Has this summer of soaring temperatures and catastrophic wildfires scared you of climate change? You are not alone. Environmental disaster is the biggest mental health issue of our lifetimes. Around 80% of young people are worried about climate change; 59% are extremely worried. This feeling is commonly referred to as climate anxiety, the fear of environmental doom. A new area of study, climate anxiety is categorised as a practical anxiety which can be connected to many emotions, including panic, powerlessness, grief, shame, guilt, and hopelessness. It is not a diagnosable mental illness, but constant worrying can turn into depression, exacerbate underlying mental health issues, and impair people’s daily ability to function. 14.3% of deaths worldwide are attributable to some kind of mental illness; climate change is set to make mental health a lot worse as climate anxiety, a sane response to our broken systems, becomes our lived reality. Most of us will feel it eventually, especially African women.

Climate anxiety vs. climate trauma 

Young people feel betrayed, confused, and abandoned; many even feel that humanity is doomed. To those living in the Global North, exo-anxiety is a necessary disruption of the luxurious lives they have been afforded as a result of the imperial world order. Those living in the Global South, however, have been dealing with the consequences of climate change for decades. Their climate anxiety stems from climate trauma and post traumatic stress disorder. Despite having done little to cause this crisis, poorer nations are bearing the brunt of industrialization. According to the African Development Bank, Africa holds 15% of the world’s population, is responsible for around 3% of global energy-related CO2 emissions, and yet is currently forced to “shoulder nearly 50% of the estimated global climate change adaptation costs.” There are calls for richer countries to financially support poorer nations’ adaptation, but these debates are limited to the material dimension of climate change (and to false promises at that). The mental toll of heat, droughts, and storms is absent from climate conversations. Evidence shows that hot temperatures increase the risk of suicide, impair neuro-development, and induce new mental disorders. While young people in the Global North battle climate anxiety and fear future ecological collapse, their counterparts in the Global South are presently living through these very eco-anxieties. 

Erasing a continent 

Most research on the psychological dimension of the climate crisis has been conducted in western countries, even though a new study by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows that the Global South is at far more risk from a climate-related psychological catastrophe. As a result, those living through the worst of this are set to have the least informed solutions available to them. Africa, likely to experience the highest mental health impacts with nine out of the 10 most vulnerable countries in sub-Saharan Africa, is the least studied region. The voices of African climate activists, like Ugandan Vanessa Nakata, are systematically being erased by media and activist spaces, when they are the ones that know exactly how climate catastrophes are affecting their communities, and what actions need to be taken. At the intersection of climate change and the patriarchy, African women are especially vulnerable to experiencing trauma, mental illness, violence, and death. Women and children are at a 14 times higher risk of dying in a natural catastrophe, because they are the last to be warned, less likely to know how to swim, and the caretakers of others. 

A structural problem

Ecological breakdown triggers societal and political conflicts which in turn affect women and girls disproportionally. Climate anxiety in the case of many African women is not simply guilt about flying or eating meat, it is an awareness of the violence that environmental catastrophes cause. According to predictions, two regions in Africa are especially vulnerable to climate-related (violent) conflict: East Africa and the Sahel. Whether it is through forced migration, poverty, or armed conflict, climate change exacerbates existing power imbalances and gender inequities: Droughts create armed conflict over resource scarcity, triggering violence against women and girls as a tactic of war. Unpredictable, extreme weather conditions ruin crops and lead to food shortage, which means that families cannot afford to send their children to school. Girls are usually the first to be pulled out of education, and the last to be fed. Societies with diminishing livelihoods are more susceptible to radical ideologies which are nearly always oppressive to women. Finally, the combination of political instability and disasters has contributed to an increase in the number of internally displaced people and refugees in Africa, amongst women migrants are at a high risk of physical, sexual or mental harm when crossing borders and settling in inhumane conditions. In short: Societal structures that are dictated by neo-colonial, patriarchal, capitalist power imbalances which historically marginalise women are made worse by climate change, making African women and girls most vulnerable in this climate crisis. Amidst these realities, mental illness is widely stigmatised across the continent, rendering those fearing the consequences of climate change without support and validation for their experience.  

Turning Climate Anxiety Into Climate Action 

African governments need to invest in community mental health systems, promote quality mental health and work to prevent stigma. Until they do, African women are creating their own projects to address mental stress. In Nigeria, The Eco-anxiety in Africa Project (TEAP), launched by ecofeminist and sustainability communicator Jennifer Uchechu, seeks to understand and validate the experiences of eco-anxiety and environmental-related emotions in Africans. “We live in a sense of acute apprehension”, explains Uchecho in a conversation with climate anxiety expert Sarah Jaquette Ray. “It hits so close to home. People might not call it climate change here, but they see the impact and how our ways of living are changing.” She talks of the gaslighting she experienced in European climate activist spaces, which triggered mental breakdowns and her own research into the relationship of mental health and ecology in Africa. “We never hear about eco-anxiety from an African perspective”, she says. TEAP is looking to set up psycho-social support groups and psychotherapy with a climate-aware psychotherapist. They offer monthly webinars to educate and validate people. “What we’re trying to do is find homegrown solutions, so we can include everyone and make sure our young people feel resilient about the future.”

Lack of agency is a major source of anxiety. Taking action is the antidote. “Doing nothing is a self-fulfilling prophecy and will make you more anxious”, says Joycelin Longdon, Founder of Climate in Colour. “I know that sounds harsh. Climate activists are scared as well, but that doesn’t lead us to apathy.” On her website, she offers guidance on how to find one’s spot in the climate movement, saying that “you don’t have to buy or consume certain things or go to protests. Anyone can be an environmentalist, and everyone has their own role. You can play your part as an artist, a comforter, a healer, or a writer. If everyone wholeheartedly jumps to what their role is, that will mean that we move a lot faster.” We must educate ourselves and destigmatize mental illness in our communities, so that we can hold space for each other. 

Find mental health resources here.