Ecoanxiety: The overlooked toll of the climate crisis

Anxious: A survey of 10,000 young people found that nearly 60% were ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ worried about climate change, and almost half reported the distress affected their daily life. — 123rf

THIS year, young people turned on their phones to see Pakistan’s latest climate-fuelled floods, Europe’s relentless heatwaves, and thick haze from fires raging across continents. They might not be anywhere near these locations, yet many lie awake at night worrying about their future in a climate- stressed world.

This chronic unease is no longer dismissed as teenage melodrama. It has a name: ecoanxiety.