Flooding tides. Soaring temperatures. Even species disappearing, like a rare cactus declared in July forever "extirpated" from the Florida Keys.
Many troubling signs of climate change in South Florida are visible—but one that affects a growing number of people is not. It's called climate , a fear of what the future may hold in a warming world. It hit Olivia Collins not long ago, The wave of worry surprised her since she's immersed in the subject from working at Miami's CLEO institute, which is dedicated to climate education and advocacy.
The unsettling feeling suddenly washed over her after she read "The Light Pirate," a novel set in near-future Florida about a child born out of a devastating hurricane who has to navigate a world undergoing frightening change. "I've been with CLEO for seven years and never felt climate anxiety, but it hit me like a ton of bricks back in the spring," Collins said. "After I read that book, I was seeking my own personal climate therapist through the climate psychology network.
It felt too real. It hit this nerve so deep down, and I can't undo it." Some may scoff, perhaps the same skeptics of science showing the environment is already changing, but and practicing psychologists have identified climate anxiety as an increasingly common stressor.
Experts at Yale University define it this way: distress about climate change and its impacts on the landscape and human existence. It can manifest as intrusive thoughts or troubled feelings about the futu.