Eco Anxiety and Ecological Citizenship

As knowledge about the rapidly degrading living conditions on Earth becomes more accurate, the impacts of environmental problems become more visible, and Anthropocene scenarios proliferate in films, television series, and novels, eco-anxiety emerges as a global and socially widespread phenomenon. This Open Access book provides a philosophical perspective on eco-anxiety, a pervasive feature of life in the Anthropocene. It is both a global and socially widespread phenomenon. This is due to the increasingly accurate information about the rapidly degrading living conditions on Earth, the increasingly ubiquitous impacts of environmental problems on human and non-human beings, and the increasingly numerous eco-fiction scenarios in movies, series, and novels. Given the scale and severity of planetary boundary transgressions, feeling anxious about the future of the planet, especially the future of the species and sentient individuals it hosts, has become a fitting emotional response. But what exactly is eco-anxiety? And how can we address its adverse effects on mental health and harness its positive behavioural responses? To answer these questions, this book develops a detailed definition and provides an in-depth conceptual analysis of the notion of eco-anxiety. It also draws on the normative framework of ecological citizenship to explain how hope, carbon sobriety, and courage can help us live with eco-anxiety. Michel Bourban is Assistant Professor in Environmental Ethics at University of Twente, the Netherlands. This Open Access book offers a philosophical exploration of eco-anxiety. As knowledge about the rapidly degrading living conditions on Earth becomes more accurate, the impacts of environmental problems become more visible, and Anthropocene scenarios proliferate in films, television series, and novels, eco-anxiety emerges as a global and socially widespread phenomenon. Given the scale and severity of planetary boundary transgressions, feeling anxious about the future of human and non-human life has become a fitting emotional response. But what exactly is eco-anxiety? And how can we address its adverse effects on mental health and harness its constructive behavioural responses? This book answers these questions by developing an in-depth conceptual analysis of the notion of eco-anxiety and explaining how ecological citizenship, with its focus on hope, carbon sobriety, and courage, can help us live with eco-anxiety.

Pages: 150, Hardcover, Palgrave Macmillan