The Incoming Psychological Storm
In 2023, more than 70% of adolescents in ten nations were "very concerned" or "extremely concerned" about climate change (Hickman et al., 2021). One 16-year-old informant said this, "I feel like I have no future, the world will be ruined before I grow up."
These are the sentiments of a rising tide of climate anxiety—a low-grade fear of environmental catastrophe that is becoming the signature psychological challenge of our time.
What is Climate Anxiety?
Climate anxiety, or eco-anxiety and ecological distress, is not a clinical, diagnosable disorder but an appropriate psychological response to the threat of climate change. This distress is experience-based and not generalized anxiety since it's environment-based and experience-based.
It is best characterized by:
Cognitive symptoms: intrusive thoughts, worry about the future,
Emotional symptoms: helplessness, guilt, sadness, or fear,
Physical/behavioral symptoms: sleep disturbance, withdrawal, or burnout in activists.
Why Do We Have to Measure It?
Climate anxiety needs to be measured in order to:
Define vulnerable populations (e.g., youth, Indigenous groups, front-line communities),
Refine interventions in schools, therapy, and policy contexts,
Monitor patterns of how distress changes by over time or by place,
Validate emotional responses and maximize public awareness campaigns.
Principal Measures to Measure Climate Anxiety
1. Climate Anxiety Scale (CAS)
Authors: Karazsia & Clayton (2020)
What it measures: Emotional distress and cognitive interference
Example item: "Thoughts about climate change make it hard for me to concentrate."
Application: CAS is used in clinical evaluation and cross-cultural research to assess the extent to which climate anxiety affects functioning.
2. Environmental Distress Scale (EDS)
Creator: Higginbotham et al. (2006)
Target: Solastalgia, displacement, and collective-level loss
Best applied to: Directly affected communities (e.g., mining communities, floodplains).
Application: Used by social scientists and community psychologists in studies with displaced groups.
3. Hogg Eco-Anxiety Scale (HEAS)
Developer: Hogg et al. (2021)
Measures: Powerlessness, guilt, sense of need to act immediately
Strength: Is suitable for large-scale questionnaires; captures some aspect of motivation for eco-anxiety.
Use case: Suitable for researchers who are exploring anxiety correlates and pro-environmental action.
4. Psychological Impacts of Climate Change Scale (PICC)
Developer: Doherty & Clayton (2011)
Measures: Grief, fear, cognitive rumination, and behavioral withdrawal
Best used for: Longitudinal change over time research.
Experts: Mental health professionals and teachers utilize it to assess patterns of adaptation.
Who Suffers from Climate Anxiety—and Why?
By Age: Teenagers (Millennials and Gen Z) are most affected by anxiety, typically because they are helpless about what will happen to them in their future.
By Location: Individuals from high-risk areas (desert, coastal, or disaster-hit) experience greater anxiety due to climatic exposure.
By Experience: People who have suffered climatic disasters, i.e., fire or drought, go through trauma-like symptoms along with anxiety.
By Gender: Scientists point out that females will complain more about environmental worry, may be because they may sense threats differently and also happen to be caregivers.
How Are These Tools Used by Professionals?
These tools are used by professionals such as psychologists, climatologists, and teachers for:
Diagnosis and screening during therapy (e.g., CAS for adolescents),
Community post-disaster mental health screening (e.g., EDS mining community),
Curriculum development on climate emotional resilience (e.g., integration of PICC research into school curricula),
Policy development of contribution to climate messaging strategy.
These same respondent scores also enable researchers to link climate concern with activism, hope, or burnout, enabling interventions to induce activation and well-being.
The Pathway Ahead: Can We Treat Climate Anxiety?
Yes—but not at the cost of anxiety. The aim is to balance distress with action and develop emotional resilience. Strategies are:
Therapeutic interventions like climate-sensitive CBT and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT),
Community support groups for climate activists and affected communities,
Psychoeducation to de-sentimentalize eco-distress and create common hope,
Policy changes that empowers youth, transparency, and support.
Rather than pathologizing eco-anxiety, we are forced to view it as an ethical, empathic response to planet change—one that can produce solutions, if tended to. And as the material world is being reordered by climate change, so too is our psychological world. It is not merely a scientific necessity to quantify climate anxiety—but an ethical one. Armed with robust tools and compassionate paradigms, we can better comprehend, care about, and serve those carrying the weight of the emotional distress of a warming planet.
References:
Clayton, S. (2020). Climate anxiety: Psychological responses to climate change. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 74, 102263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102263
Clayton, S., & Karazsia, B. T. (2020). Development and validation of a measure of climate change anxiety. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 69, 101434. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101434
Doherty, T. J., & Clayton, S. (2011). The psychological impacts of global climate change. American Psychologist, 66(4), 265–276. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0023141
Hickman, C., Marks, E., Pihkala, P., Clayton, S., Lewandowski, R. E., Mayall, E. E., Wray, B., Mellor, C., & van Susteren, L. (2021). Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: A global survey. The Lancet Planetary Health, 5(12), e863–e873. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00278-3
Albrecht, G., Sartore, G. M., Connor, L., Higginbotham, N., Freeman, S., Kelly, B., Stain, H., Tonna, A., & Pollard, G. (2007). Solastalgia: The distress caused by environmental change. Australasian Psychiatry, 15(S1), S95–S98. https://doi.org/10.1080/10398560701701288
Hogg, T. L., Stanley, S. K., O'Brien, L. V., Wilson, M. S., & Watsford, C. R. (2021). The Hogg Eco-Anxiety Scale: Development and validation of a multidimensional scale. Global Environmental Change, 70, 102359. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102359
Ojala, M. (2012). Hope and climate change: The importance of hope for environmental engagement among young people. Environmental Education Research, 18(5), 625–642. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2011.637157.
– Abhinav Swaminathan
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