Climate Anxiety: An Interdisciplinary Approach

A research-driven framework for understanding climate anxiety across disciplines Climate change is generating new forms of psychological distress across populations worldwide, yet single-discipline studies have often produced contradictory findings. Climate Anxiety: An Interdisciplinary Approach delivers a multidisciplinary framework for understanding and responding to climate anxiety as an emerging mental health phenomenon. Written by an international team of researchers in psychiatry and mental health, this book clearly defines the features and manifestations of climate anxiety, distinguishes adaptive from maladaptive responses, and situates it within broader climate-related psychopathology. The book provides clinical and policy-relevant frameworks that equip professionals with tools for assessment, treatment, and contextual understanding at individual, community, and population levels. It examines vulnerable populations including youth, communities of the Global Majority and indigenous populations, and those affected by climate displacement, offering a global and equity-focused perspective on the intersectional inequalities often absent from Western-centric analyses. It also offers an in-depth analysis on climate anxiety’s relationship with spirituality, the emergence of climate prepping, and the understanding of cultural trauma. Written for mental health professionals, researchers, students, and educators, this book provides the interdisciplinary grounding needed to assess, treat, and study climate anxiety in clinical, academic, and policy contexts. It connects the biophysical and socio-political dimensions of climate change with psychiatric and psychological practice, spanning disciplines and diverse global populations. An interdisciplinary framework for understanding climate anxiety Climate change generates measurable psychological consequences, yet research on eco-distress remains fragmented across disciplines. Climate Anxiety: An Interdisciplinary Approach, authored by a team of international researchers from universities and health institutions, offers an interdisciplinary framework for understanding climate anxiety and the psychological challenges of climate change. The book synthesizes perspectives from psychiatry, psychology, public health, and environmental science to provide a structured, cross-disciplinary account of how climate anxiety manifests, propagates, and affects populations, including cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dimensions, and addressing both individual-level responses and broader societal patterns of adaptation. The volume explores this topic by examining the key issues and current scientific literature in each of the world’s major region and the effect on indigenous populations. Readers will also find: A historical overview on the relationship between climate crisis, anxiety and violent reactions. A summary on the effects of climate change on mental health from a clinical perspective and a review of the main individual and group interventions for climate anxiety. An in-depth analysis on the relationship between climate anxiety and spirituality. A focus on intersectionality of climate change and its implications on the Global Majority. An investigation on the role of anxiety in climate prepping. An interpretation of climate anxiety as a sign of cultural trauma and how it is contributing to the mutation of global thought and culture. Climate Anxiety serves researchers, clinicians, public health professionals, and advanced students working at the intersection of mental health and environmental change. By unifying perspectives from psychiatry, psychology, and environmental science, this volume provides a structured foundation for understanding and addressing the psychological toll of ecological disruption.