‘CLIMATE ANXIETY’ HITTING AMERICANS, SAYS PSYCHIATRIST
WASHINGTON—IN the melting Arcti c,c ommuniti esa re racing to maintain their way o fl ife. In the rising Pacific, resident sa r es ounding alarm bells. An di nrh ode Island ,Ka te Schapir aan d her husband ar en ot having a baby.
Fear sab out climate change ar ep rompti ng w orldwide action, bu to ne knock-on effec tin the United States i sm ounting anxiet y ab out everythi ng f rom plastics to class-based environmental disparities.
Schapira, a 40-year-old senior lecturer at Brown University, treated global warming “like ape rsonal, individual problem” and she wante dto know if others fel tt hat way also.
S oi n 2014, Schapir ase t upa “climate anxiet y”b ooth in public spaces, such as farmers’ market s.i t ’sab it like Lucy’s psychiatr ys tall from the beloved comic “Peanuts.”
“Climate anxiet yc ounseling, 5 cents. The doctor is in,” the booth’s sign reads, welcoming passersby i np rovidence tot alk abou tt heir fears. As itt urns out, Schapira was far fro mal one.
About six in 10 Americans say they ar ea t least “somewhat worried ”ab out global warming and 23 percent say they are
“ver yw orried,” according to a survey conducted by Yale and George Maso n un iversities in March and April.
For Lise Van Susteren, a Washington-based psychiatrist who has been studying the mental health impacts o f cl imate change for 15 years, refusal tor ecognize t hep otential hazards i sc ommo nf or “people who are trying tod eny tha tt hey too are vulnerable.”
“I actually have no hesitation in saying tha to ns ome level, I believe that everyo nen ow has some climate anxiety,” Van Susteren said.