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Eco Anxiety
Ayisha Siddiqa,
Poet and Co-Founder of Polluters Out
I have noticed time and time again that eco anxiety is used by people in the Global North, especially white people, to discuss a topic that they have not experienced.
It is portrayed as a fear of the future based on science and the IPCC, among other second hand information. It is a fear of what is to come, and it is very different from people who have experienced climate disaster.
Theirs is a true eco anxiety, and it is closer to a PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder). And for that reason, I would say that the term eco anxiety has been watered down and normalized.
It seems tight and trivial when people use it as a response to second hand information. Perhaps stress about the world is more appropriate. The term eco anxiety has been exploited and over-used as a way for people, who have not been affected by the climate crisis, to draw attention to themselves.
It is portrayed as a fear of the future based on science and the IPCC, among other second hand information. It is a fear of what is to come, and it is very different from people who have experienced climate disaster.
Theirs is a true eco anxiety, and it is closer to a PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder). And for that reason, I would say that the term eco anxiety has been watered down and normalized.
It seems tight and trivial when people use it as a response to second hand information. Perhaps stress about the world is more appropriate. The term eco anxiety has been exploited and over-used as a way for people, who have not been affected by the climate crisis, to draw attention to themselves.
(1) Doris Salcedo, The Materiality of Mourning
(2) Andreas Malm, How To Blow Up A Pipeline
(3) Palestine is a Climate Justice Issue
(2) Andreas Malm, How To Blow Up A Pipeline
(3) Palestine is a Climate Justice Issue
