Global warming worries and generates new anxieties. - Allili Mourad / SIPA

  • On the occasion of the entry into the new decade, 20 Minutes devotes a series of articles to the 2020s, new crazy years.
  • In the face of climate change, new evils have emerged. Eco-anxiety for the least affected, solastalgia for the most sensitive, up to eco-paralysis for the most depressed.
  • In France, according to the risk and safety study published by the IRSN Barometer in October 2019, 56% of French people fear the effects of global warming.

A hundred years later, the “roaring twenties” are coming back to the tips of their noses. From the “roaring twenties” [the roaring 1920s], carried by a creative euphoria and an almost fanatic belief in the industrial revolution, we are entering the “worrying twenties”, as the big study called it. from Ipsos "Trend Obs 2020".

On the menu for the decade: disenchantment, existential distress and fantasy of the apocalypse. Throughout the week, 20 Minutes explores the future loved ones that await us by 2030. In this episode, 20 Minutes invites you to discover whether you are too or very little sensitive to climate change.

Tomorrow, all solastalgics? Between a completely broken thermometer, the melting of the glaciers, the acidification of the oceans and the pollution that is taking over the capitals of the whole world, it is difficult to remain optimistic. “Some people are very angry to see the world in which they live disappear. They are angry with society, with banks, with the system, ”analyzes Charline Schmerber, a psychotherapy practitioner, author of a study and a clinical dissertation on eco-anxiety.

Result? New evils have appeared. Eco-anxiety for the least affected, solastalgia for the most sensitive, up to eco-paralysis for the most depressed. Climate change is not only affecting the planet, but also the morale of its inhabitants. According to the risk and safety study published by the IRSN Barometer in October 2019, 56% of French people fear the effects of global warming. In 2020, how many will there be?

Do you suffer from “not-so-gravism” : the environment? Not even afraid. Ecology? A bohemian thing. To recycle ? To do what ! You clearly do not feel concerned by global warming. Elsewhere, perhaps, but here you do not see the difference between before and now. If you sort it out, it's more out of habit. And then, your town hall forces you to, so ... When we tell you that there are no more seasons ("my good lady"), you don't believe it for a second. Because you see it every year: it is always hot in summer and cold in winter. Besides, it's normal for the Earth to undergo changes. It's been like this since the dawn of time! Of course, you are willing to concede that pesticides are probably not very good for your health. So you buy organic. Because you never know. A word of advice: precisely because you don't know, maybe you should reduce the use of straws and plastic bags. In doubt…

You are eco-anxious : you suffer from pre-traumatic stress. Your environment has not really changed, but you have read it, and you feel it in the depths of your gut: the world as it is today will soon be gone. It was already the case elsewhere. So you wonder when your turn will come. So, you are worried about the future. You are convinced (perhaps rightly) that what you know is bound to undergo major irreversible changes, or even to disappear. All around you, you feel your world falling apart little by little. The solution ? Get into action. Recycle. Militate! All is not (yet) lost. You will (re) become “just” eco-responsible. And it will be fine like that.

You are solastalgic: you are visibly more sensitive than the average. You suffer from the whistleblower syndrome: you feel like this little hummingbird trying to put out the fire by the force of its beak and the water it can contain. You seem to be sounding the alarm that, unfortunately, no one except you hears, when your world has already changed. Your environment is not what it used to be. It has degraded. And it makes you angry. It makes you sad. A word of advice: mourn this world that no longer exists. Don't let depression win you, and most importantly ... don't give up hope!

You suffer from eco-paralysis: you are eco-anxious, and it shows! More than that: the despair within you pushes you to self-destruction, and takes away any possibility of active hope. You no longer want to get up. What good is it after all? The end of the world is near, you know. In a word, you are deprived. So you kill yourself on the job. Your work has become your reason for living, or almost. You drink more than you should and nicotine is your smallest addiction. Your body is your vessel, okay, but you're sure that, given the state of the world today, it won't get you very far. Everyone is going to die, and so are you. And what you can do will not change anything. So how do we get out of it? Speak ! Put words into your feelings. Meet others. Get back in motion. And if (very) dark ideas cross your mind, do not wait before asking for help!

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20 seconds of context

To help us develop a test based on the reality of these feelings which are, for the moment, not considered pathological, the psychotherapist Charline Schmerber agreed to detail the different profiles that she was able to observe daily within his cabinet. She is the author of a study published on her blog in November 2019, devoted to eco-anxiety.

Concerning solastalgia, it is a term created in 2007 by the Australian researcher of the University of Murdoch, Glenn Albrecht, after having studied a population of farmer in the valley of Hunter, in Australia, become depressed because of mining operations that had damaged their land. He explains its origins in his book Génération Symbiocène, new words for a new world .

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