Eco-Anxiety

Eco-Anxiety is a chronic fear of environmental 'doom'. It is not currently a recognised, diagnosable condition. Mila Rao and Richard Powell (Imperial College London) have, however, published a 2020 survey of England-based Child Psychiatrists in The British Medical Journal (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/oct/06/eco-anxiety-fear-of-environmental-doom-weighs-on-young-people). Rao and Powell found that more than half of the surveyed Child Psychiatrists, reported seeing children and young adults distressed about the climate crisis and the state of the environment. Some patients seemed more prone to these worries than others. Rao and Powell, not unreasonably, suggested that world leaders must do more to calm the fears of these young people and protect their mental health. It suspected, however, that some world 'leaders' will simply blame climate science, environmentalists and Greta Thunberg for the feeling of doom. Children, they will maintain, are 'snowflakes' who shouldn't 'worry their pretty little heads'. The kids seem, however, to be perfectly rational. Eco-Anxiety seems to be entirely a product of world 'leaders' (some more than others) and their economic obsessions.