Feeling overwhelmed by 'eco-anxiety'? Here's how to cope
CBC
For Reegan Jungkind, it's the panic rather than smoky air that's making it difficult to take full breaths. She's suddenly started getting headaches and her hands have been shaking for what she thinks has been at least a year.
Jungkind, 21, says what she used to think of as "eco-anxiety" is now more like eco-panic.
"It's something that is soul-crushing, like, I just feel the entire weight of the world on my shoulders all the time," she said.
Originally from Hay River, N.W.T., Jungkind now lives in Edmonton during the school year and Yellowknife in the summer. Two weeks ago, she was visiting family in Hay River when the town issued an evacuation order because of nearby wildfires.
Courtney Howard is an emergency room doctor in Yellowknife and an expert on how climate change impacts health.
She says there's a spectrum of ecologically related emotions to describe people's feelings about the Earth. She describes eco-worry as concern about what's currently happening to the planet, and what may happen in the future.
There's also ecological anger, and grief about environmental injustices and loss.
In what N.W.T. officials are calling an unprecedented wildfire season, along with news of natural disasters across the globe, it's normal, Howard says, to feel an increased sense of anxiety.
"These are normal responses to a real threat," she said.
Jungkind says her family arrived safely in Fairview, Alta., after leaving Hay River, but she worries for her family and especially her young cousins who have now had to leave their community three times in two years. Hay River was evacuated earlier this year in May because of fire as well, and also last year due to flooding.
"You would never want a four-year-old child to know what it means to have to leave their homes because of a forest fire," Jungkind said.
Among those most likely to struggle with anxiety related to the environment are those who live close to the land, climate scientists who interact with the data, and youth, Howard said.
"On the whole, a lot of people are feeling real worry," she said.
To manage those feelings, Howard suggests people take care of themselves with proper sleep, diet and exercise habits, connect with community, and show themselves some grace.
The Rachel Notley government's consumer carbon tax wound up becoming a weapon the UCP wielded to drum the Alberta NDP out of office. But that levy-and-repayment program, and the wide-ranging "climate leadership plan" around it, also stood as the NDP's boldest, provincial-reputation-altering move in their single-term tenure.