After COP26: eco-anxiety?

What keeps you awake at night? Perhaps it’s the threat of coronavirus. When I was a teenager, it was the threat of nuclear armageddon that made me anxious.

These days it’s ‘eco-anxiety’ that’s likely to be a worry, especially for children and young people. Eco-anxiety is the chronic fear of environmental doom; it’s not a medical diagnosis, but according to the British Medical Journal, reported in the Guardian, recognition of eco-anxiety and its complex psychological effects is increasing, as is its disproportionate impact on children and young people. According to the same report, a 2020 survey of child psychiatrists in England showed that more than half (57%) are seeing children and young people distressed about the climate crisis and the state of the environment.

Mental wellbeing

There are plenty of other studies which show that spending time in nature – whether it’s a beach, a forest, or just your local park or garden – is good for people’s mental wellbeing. We all experienced something of this during the Covid lockdowns. This should come as no surprise to Christians; although humans are uniquely made in the image of God, we are still part of creation, made to thrive through living harmoniously with and in the rest of creation.

So nor should it come as a surprise that when creation is seriously threatened, and when this is constantly highlighted by the media and in public debate, people will feel anxious.

Deeds not words

By the time you read this, COP26 – the meeting of world leaders in Glasgow to fix climate change – will be over. My reflections on it will have to wait until next month. Will people be feeling less anxious and more hopeful afterwards? I well remember the despair that many felt after the failure of the Copenhagen COP in 2009, but also the joy after the success of the Paris COP in 2015. Glasgow is the opportunity to put into effect the treaty agreed in Paris.

Still, it’s deeds not words that really count, as Greta Thunberg observed with her caustic wit (‘All we hear is blah blah blah’), and even the Queen expressed irritation with world leaders who say one thing and do another.

Hope in the face of eco-anxiety

You don’t have to be a Christian to understand the importance of hope in the face of eco-anxiety. The Earthshot Prize, set up by Prince William to reward innovative ideas to repair the planet, is a good example of hope-inspiring action. David Attenborough alluded to this in his opening address (‘Hope springs eternal, but we don’t have eternity’). Each year five winners will be given £1 million each to further their work, and the awards this year ranged from projects to restore coral reefs to turning renewable energy into emission-free hydrogen gas.

Global initiatives like this can make a difference but, closer to home, another hope-inspiring example is A Rocha UK’s Partners in Action, a collaborative network of Christian land managers demonstrating active care for the natural world. The partners include Christian schools, conference and outdoor centres, and farms, working together to care for creation. Local, tangible expressions of creation care like this can provide visible demonstrations that there is hope for the future of the planet, but also point people to the better hope that we have in Jesus, through whom all things will be reconciled. Only the church can witness to a caring and redeeming Creator who entered this world, and who will keep His word and deliver His plan for the whole of creation.

Finally, remember the words of the apostle Paul: ‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God’ (Phil. 4: 6).