Eco-Anxiety: A Cascade of Fundamental Existential Anxieties

Abstract

Eco-anxiety is the experience of persistent feelings of anxiety regarding degradation of our natural environment. Building upon the work of existential psychologists and our own Eco-Existential Positive Psychology framework, we consider how eco-anxiety engenders the existential anxieties of identity, happiness, meaning, death, freedom, and isolation. Regarding identity, ever-shrinking biodiversity and the threat this poses to the existence of our species has made us contemplate our nonbeing, and with that our identity as beings. Our happiness, too, is ill-affected by reduced opportunities to engage with thriving ecosystems as a result of climate crises. Our sense of coherence, connectedness, and continuity—and therefore, meaning in life—is diminished as landscapes and ecosystems that we have become attached to over time become degraded and disrupted. Mounting environmental crises conjure fears of death, including the possible mortality of our human species as a collective. While nature has long been associated with freedom of human behavior and spirit, a broken human–nature relationship leads to an infringement on our autonomy. Finally, the experience of eco-anxiety appears to be a solitary one, heightening our sense of isolation. We discuss implications of these existential threats, emphasizing that ecoanxiety is something with which we need to cope and live.