Extracted/ English Version - March 2024 : 50 nuances of eco-emotions
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In this March issue, we deliver our thoughts and learnings on a topic that is both very personal yet widely shared or at least discussed in our circles: eco-anxiety. No need to reach for your Easter egg basket for comfort, everything will be just fine!
Enjoy reading, and thank you to our new subscribers! Feel free to share your comments, remarks, and suggestions.
FROM KNOWLEDGE TO ACTION 🙋: Understanding and Overcoming Eco-Anxiety
by Carole
Spring is upon us, days are getting longer, and spirits are lifting... but not for everyone. Even if anxiety about ecological issues does not always find its way into everyday conversations, a good portion of the people I encounter during climate-related trainings, and those with whom I discuss deeper subjects, are occasionally troubled by feelings of powerlessness, urgency, or pessimism about the situation.
According to an IFOP survey for Qare1 (2022), 67% of French people admit to feeling fear about the future, while an IFOP survey conducted for EDF in 20232 showed that 43% of the global population is very concerned about climate change. The groups with the highest rates of eco-anxiety are women, young people, minorities (especially indigenous peoples), and those whose jobs expose them to observations or information related to the ecological crisis.
Despite having several risk factors, I feel I've developed a certain form of positivity towards ecological issues, and sometimes wonder if I've become a blind optimist.
To address this question and learn how to better understand and support those going through the storm of eco-emotions, I followed the dedicated program of the "Carbone 4 academy" launched last September and led by psychotherapist Charline Schmerber. Here, I share a selection of what I've learned, while strongly encouraging you to also take this course if you are fluent in French (it lasts 5 hours, plus additional exercises).
A necessary pain? 🫣
Eco-anxiety is not a pathology but a legitimate feeling, and even a sign of good mental health resulting from our awareness of environmental issues. In this sense, it is rational because it comes from an understanding of the world and the ecological disruptions to come.
And it's not necessarily a phenomenon associated only with negative feelings. Indeed, according to the 2022 IFOP survey3, a whole variety of emotions go beyond the concept of eco-anxiety:
The poll results highlight that the "pre-traumatic" stress felt through the negative anticipation of the effects of ecological destruction also leads to action and ultimately to possibly pleasant feelings. But this is not the case for everyone, and some remain "stuck" in negativity.
Fear is Never a Good Adviser 🐢
Soon after the awareness, a certain frenzy can be observed: the emotions felt certainly set us in motion, but not always for the best.
Many go through a phase of information overload: our brains want to protect us and therefore understand everything, we pull a thread and realize that the problem goes far beyond the climate. We first become aware of the issue, then of its complexity, and finally of its systemic nature and inevitably... we panic!
This obsession can leave no room for reflection and perspective. It opens the door to the development of addictive behaviors, insomnia, and sometimes even isolation when our loved ones seem not to understand what we are going through and are not interested or affected by the problem.
When the cognitive dissonance between what we know, what we want, and what we do on a daily basis is too great, we may be tempted to question everything: our relationships, but also our work, and even our way of life, with a good dose of guilt adding up. But before breaking everything around us, it is important to understand that it is a phase to go through, that our loved ones may go through one day, at their own pace.
According to Belgian psychologist Erik de Soir, there are several stages in trauma:
Thus, a bit like the famous Kübler-Ross grief cycle, we see that shock can lead to awakening and lucid acceptance. Eco-anxiety will become eco-lucidity once we have gone through mourning and accepted its gifts: learning, resilience, and the sense of responsibility. Fortunately, there are ways to soften these stages and set the dynamics in motion before abandoning everything to end up in a disused bus deep in the woods.
Transcending Eco-Anxiety 🧘
First of all, even if the ecological crisis reinforces our deep insecurities, it can be an opportunity to strengthen our emotional resilience. Managing our emotions means allowing them to pass through us physically rather than burying them or numbing them (with a good glass of whatever you like, and more or less moderation).
It is also an opportunity to better accept the notion of limits: planetary boundaries, but also our own finiteness, including our aging and death, two elements that current society leads us to consider as unacceptable. The world is a reflection of our life, finite and uncertain, and we shall learn to live with it, or better yet, to dance with this uncertainty.
Whatever we do, we will never feel sufficiently ready and virtuous enough. This realization is not a blank check to shirk responsibility, but rather to not sacrifice the present, to continue to cultivate joy while strengthening our connection to the living, and above all by taking action.
Then, we can replace - paralyzing - guilt with responsibility, which is beneficial to all and allows us to act with determination and courage. Rather than locking ourselves in or dispersing in frenetic actions that lead us straight to burnout, it is a matter of questioning the choice of the right action for us.
Some will choose to help the most impacted individuals or ecosystems, others to raise awareness, and still others to solve ecological problems. By accepting the limits of our individual impact, we can also question and engage in collective responsibility.
So let's make the most of this long weekend and take the time to run barefoot in the grass, even in the rain, where we may find some hidden treasures.
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IFOP survey for Qare conducted from July 27 to 29 and August 10 to 12, 2022, on a sample of 2100 individuals representative of the French population, aged 15 and over.
Study conducted by Ipsos in France from August 16 to October 2, 2023, across 29 countries, including those with the highest CO2 emissions, with a sample of 23,433 individuals representative of the population, aged 16 and over in each country. https://www.ipsos.com/fr-fr/43-de-la-population-mondiale-se-montre-tres-preoccupee-par-le-changement-climatique
IFOP survey for Qare conducted from July 27 to 29 and August 10 to 12, 2022, on a sample of 2100 individuals representative of the French population, aged 15 and over.