I came across this term recently in an Instagram post by Alice Aedy, an English environmental activist. Eco-anxiety can be explained as a form of depression, anxiety and/or fear regarding the future state of the environment. Reading her post and seeing how it influenced her life really helped me understand what I have been going through for the past few years. By writing this blog post, I hope to do the same.
Eco-anxiety started affecting me a few years back when I made the commitment to become a vegetarian. What started purely as a decision regarding the ethics of industrial farming, quickly became a realisation of the effects it had on the environment. The more I learned the more anxious and depressed I became about the future state of our planet. Watching documentaries showing what goes on behind factory farm walls, mass coral bleaching, plastic pollution, global warming, made me fall into a mixed state of anger, sadness and helplessness. Social media is engulfed in images of murdered, endangered animals, marine life trapped in fishing nets, forest fires and habitat destruction. All because of the negligence of a single species. This makes it unbelievably difficult to imagine a future, in which our destructive nature ceases to exist.
I was lucky enough to grow up in a place surrounded by nature. Thick forests, beautiful mountains, bright green landscape in the summer and sparkling white in the winter. I gained my love for nature and the outdoors growing up here. Now, our wild forests are being cut down and landscapes destroyed for industrial purposes and tourism, while these naturally grown woodlands are the main reason tourists come here in the first place. Ironic isn’t it? I am overwhelmed with resentment towards the development of this mass destruction and I see little to no change in sight. Unfortunately, Slovakia is only the tip of a slowly melting iceberg. In Costa Rica, I traveled to the Caribbean coast and was horrified by miles and miles of palm plantations. Then I traveled to the Pacific coast and saw the catastrophic views of the banana plantations. Miles of habitat destroyed. The worst part being the fact that we are all to blame, us the consumers. With consumerism comes a big price that, unfortunately, nature has to pay.
I think about the future of the environment about 60% of the day, more or less. This is mostly due to social media. For example, if I see a post about the Trump administration making it legal for hunters in Alaska’s national preserves to shoot bears and wolves, I will think about it for hours, whilst researching more about it throughout the day. These are exactly the sort of posts that trigger my fear, depression and anxiety. To be honest, President Trump is one of the main reasons behind my constant state of anger and fear. But more about him in a future blog post, as I feel many people will be able to relate. This, however, never stopped me from deleting all my social media platforms and that's because I would rather go through the pain of knowing than being completely clueless about the horrific things occurring around the world.
Sometimes I wonder what it would feel like to not be conscious about the environment. To not have such strong feelings towards nature and wildlife. I often ask myself whether it would make my life easier. When wildfires hit Australia last year, I cried for days and every time I would see a new post on Instagram or Facebook, it would hit me again and again. It got so bad, I had to take a break from all my social media sites. I never felt so helpless. Millions of animals dead, millions of hectares of land burned. And this is just the beginning. Global warming's effects are increasing and it will just get worst from here. Antarctica's ice is melting, polar bear populations are declining, but why care about something that is not affecting us personally? This is the state of our planet now, a bunch of people who let their ego decide on what is important. And what is more important than keeping our earth alive?
I am glad to be one of the people that care.
This is the positive side of living with eco-anxiety. Realising my selfless nature. I am starting to become more concerned about the present and future of our environment than I am about myself. With this self-discovery, I hope to become further dedicated in actively helping the world become a better place. Not for myself, not for others, but for the life on earth that we so incessantly try to destroy.
For those who suffer from eco-anxiety, I thank you, because it is you and your selflessness that will slowly mend the fallen bridges between men and nature.
Roses are gone violets are too
I went outside and forgot my shoes
Luckily the grass is dead, phew
Concrete floor for me and for you
--- a "touching" poem by my boyfriend Jack