Professor Clayton pens essay for Time about owning climate anxiety

Susan Clayton, Whitmore-Williams Professor of Psychology at The College of Wooster, wrote an essay for Time calling attention to the ever-more-present reality of climate change and its affects not only on physical health and safety but also mental health. Clayton references increased numbers of canceled flights, restrictions on outdoor exercise, and other personal impacts of climate change people are experiencing as reasons not to ignore climate anxiety.

“In the face of these conditions, people are feeling a wide range of negative emotions—sad, scared, overwhelmed, anxious….” Clayton wrote in the article. “People are not only feeling sad and anxious—young people feel betrayed by the inadequacy of governmental response; people who have contributed very little to climate change are angry that they are experiencing more than their share of the consequences; many feel frustrated by the responses of others, or guilty about their own individual or collective involvement.”

As a conservation psychologist and leading expert in the area of the mental health implications associated with climate change, Clayton encourages readers to own these feelings and discusses the consequences of denying negative emotions both an individual and others around them. At the same time, she says “these negative emotions can (and should) also co-exist with positive emotions” and make recommendations to cope. Read the full essay here: https://time.com/6298051/climate-anxiety-essay/.

Posted in Faculty, News on August 2, 2023.