatriai Tarsasag tudomanyos folyoirata · 2023
- Contextualizing eco-anxiety and eco-anger: tentative responses to visceral and numinous emotions.The Journal of analytical psychology · 2022
- [A typology for understanding 10 eco-emotions].Sante mentale au Quebec · 2025
via PubMed
Article
17 sectionsContents
- Definition
- Prevalence
- Children and young adults
- Women
- Indigenous peoples
- Symptoms
- Treatment and response
- Further research
- Related emotional responses
- Eco-anger
- Eco-grief
- Eco-guilt
- Solastalgia
- Organizations
- See also
- References
- External links
Eco-anxiety (short for ecological anxiety), also known as eco-distress or climate anxiety, is a challenging emotional response to climate change and other environmental issues. Extensive studies have been done on ecological anxiety since 2007, and various definitions remain in use. The condition is not a medical diagnosis and is regarded as a rational response to the reality of climate change; however, severe instances can have a mental health impact if left without alleviation. There is also evidence that eco-anxiety is caused by the way researchers frame their research and their narratives of the evidence about climate change: if they do not consider the possibility of finding any solution to overcome climate change and for individuals to make a difference, they contribute to this feeling of powerlessness.
Eco-anxiety is an unpleasant emotion, though it can also motivate useful behavior such as the gathering of relevant information. Yet it can also manifest as conflict avoidance, or even be "paralyzing". Some people have reported experiencing so much anxiety and fear about the future with climate change that they choose not to have children. Eco-anxiety has received more attention after 2017, and especially since late 2018 with Greta Thunberg publicly discussing her own eco-anxiety.