Latest news with #ecoanxiety
New York Times
2 days ago
- Health
- New York Times
Joanna Macy, Who Found a Way to Transcend ‘Eco-Anxiety,' Dies at 96
Joanna Macy, a pioneer in facing the emotional stress caused by climate change, who wrote books and led workshops on what became known as eco-despair or eco-anxiety, died on Saturday at her home in Berkeley, Calif. She was 96. Her family said the cause was complications of a fall. Ms. Macy was not a psychotherapist; she was trained in religious studies and systems theory. She drew from those fields, as well as her practice of Buddhism, to propose a way past the heartbreak and hopelessness that many people feel when contemplating the extinction of species, the degradation of natural places and the threats to human life on a warming planet. One of her fundamental insights was that what lies at the root of people's despair over the environment is a reverence for the earth's magnificence and an understanding that human beings are part of the web of life. 'You have to allow yourself to experience the love that is underneath the horror,' she told The San Francisco Examiner in 1999, when very few others were talking about the psychic toll of knowing that humans could irreparably damage the biosphere. At the time, psychotherapists largely dismissed the notion of eco-anxiety — the idea that climate change could cause people who were merely following the news to experience anxiety or despair. Today, the Climate Psychology Alliance offers a directory of hundreds of climate-aware therapists. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
BBC News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Eco-anxiety rap by girl, 14, wins Berkshire charity prize
A 14-year-old girl's rap about climate change has won a global competition for children's creative charity Trust for Sustainable Living (TSL) invited entries on the theme of eco-anxiety for its annual Grand Amadiegwu's rap, There's No Planet B, urges people to do their bit to reduce global warming rather than succumb to Kent schoolgirl topped the list of 2,173 entries from children in 81 countries. The track samples Greta Thunberg's speech to the Youth4Climate conference in Milan, Italy, in 2021, in which the activist criticised progress at climate change told delegates: "There is no planet B, there is no planet blah. Blah, blah, blah."Amadiegwu's rap urges: "Do your own bit even if you can't fight/ Like buy less clothes and turn off the light."The teenager, from Dartford Grammar School for Girls, said her whole geography class had to enter the competition for their said: "I didn't want to do an essay. So when I saw that we could enter a rap or anything creative, I chose to do that."I usually do musical projects for my homework so I decided to do it here as well, but I never thought I was going to be a finalist."The competition has been run for 15 years by TSL, which operates The Living Rainforest, an ecological tourist attraction at Hampstead Norreys. You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
The Guardian
10-07-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Guilt Trip: pilots torn between flight and the fight for the planet
Commercial pilots George Hibberd and Todd Smith grapple with the reality of their dream jobs, torn between childhood ambitions of flying and the impact of their industry on the world beneath them. From the cockpit, they witness first-hand the climate crisis unfolding below and decide to take drastic measures. As part of Safe Landing, a community of aviation workers who want the industry to do better for the climate, they begin to transform their eco-anxiety and guilt into action. With an estimated 1.2 million passengers in the sky at any time, they ask when will society confront the urgent need to reimagine aviation - before it's too late To read more on how former Easyjet pilot George Hibberd thinks the aviation industry can be transformed, click here.
