Eco-Anxiety: How thinking about climate change-related environmental decline is affecting our mental health

Abstract

You would be hard-pressed in 2019 not to be aware of the worldwide social movement and protests relating to climate change. In September this year, millions of school children and adults around the world took to the street demanding urgent action in response to escalating concerns relating to the environment. Furthermore, the United Nations Climate Summit in New York described climate change as the defining issue of our time and the Australian Medical Association recently declared climate change as a health emergency following the lead of many international medical bodies. Clearly, our climate is changing; we are experiencing weather events that are more frequent and intense, and last longer (Jackman et al. 2018). As a result, all health professionals have an important role to play in this regard in the future.