Eco-anxiety is defined as a feeling of helplessness towards current climate changes and future ecological disasters. Travelling with eco-anxiety as a solo traveller is one of the toughest experiences I ever endured. There is nothing like being hit with a bounty of anxiety when you travel to certain destinations or watch the news.
The first time I felt this ‘eco-anxiety’ was hurricane Katrina, the devastation left me immobile and for a moment watching the disaster on the news I experienced a panic attack. I couldn’t understand what I was feeling but I put all these emotions down to empathy for the devastation the locals experienced. From then on, I feel like I shut down a little when I watch the news and see the ecological devastations that are happening all around us.
Climate change is one of the biggest concerns facing today’s generation and thoughts of the damage humans continue to inflict on the planet is causing eco-anxiety in many people. The term eco-anxiety was recently coined by physiologists as a new type of mental health but officially it is NOT considered a diagnosable condition.
The feeling of helplessness towards climate change can manifest itself differently in different people. Travelling with eco-anxiety, I personally feel that the little contribution I am making to live a more sustainable lifestyle is not even making a dent in the grand scheme of things and that is debilitating. So, how do I cope with this feeling when I am a frequent traveller and an avid news reader?
Travelling with Eco-Anxiety
As a frequent traveller, one thing that I always think about is how can I make my travels more sustainable? Is it possible to substitute a way of travel with another given the time that I have? Sometimes the answer is no and in those instances, I look for ways to be more sustainable like which flight has less CO2 omissions? But even with these decisions that I make to be more eco-friendly, I find myself struggling with travelling with eco-anxiety.
Truverra recently conducted a study in 1,000 of the UK general public and asked 10 questions in hopes of answering the million-dollar question, does the UK suffer from eco-anxiety? Firstly, I was not surprised to learn that over 70% of us have never heard of the word eco-anxiety and even more so that over 60% of us don’t feel we suffer from something we didn’t know even existed. I was very curious about the questions they asked in relation to our anxiety levels with regards to climate change.
Over 40% of the 1000 people surveyed felt nervous or on edge when thinking about the environment. This is not surprising because most of us are concerned about climate change and the impact that some of our actions has on the planet. Sometimes it’s easy to get bogged down by the feeling of helplessness even when we try to live a more sustainable life. There are a few tips that I follow whenever I start to feel overwhelmed by the environmental changes happening every day.
I have found that whenever I am feeling overwhelmed by it all, I find recycling at home, choosing flights that produce less co2 emissions, eating more sustainably and donating to worthy environmental causes does ease some of my worries.
leila2808 says
I was thinking a lot about this past few weeks. World is becoming unpredictable place 🙁
Angela Ricardo Bethea says
I’ve been trying to be eco-friendly in my lifestyle but I’ve never thought about it when travelling. Eco-anxiety is a new term for me and this was quite an interesting read. Definitely makes me think of changing how I think about travelling a little bit.
Karen Langridge says
I hadn’t thought about it before when it comes to travel, although I do lots at home to help, we have green energy supplier even though it costs a bit more and we recycle
Jade Braham's Odyssey (@jade_braham) says
I feel the same way. I am always nervous about what my travels do to the planet and I’m always conscious of making as many changes to make it a little better.
Valerie Gray (@valmg) says
I’ve never heard this term before. I know Katrina was bad, and here we had Sandy land directly on my town’s head. We still haven’t fully recovered but I cannot say it’s given me a fear of travel.
talesofanaturalspoonie says
I have a phobia of flying which has always meant that for me any travel has always needed to not include air travel. With the current climate situation and my own eco-anxiety I am finding that having never travelled by plane I am happy to continue not doing so.
Jenni says
I hadn’t heard of the term eco-anxiety before. We travel quite a lot, as we have family overseas, otherwise we would never see them, Unfortunately that means flying.
Kara Guppy says
We are travelling more and more and I have to admit that I don’t look for companies that offer low emission flights. We do our bit at home though and make sure we take our reusable bottles etc
MELANIE EDJOURIAN says
Thankfully I don’t travel often. I have even drastically reduce the use of the car to essential journeys only. It’s important to do something to help reduce our affects on the environment. Having done this I feel much better about the few journeys by car or holidays I take.
rhianwestbury says
I do feel like you in a sense as I always think I love travelling but I do feel bad about taking planes too often x
Boo Roo and Tigger Too says
I think we all need to think about the ways and frequency of how we are travelling. Ensuring that we are making the best decisions without our remit and budget
Yeah Lifestyle says
I have not heard of the term eco-anxiety but I have felt that before and wondered what it was. Glad that I am not the only one. We don’t travel often but when we do, we tend to travel long distance to visit family. So in return we try to do more planting, reducing one-time use plastic and other things to make up for it
Roger Willis says
This is something that’s new to me. I totally get it though. I did a press trip a few years ago (my first ever!) for a blogger my wife was working for. Tornadoes had hit in Atlanta that week, and that made travel difficult, but I managed.
Sarah Howe says
I’d never heard of this but any anxiety is really horrible to deal with. I’m glad you have your ways to ease this and still be able to travel!
sarupashah says
My take is if it is causing you anxiety STOP – not the travel but stop the anxiety – one person alone isn’t going to change the direction of the planet and more to the point how people believe it is heading and it is going to take longer and nothing about the future is certain – including the doom theories that try to tell that there isn’t long left..
Beautyqueen UK says
I had no idea eco-anxiety was even a thing until I read your post and admittedly it isn’t something I have ever really given much thought too at all x
Erica Hughes says
It’s a tricky one. I’d like to be a more eco traveler, but often time and money count against me. I guess you could argue don’t go then, but in that case I’d probably never go anywhere. It is something that worries me too, but not as far as getting anxious thankfully.
Sabina Green says
I think eco-anxiety is very real. There will always be that fear of natural disasters but I can also understand that anxiety about the impact of travel too.
motherhoodtherealdeal says
I like how you make an effort to offset your travel. I think taking back control in that way is a good way of helping to reduce eco anxiety.
Sarah Stockley says
I suffer from anxiety in general so I know that awful feeling of panic. I have not travelled in a very long time and even though I really would love to soon, I completely understand your feelings of eco-anxiety.