Why Climate Anxiety Is Changing the Way We Live
In recent years, a new kind of worry has begun to seep into our collective consciousness. It’s not just the news headlines about wildfires, floods, and record-breaking heat waves—it’s the growing sense of unease about what these changes mean for our future. This feeling has a name: climate anxiety. Unlike everyday stress or even worries about politics and economics, climate anxiety is uniquely all-encompassing. It touches how we think, what we value, and, increasingly, the choices we make in our day-to-day lives. Understanding the Emotional Toll Climate anxiety isn’t simply a buzzword—it’s an emotional response to a real and urgent problem. Scientists use the term to describe the unease, grief, or fear people feel as they confront the overwhelming challenge of climate change. For some, it shows up as nagging guilt when buying something new, or a sense of helplessness when seeing another natural disaster unfold on social media. For others, it’s tied to concern for their chi...