How Eco-anxiety Works

Eco-anxiety -- a chronic fear of environmental doom -- is a recent, specialized type of anxiety disorder gripping an estimated 40 million people in the United States. Check out this HowStuffWorks podcast to learn more about eco-anxiety.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you Should Know
from House Stuff Works dot com? Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh. There's Chuck. This is stuff you
should know. As you know, I don't think you've ever

(00:22):
said that the title of our podcast. I'm trying us
something new like that. Let the Mighty Eagle Sword. So, um,
have you ever heard of eugenics? Chuck? Uh? No, because
you tease me before we went on the air and
I asked you what it was so I might add
to the conversation, and you refused. I refused to tell
you did not genuine you really genuinely don't know that

(00:46):
you you already know the answer to Nope. Okay, well
let me tell you a little bit about eugenics. It's
a little history lesson American history to be exact. Early
twentieth century, there was a movement of foot in the
scientific community to basically purify the human race, to make humans,
you know, the best we can possibly be. But to

(01:07):
do that, we had to get rid of humans that
were deemed deficient. And for those of you listening out there,
I just made very very strong air quotes with my fingers. Um.
So these deficient humans were anybody from the uh, mentally infirm, epileptics,
people born blind or deaf, mutes, um, and just basically

(01:29):
anybody who club foot. Oh yeah, you did not want
to be club foot in nineteen in America. But this
is this is a little known aspect of of American history.
The government got behind this, this eugenics movement. And there's
actually I believe there's a few people alive today that
were um sterilized by the federal government. That's eugenics. It

(01:53):
really happened. Well, I'm glad it didn't take. It didn't take,
although it almost did. Um elsewhere and a little old
place we called Germany. Adolf Hitler actually didn't come up
with this idea of you know, the superman of the
Arian race, the perfect race on his own. He got
it from the eugenics movement and a guy named Henry

(02:14):
Ford who was a huge proponent of eugenics. Yep, little
known fact. Let's fast forward to the twenty first century.
Right now, there are at least two women walking the
planet who voluntarily had themselves sterilized. Do you know why
they did? This. Uh, so they couldn't have babies. That's

(02:34):
precisely right. How insightful of you. Uh. The reason that
they did this, yes, was because they didn't want to
contribute to the population and its negative effects on the environment.
This is their their service to the environment. They were
making sure they didn't procreate. Ever, and I'm sure they
probably went to the press to tout this most definitely.

(02:57):
Uh and uh, yeah, it was a big deal. There
was a couple of articles I read on them, and UM,
I guess what I'm trying to say is I would
call that an example of eco anxiety. Yeah, I think
it's I would agree with you there. Do you want
to define eco anxiety? Uh? Sure, echo anxiety is it's

(03:18):
a sort of a new affliction that they've yeah, very new, um,
where people have chronic fears of environmental doom in one
way or the other, whether it's a global warming, uh, flood, famine,
heat waves, extinction, that kind of thing. And I don't
I don't know exactly how widely um held this diagnosis is,

(03:38):
but apparently it is real and um it's it's somewhat
like a general anxiety disorder where you have insomnia nervousness, depression,
that kind of thing. Um, except it's very specifically triggered from,
you know, thinking about or being presented with evidence of
the destruction of the environment or even actually I did
a little extra research for a change, and um, a

(04:02):
lot of these folks even just they'll see they'll obsess
over like a can or a water bottle. They'll be
walking down the street and they'll see a can on
on the road and they'll want to stop their car. Well,
I guess they'll be driving. They want to stop their
car just to get bike can probably bike. This one
lady sifts. Yeah, they'd be on a bike. I guess
they sift through the trash sometimes looking for recyclables. I've

(04:24):
actually done that before. I don't consider myself eco anxious though.
It's more just like, well, this can be recycled. Well
I've done that. I've I've just taken something off the
top perhaps yeah, yeah, I didn't like get my hands
really dirty, right, but I don't. I don't make it
a point to go around too trash cans to sift
through them, which I think some of these folks do. Actually,
if that is a symptom of eco anxiety, then maybe

(04:45):
this isn't new because hobos have been doing that for
years maybe, right, Yeah, so maybe these are just hobo's
in disguise, right, they were the first eco anxious yeah exactly.
So um okay, so that's that's eco anxiety. We've we've
got that covered. Um. And it seems like people who
are eco anxious, um are just kind of maybe nervous nellies.

(05:08):
And this is a real outlet forum. I have a
feeling that might be the case that because general anxiety,
yeah exactly. It seems like there's general anxiety and then
emanating from that are these things that can trigger it, right,
think about it, um, Eco anxieties new uh, and it's
kind of developed along with um our consciousness of how

(05:28):
badly we're treating the planet these days. Um. But it
was fear of flying around before airplanes were invented um or.
And there's also a lot of a lot of psychologists
that believe that claustrophobia didn't really generate until or develop
until the modern city and that kind of living close
and all that actually lead to claust phobia. So it

(05:50):
almost seems like this is totally meo pining here. But
it seems like there's general anxiety disorders, and then it
just kind of there's there's triggers for different triggers for
different folks, right, almost like you look for something to
uh to be anxious about exactly. Well, eco anxiety is
the new anxiety du jour. So we should probably tell everybody,

(06:12):
you know, what they can possibly do about this kind
of thing, right. Well, I know that many people who
suffer from eco anxiety feel a great deal of uh
or a great lack of support rather from friends and family.
A lot of times they aren't very understanding because they
think it's not exactly uh cookie, Yeah, they think it's

(06:32):
a little cookie or or if nothing else unfounded. Although
I did notice in the article uh that a gallant
pole states at thirty six percent of Americans say they
worry a great deal about global warming, and that same
pole found thirty of people think that global warming will
pose a threat to their life, for their lifestyle within
their lifetime. Right, So I guess that's a I mean,

(06:54):
I kind of believe that as well. I believe in
got global warming, and I think that it's already having
some negative effects, but I don't carry it around with
me on a daily basis. As far as worrying about it,
I think it's a difference, right. I think my problem
with the eco anxiety diagnosis is that any any um
gesture toward the environment, towards protecting the environment that isn't

(07:16):
born exclusively out of a sense of responsibility UH qualifies
as eco anxiety, which I kind of disagree with. But
there's a pretty good explanation for eco anxiety that eco
psychologists have come up with, UM and that basically it's
it's a symptom or a byproduct of our increasing disconnection

(07:38):
from the planet. We have UM, we've created technology that
has effectively taken us out of any kind of need
to be cared for by the planet, or we've at
least UH created that that idea in our minds that
we have insulated ourselves from the planet through technology. We
don't need it any longer except to walk on and

(07:59):
drink the water from it. Any problems we face, we
can basically engineer our way out of it. Right. But
apparently we're supposed to connect with the planet, We're supposed
to feel connected with the planet, So as we get
less and less connected to it, we're getting more and
more eco anxious. That's the explanation as I understand it, right.
And one on that same note, one thing I thought

(08:21):
was kind of funny. Actually, if you want me to
be honest, one of the things that eco therapists will
do at a rate of two fifty uh to help
you cure this will be to advise you to carry
around a rock or a piece of bark to connect
yourself with mother nature. Again. The other suggestion that I
I read that I liked was to go outside, right.

(08:44):
I would love to charge somebody two fifty bucks for
fifty minutes to tell them to go outside, right. I mean,
how do you do that? That's awesome? Sure, yeah, And
you know, we don't want to belittle because it is
a valid If it's a valid concern for somebody, then
who are we to say that it's not. Who are
we to draw judgment on somebody who who walks around

(09:05):
uh in a constant stated panic when they see an
idling car, let's say, or a water bottle sitting on
the ground. Uh. So, while we might think it's a
bit silly, um, they might think that my fear of
of mice is silly. I think your fear of mice
is really silly. Yeah, um. But yeah, I can understand
what you're saying, and I think that's a legitimate thing
to to point out, because however it manifests itself, it's

(09:29):
still in a form of anxiety. But this is perhaps
maybe the most productive form of anxiety there is, you know,
I mean, you don't want to just like curl up
in the corner with your your chest, your knees drawn
up to your chest, rocking back and forth. You want
to go pick recyclables out of the trash and do something,
you know, maybe go fight off Japanese whalers in the Arctic,

(09:50):
something like that, right, joined green peace something. I mean,
at least it motivates you to do something that has
a happy end, right, happy ending, or just carry on
a piece of bark in your pocket, which is really
the last do you know, that's not very good advice
if you ask me. I think they can inspire somebody
to actually make change instead of just carrying a rock
carrying yeah, or bark. Um. So, there was one other

(10:12):
aspect that I found kind of interesting about echo anxiety
was that it was largely driven by the media. Yeah,
I've I completely agree with that, think our friend Al Gore,
I know, Leo DiCaprio YEA has inspired with his film
and an Inconvenient Truth, which was you know, kind of frightening. Yeah. Well,
as with any kind of UM public policy push or campaign, UM,

(10:37):
it has to be the problem has to be identified
and the public has to be alerted to it. But
we generally, especially in America, are fairly lazy and like
to have things spoon fed to us. So the best
way to get us to you know, get off of
the lazy boy and drop our Budweiser and you know,
maybe get out there and do something is too scared

(11:00):
the hell out of us. And and it's a it's
a legitimate marketing tactic. There's just some there's just a
acronym called fud, fear, uncertainty, and dread and these are
actually three marketing ploys to get people to do something.
So whether it's you know, saving the Polar Bears or

(11:20):
getting you to go to the Midnight Madness Sale, it's
the same tactics. And I can see how especially missing
the Midnight Man is hell. That's pretty bad. But eventually
you're gonna get over. You're like, that sucks. I missed
out on those savings, but I'll live with the with
the with the environment, the stakes are so much higher

(11:41):
that I think if you're going to try to get
people to act you, you have to you have to
be slightly more delicate. Maybe because you have the eco
actions out there. You gotta be careful with these folks. Yeah,
my wife, I wouldn't call her eco anxious, but she
does worry about the polar bears. Sure, stuff like that.

(12:01):
Well don't we all? Yeah? So, um, I guess my
advice to our readers would be, and I think I
speak for Chuck as well, the next time you see
a well dressed liberal routing through the trash and pulling
cans out, be extra nice to them because they may
be among the eco anxious. Or tout yourself as an
ecotherapist and take money from them. Yeah, keep keep loads

(12:23):
of bar candy like pharmaceutical samples. Well, don't go anywhere.
We want you to stick around and find out which
article Chuck and I think has the most useful useless
information we've heard in quite some time. Chuck, do you
want to be the big boy who tells them which
article we think has the most useful useless information in it? Yes,
the big boy? Uh, why is it Why is it

(12:46):
a bad idea to scare a vulture? Written by our
colleague Kristen Conner, And do you want to tell everybody
why it's a bad idea? Yeah, because apparently if a
vulture gets scared, it will vomit on cue. And this
vomit is not ordinary vombit. Apparently vulture vomit. It smells
like dead things appropriately appropriately enough, but it also burns, right, Yeah,

(13:08):
so you should probably just steer clear of vultures anyway. Right.
I would say, we say useless, useful or useful useless,
depending on where you're coming from, because it sounds silly,
But if you ever scared of vulture and it puked
on you, then you find out it's not so silly. Yeah, exactly.
You can arm yourself against this eventuality. Learn some vulture
psychology how to keep away from that kind of thing?

(13:31):
Type in why did a bad idea to scare of
vulture into our handy dandy search bar. You can learn
more about eco anxiety by typing in how eco anxiety works.
Both of those articles that would be found in only
one place, that is how stuff works dot com. For
more on this and thousands of other topics, is that
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(13:53):
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