Guest essay by Eric Worrall

According to The Guardian, people who reject the idea we are in the midst of a climate emergency may be suffering an extreme form of the kind of climate anxiety Guardian readers experience, when wrestling with their conscience over whether to purchase an avocado.

‘Hijacked by anxiety’: how climate dread is hindering climate action

A growing school of psychologists believe the trauma of the climate crisis is a key barrier to change

Jillian Ambrose 
Energy correspondentThu 8 Oct 2020 17.00 AEDT

You’re browsing in a supermarket and fretting mildly about the air miles of some green beans. Or you’re daydreaming of that island holiday you deserve once the pandemic has died down but worrying about whether you should be flying.

…

Maybe nothing you do will matter anyway.

They call it climate anxiety – a sense of dread, gloom and almost paralysing helplessness that is rising as we come to terms with the greatest existential challenge of our generation, or any generation.

…

“As that trauma is coming to the surface today we see this as anxiety,” she says.

Those left standing in a supermarket unsure whether they should buy an avocado may be suffering from mild eco-anxiety, according to Hickman. “You’re not falling apart but you feel caught in a dilemma.”

…

In its most extreme form this inability to engage presents itself as a complete denial of the climate crisis and climate science. But even among those who accept the dire predictions for the natural world, there are “micro-denials” that can block the ability to take action.

…

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/08/anxiety-climate-crisis-trauma-paralysing-effect-psychologists

Who would have guessed that our repressed feelings of extreme guilt for enjoying the occasional chicken avocado salad are what drive us to reject the climate emergency?

The only question, should we seek a resolution to our repressed anxiety by cutting back on Avocado consumption, in the hope that the intensity of our climate guilt recedes sufficiently that we become consciously aware of it?

Or would it be better to provoke a crisis of conscience which forces us to acknowledge our personal climate anxiety, by eating more Avocados?

via Watts Up With That?

https://ift.tt/3ddcTSA

October 9, 2020 at 12:57PM