Author: lathamprojectanalytics@gmail.com

by Hannah Back

The Rise of Climate Pessimism

Attitudes about climate change have been changing in recent years. Climate change is now a “top fear” in Americans¹.

Chapman University’s “Top Fears of 2018” show global warming and species extinctions in the top 10 fear list among surveyed individuals.

Younger generations are more likely to say climate issues should be a “top priority”.  About 3/4ths of concerned Americans feel “anxious about the future” when they see climate change related content ². Globally, more than half of young people think “humanity is doomed”, and 75% said the future is frightening ³.

Climate change is occurring, and poses a great threat to humanity– But does this mean “humanity is doomed”? Do scientists have any ideas on how to grapple with the crisis? How do they frame the situation?

I am passionate about climate science and environmentalism, and I view climate change as the biggest threat we must face in the 21^st century. I often deal with climate pessimism myself. To learn more about my own (and our generation’s) fears, I decided to look to the scientific literature. I did a literature review on “attitudes about climate change” and what scientists could recommend, and here is what I learned.

There is debate about “how anxious we should be”. Perhaps we should be anxious, but just need ways to deal with it and use it as a motivating force ⁸. Others wonder if being too anxious or fearful may paralyze us from taking action ⁴. There is still much debate in this area.

How anxious should we be?¹⁰

Causes of Climate Anxiety

To understand climate anxiety better, we should delve into the different contributing factors. Like Covid-19, there are many reasons to be anxious about this threatening force of nature. However, fears come from different places, and some may be more based in facts than others.

Personal Experience

Many people have noticed weather changes in recent years, with patterns becoming more unpredictable: Heat waves in the UK have become more common, forest fires in the US, more severe hurricanes with a longer season, and more.

For those living through these disasters, there is a serious impact on mental health. These events can also indirectly affect people through media exposure alone, contributing to a sense of anxiety and unease⁶.

The Influence of Social Media

Social media and news websites tend to post more negative headlines because these generate more clicks. Algorithms push content that gets the most interaction—this tends to be content that fans the flames of conflict (negative, divisive, or inflammatory content)⁷.

Images like this used on social media or in the news may induce anxiety.

Overexposure to media coverage, which informs through an emotional lens, as opposed to scientific sources, might add to fears. Exposure to climate change related social media content may induce anxiety symptoms³.

Scientists’ Language

Scientists are more vocal than ever about the growing climate crisis, using strong language like “rapid”, “catastrophic”, “irreversible”⁴. They are sounding the alarm, and it is natural and appropriate to feel concerned.

Climate change is real, rapid, irreversible—These descriptions, while correct, leave us with a lot of anxiety, but not many details. Knowing “how rapid is rapid”, or “catastrophic in what ways” could help us have a more concrete understanding of the crisis. Better understanding might also motivate us towards positive action.

Beyond Fear

If the view “climate change will doom us all” is perhaps too negative, is there an alternative? Some scientists propose a different perspective. While the crisis is alarming, we should avoid “alarmism”.  They suggest one way of framing the crisis that may help us grapple with our fears: “Climate change is alarming if action is not taken soon”⁴.

This viewpoint balances the facts that:

1. Climate change is a gravely serious problem to be addressed, and
2. There is still time to make changes that can avert the worst.

Avoiding the worst of climate change’s effects will require a restructuring of how we generate and use energy, but those things are within our control⁹. Therefore,

“Climate change is within our control and not inevitable, but changes must be comprehensive” ⁴

This perspective is also in line with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an international agency of top climate scientists⁹. If we focus on the things within our control, we may also feel more empowered to action.

Figure 4) Changes still have impact and can help avert the crisis.

We need to sound the alarm on climate change and make big changes. Understanding that there is still time to make changes can help us stay motivated. It is still possible to avert the worst outcomes, so we should still be engaged in the struggle towards environmental justice in whatever ways we can be. In the next post, I will discuss some ways you can be involved in the solution!

References

[1] C. Funk, Key findings: How Americans’ attitudes about climate change differ by generation, party and other factors, Pew Research Center (2021). https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/05/26/key-findings-how-americans-attitudes-about-climate-change-differ-by-generation-party-and-other-factors/ (accessed April 25, 2024).

[2] C. Hickman, E. Marks, P. Pihkala, S. Clayton, R.E. Lewandowski, E.E. Mayall, B. Wray, C. Mellor, L. Van Susteren, Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey, The Lancet Planetary Health 5 (2021) e863–e873. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00278-3.

[3] D.A. Maran, T. Begotti, Media Exposure to Climate Change, Anxiety, and Efficacy Beliefs in a Sample of Italian University Students, IJERPH 18 (2021) 9358. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18179358.

[4] G. Albrecht, Chronic Environmental Change: Emerging ‘Psychoterratic’ Syndromes, in: I. Weissbecker (Ed.), Climate Change and Human Well-Being, Springer New York, New York, NY, 2011: pp. 43–56. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9742-5_3.

[5] The Chapman University Survey on American Fears, (n.d.). https://www.chapman.edu/wilkinson/research-centers/babbie-center/survey-american-fears.aspx (accessed April 25, 2024).

[6] J.S. Risbey, The new climate discourse: Alarmist or alarming?, Global Environmental Change 18 (2008) 26–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2007.06.003.

[7] W.J. Brady, J.C. Jackson, B. Lindström, M.J. Crockett, Algorithm-mediated social learning in online social networks, Trends in Cognitive Sciences 27 (2023) 947–960. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2023.06.008.

[8] J. Dodds, The psychology of climate anxiety, BJPsych Bull 45 (n.d.) 222–226. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjb.2021.18.

[9] IPCC, 2018: Global warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty [V. Masson-Delmotte, P. Zhai, H. O. Pörtner, D. Roberts, J. Skea, P.R. Shukla, A. Pirani, W. Moufouma-Okia, C. Péan, R. Pidcock, S. Connors, J. B. R. Matthews, Y. Chen, X. Zhou, M. I. Gomis, E. Lonnoy, T. Maycock, M. Tignor, T. Waterfield (eds.)]. In Press.

[10] Rational vs. Irrational Fears? How to Tell the Difference, FHE Health (2023). https://fherehab.com/learning/rational-irrational-fears.

A Wordbrain episode by Hannah Franke

by Anne Cunningham

The University of Iowa is an institution with many opportunities to get involved in research. We hear from vast amounts of undergraduate students, graduate students, and professionals on their research and what the experience at Iowa provides for them. One thing I haven’t heard much on is the perspective from those outside of the University of Iowa. As part of my capstone project with the Iowa Sciences Academy and the UI-MARC program, I wanted to expand science communication outside of Iowa to universities across the United States and the world.

I decided to create a pen pal exchange where I reached out to students via email to learn about their university experiences, research, coursework, and any other related topics that came up. I’ve heard from many people with a similar background to me, in biomedical engineering and undergrad research at Iowa, so I was excited to branch out and learn from others. I ended up emailing back and forth with five students from various universities, majors, and backgrounds. I’ve talked about so much with each of them throughout the semester, so here’s a little bit I learned from each person that might be of interest:

A fourth-year medical student at the Sarajevo School of Science and Technology

• We talked about the differences of medical school in Bosnia & Herzegovina: “After we finish 4 years of high school, we can enroll into medical school which is 6 years long. After those 6 years, we must take a national exam to get licensed, and then work for one year, something like an internship. After that, we are free to do whatever we want, people usually decide to enroll into residency but there is no official program.”
• Case study contributions: “I am doing a case study with my friend about a 20 year long diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus with lupus nephritis in a woman who had two successful kidney transplantations.”
• Volunteer work: “I had an opportunity to go to Mostar and do some volunteer work in the hospital. Before that, I was in Italy shadowing the Neurosurgery and Interventional Neuroradiology departments.”

A fourth-year Biology student at the University of Nevada

• We talked about research: “I am working in the plant breeding and genomics lab. I’m not able to tell you a lot about my project since it’s under patent review.”
• Grad school plans: “I recently got accepted into the Biotech program at my university. I love research but want to expand into management/ outreach/ patent law/ science editor.”
• Being an international student: “I miss most of my friends, food, different services and clothes.”

A fourth-year Genetics & Biochemistry student at the University of Georgia

• We talked about research: “I’ve done research into left-right patterning, plant gene editing, and beneficial microbe-plant root interactions at UGA and stress granules and epigenetics at Cornell!”
• How to narrow down post-grad plans: “I’ve decided to take a gap year. I think this gap would give me a good chance to explore my options and travel while doing it!”
• Fun facts about stress: “Regarding aging, one fact would be how stress (up to a certain amount) is in fact healthy for you! Stress based hormesis examples would be how working out or interim fasting can increase life expectancy and health!”

A second-year Psychology student at the Open University

• We talked about attending an online and international university: “Online university is more flexible, but you have to be firmer. It’s pretty normal for me since I’ve been homeschooled my whole life.”
• Being unsure about future plans: “I’m not too sure what I want to do afterwards but I chose psychology because I like the aspect of understanding why people do things, not just on a fundamental level. Counselling is something I could definitely pursue afterwards.”

A fourth-year Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems student with a concentration in Agroecology at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

• We talked about research: : “I assist grad students in conservation and innovation research related to the use of cover crops in Deep South Texas and their agroecological effects!”
• Why UTRGV: “I chose this school because of its hands on farm and garden open to students.”
• Grad school plans: “I hope to go to graduate school in agriculture!”

My expectations were far surpassed when those I was communicating with responded with genuine interest, kindness, and the diverse perspectives I was seeking. Although there were times when it took longer to receive responses, I learned how busy everyone was, especially with many graduating soon. I still enjoy exchanging emails with many of these pen pals!

I encourage anyone curious about what is happening at other universities to reach out to other students and find their own pen pal! This could be done through LinkedIn, a pen pal site, asking professors and grad students, or any way you can think of.