Americans are increasingly struggling with a new form of anxiety disorder related to climate change, according to a report from Phys.org, and it’s throwing psychologists for a loop.
The anxity, it seems, stems from climate activists’ latest claims — that the world as we know it will likely end in just over a decade unless a massive, international effort is undertaken to halt the effects of carbon emissions. But as with many activist claims, the timelines vary, as do the proposed solutions, but that hasn’t stopped environmental groups across the board from ramping up their rhetoric.
“Fears about climate change are prompting worldwide action, but one knock-on effect in the United States is mounting anxiety about everything from plastics to class-based environmental disparities,” Phsy.org reported.
Some climate activists say we have under a decade to make major changes in our lifestyles, including abandoning domestic air travel, ditching single-use plastic items like straws, and regressing to a more rural way of life (a change that, in some cases, includes an entirely plant-based diet to avoid the “scourge” of industrial agriculture and bovine methane emissions). Other groups suggest even more radical approaches, like refusing to have children (the UK’s Prince Harry, for example, ascribes to population self-control), abandoning fossil fuels and their byproducts, and even “dismantling capitalism.” – READ MORE