Eco-Anxiety and Pandemic Distress : Psychological Perspectives on Resilience and Interconnectedness

## Abstract In recent decades, as environmental destruction has become more extreme and prevalent around the planet, the way that humans experience the natural world has also changed, giving rise to more frequent and intense experiences of eco-anxiety. Not simply personal or social, eco-anxiety is distributed across the relationships that humans have with the life, land, air, and water of Earth. This anthology presents international and interdisciplinary perspectives on eco-anxiety, with attention to two of the most prominent sources of eco-anxiety today: the COVID pandemic and the climate crisis. From the microscopic scale of viruses to the macroscopic scale of Earth’s atmosphere, instability in natural systems is causing unprecedented forms of psychological distress, including anxiety and related emotional or affective states like grief, anger, guilt, and depression. To tackle crises of such unprecedented scope and impact, we need to expand beyond mainstream behavioral research approaches to include also rigorous methods from the human sciences. This book both builds upon and moves beyond the latest research in environmental psychology, conservation psychology, and clinical psychology. Dominant research paradigms in these areas rely primarily on experimental and observational methodologies that analyze quantitative data. In contrast, this book focuses on sophisticated traditions of social and cultural psychology in dialogue with other disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. The result is a nuanced understanding of the human experience of confronting eco-anxiety, offering critical insights into the subjective worlds of individuals as they grapple with the intertwined existential threats of the climate crisis and pandemics. As environmental destruction becomes more extreme around the planet, the way humans experience the natural world is changing, giving rise to more frequent and intense experiences of eco-anxiety. Not simply personal or social, eco-anxiety is distributed across the relationships that humans have with the life, land, air, and water of Earth. This anthology presents international and interdisciplinary perspectives on eco-anxiety, with attention to two of the most prominent sources of eco-anxiety today: pandemics, specifically with regards to COVID-19, and the climate crisis. From the microscopic scale of viruses to the macroscopic scale of Earth's atmosphere, instability in natural systems is causing unprecedented forms of psychological distress, including anxiety and related emotional or affective states like grief, anger, guilt, and depression. Eco-Anxiety and Pandemic Distress both builds upon and moves beyond the latest research in environmental psychology, conservation psychology, and clinical psychology. Dominant research paradigms in these areas rely primarily on experimental and observational methodologies that analyze quantitative data. In contrast, this book focuses on sophisticated traditions of social and cultural psychology in dialogue with other disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. The result is a nuanced understanding of the human experience of confronting eco-anxiety, offering critical insights into the subjective worlds of individuals as they grapple with the intertwined existential threats of the climate crisis and pandemics. Cover 1 Eco-Anxiety and Pandemic Distress 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 About the Authors 8 Introduction: Eco-​Anxiety, Climate Change, and the Coronavirus 16 1. Cultivating Belonging: Healing Defensive Anxiety in Times of Collective Trauma 46 2. From Eco-​Anxiety to Eco-​Resilience: Toward a Psychology of Care 57 3. Walking, Wilderness, and Exposure: Learning from Thoreau’s Episode on Katahdin 69 4. Self-​Quarantine: Deepening Natural Encounter During COVID-​19 80 5. Setting Up for Practice with Eco-​Conscious Clients 89 6. Eco-​Anxiety as a Global Affect 104 7. Eco-​Anxiety in a Risk Society: A Sociological Perspective 114 8. The Complex Role of Anxiety in Public Engagement: Lessons from the COVID-​19 Crisis for Climate Communications 125 9. Behavior Change During COVID-​19: A Matter of Life and Death? 137 10. The House of Man: Sheltering in the Anthropocene 148 11. Adapting to Eco-​Anxiety: Experiences from Zambia 158 12. Psychiatric Ward Lockdown in Latin America: Experiences from the Coronavirus Pandemic 169 13. Telepsychology as the Primary Mental Health Care Response to the COVID-​19 Pandemic in the Philippines 177 14. Sounding the Environmental Benefits of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Southern Nigeria 188 Index 202 "Through much of 2020 and into 2021, nations throughout the world locked down because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before then, the most pressing global anxiety for many people was climate anxiety. However, these phenomena are in many ways interconnected. Many of the elements in the global economic and logistical systems cause both ecological problems and vulnerability to pandemics. When pandemics happen, they influence ecological problems-for better or worse. In turn, ecological dynamics shape pandemics"-- Provided by publisher