Climate change is worth worrying about
‘Worry and anxiety are elements of human emotion originally instilled in humans to increase the likelihood of their survival in a dangerous world; but now, in an environment as highly developed as our own, the innate purpose of these survival instincts have lost their roots.’
“Don’t worry about things you can’t control.” A fair point, granted. And one that holds real merit regarding fears about your personal future, that job you applied for, that thing you said to your partner, that dinner you cooked using suspiciously old eggs.
Worry and anxiety are elements of human emotion originally instilled in humans to increase the likelihood of their survival in a dangerous world; but now, in an environment as highly developed as our own, the innate purpose of these survival instincts have lost their roots. We still worry, and the world still makes us anxious. There is no better evidence of this than in our nation’s concerningly high rates of mental illness, depression and suicide. But we are trying to change that.
In 2018 though, one trigger in particular is causing stress in a way that should really make us rethink how we approach the topic. Our natural environments are slowly changing and people are genuinely concerned about what this will mean for future generations. Never before has climate change been talked about more, or the need for it to be addressed, felt more vital. Reports are coming out with shocking revelations about temperature increases, melting icecaps and violent weather events, and it’s spread all over our phone screens, littering our social interactions. In the Pacific Islands, residents are seeing the water levels rise before their eyes. Here, we’re banning plastic bags and oil exploration, with a Zero Carbon emissions plan for 2050. Every day it gets harder to deny climate change’s existence and more important to think about what we’re doing to deal with it. This isn’t new. We’re aware of the threat. If anything, reiteration of the same few points — rising temperatures, astronomical natural disasters, rising sea levels — has only made us bored and disengaged. But behind that, is a feeling we’re all trying desperately to hide: worry.
In this case, we have to worry about climate change, even though we cannot fully control it. If we don’t worry about it, we’re unable to fully understand its effects; global warming occurs incrementally, largely invisible to the human eye. It can only really be understood by imagining what will happen, and then proactively reacting to that. Anxiety has similar roots: we worry about things because we imagine what could go wrong.
In 1988, climate change became front page news for the first time. Thirty years on, we’re still reluctant to act, still sceptical of the science. I can only hope we’re not having the same conversations in 2048.