Understanding Climate Anxiety

1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-032-63186-8
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 228 Seiten, Format (B × H): 129 mm x 198 mm

Reihe: BPS Ask The Experts in Psychology Series

How should we react to climate anxiety? This accessible book discusses anxiety and other emotions brought on by climate change, examining what climate anxiety is, why it is becoming so prevalent and how it differs from other types of anxiety.

Written by an expert psychologist, the book examines why climate anxiety is developing so rapidly, particularly in younger people. It looks at how it can manifest differently—sometimes as hopelessness or despair, and sometimes as anger which can serve as a catalyst for action. The book dives into the nuance around climate anxiety, questioning what we can do about it or whether climate anxiety should be pathologized at all, given the very real threat of climate change. It considers cognitive biases that underlie information processing and discusses how politics and interest groups affect people’s views. Seeking to understand the polarisation that occurs around this topic, the book puts forward how we might alleviate climate anxiety without minimising serious concern about climate change.

This highly topical book will be of great interest to students of psychology, environmental science and social science. It will also be of interest to psychologists, mental health professionals and climate communicators, as well as anyone interested in learning more about climate anxiety.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate, Professional Reference, Undergraduate Advanced, and Undergraduate Core

Autoren/Hrsg.

Beattie, Geoff

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Allgemeine Psychologie Kognitionspsychologie Emotion, Motivation, Handlung
• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Psychotherapie / Klinische Psychologie
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften
• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Allgemeine Psychologie Sozialpsychologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents

Acknowledgments

Who am I and Why am I giving you this advice?

PART 1: The context of climate anxiety.

Chapter 1: Introduction: What is climate anxiety?.

Chapter 2: Shouldn’t we all have climate anxiety?

Chapter 3: Do helplines actually help us when it comes to climate anxiety?

Chapter 4: Is climate anxiety made worse by other global crises?

PART 2: Climate anxiety and the brain

Chapter 5: Why can’t people make up their mind about climate change?

Chapter 6: Why don’t we do more?

Chapter 7: Can models of anxiety help us understand climate anxiety?

PART 3: Contesting climate anxiety/contesting climate change

Chapter 8: Why do people claim climate change is fake news?

Chapter 9: How can people stay happy with climate change?

Chapter 10: Is there a stigma surrounding climate anxiety?

PART 4: Thinking of the future

Chapter 11: New horizons?

Glossary

References:

Über Autor(innen)

Geoff Beattie is Professor of Psychology at Edge Hill University and Visiting Scholar at the University of Oxford, UK. He is a prize-winning psychologist, author and broadcaster with a PhD in Psychology from the University of Cambridge. He was awarded the Spearman Medal by the British Psychological Society for ‘published psychological research of outstanding merit'. He has published over one hundred academic articles in a range of journals including Nature, Nature Climate Change, Environment and Behavior, and Semiotica. Beattie has acted as a consultant to various international organisations with a focus on sustainability, including Unilever, the Leadership Vanguard (established by the CEO of Unilever), and the Born Free Foundation. He is also a member of the International Panel on Behavior Change (IPBC) which aims to collect and integrate knowledge and evidence on environmentally-related behaviour change.