How common is severe climate change anxiety in Canada? Study offers a glimpse

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Two new studies are helping to shed light on the extent Canadians feel climate change is impacting their mental health.

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A national study published today suggests about 2.3 per cent of people in Canada experience climate change anxiety at a level the authors considered “clinically relevant,” causing meaningful distress and disruption in their lives.

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The severe manifestation of climate anxiety was more common among people who had directly experienced climate change impacts, women compared to men, those in Northern Canada compared to Southern Canada, younger generations compared to older generations, people in urban centres compared to rural areas, and people with lower incomes.

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The study published in the academic journal Nature Mental Health also suggests Indigenous people had the highest prevalence of severe climate anxiety of any group, at almost 10 per cent.

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The paper suggests that number could reflect the disproportionate climate impacts Indigenous communities face due to wildfires, declining sea ice and warmer winters, as well as the heightened importance of the link between human and planetary health in Indigenous worldviews.

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A second peer-reviewed study, published late last month and authored by a different group of researchers, found 37 per cent of Canadian teens who responded to a survey said they felt climate change was impacting their mental health.

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Climate change, driven by planet-warming emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, is having serious impacts on the health of people in Canada, from worsening air quality due to intensifying wildfires to the northward spread of disease-carrying insects who thrive in the milder winters and longer summers.

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Yet, the mental health impacts of climate change may be underestimated in Canada, a 2022 report prepared for the Public Health Agency of Canada said. That could leave public health understaffed and unprepared to handle the issue, the report said.

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Climate anxiety is a piece of that larger puzzle. It often refers to the heightened distress a person feels about the impending threat of climate change. Those fears may be rooted in a direct experience with extreme weather or exposure to climate change messages.

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Feeling worried or fearful about climate change is not a cause for concern and, to some researchers, is even a healthy response to the scale of the crisis that can engender action to help solve it. But for some people, severe manifestations of climate change anxiety can start to disrupt daily life and mirror symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder, such as obsessive thinking, dread, the inability to concentrate and nightmares.

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To find out how prevalent that severe climate anxiety is in Canada, the research team behind Tuesday’s study surveyed 2,476 people from across the country. Respondents were asked a series of questions adapted from a climate anxiety scale widely used among other academics studying the issue. Those questions included how often thoughts of climate change may disrupt the person’s sleep or concentration, how often they question why they react the way they do to climate change and how often their feelings about climate change negatively affect their daily life.