Why “eco-anger” is more productive than “eco-anxiety”

• Emotions can play a positive role in the fight against global warming, according to our partner The Conversation.

• A survey, for example, highlights the fact that the experience of eco-anger predicts greater commitment to action and pro-climate behaviors than eco-anxiety.

• This analysis was conducted by Delphine Pouchain, lecturer in economics and Emmanuel Petit, professor of economics.

In 2021, a

article revealed that, of 10,000 young people aged 16 to 25 surveyed in ten countries, half said that climate change made them sad, anxious, angry, helpless and guilty.

Almost half considered their feelings about climate change negatively affecting their daily lives, and many reported negative thoughts directly related to the state of the planet.

These emotions, and in particular anger, are strongly correlated with the idea that governments are not at all up to the task of today's environmental challenges;

which is then accompanied by a feeling of betrayal and abandonment.

This feeling is itself a generator of anger, as evidenced by the well-known example of Greta Thunberg.

The young Swedish activist is often presented as the face of the fight against global warming.

At the same time, she crystallizes the criticisms, in particular because she would flaunt her emotions too much.

He is also criticized for trying to arouse the emotions of his audience through shock formulas.

Among the emotions that she seems to feel strongly, and that she tries to communicate, we inevitably find anger, an emotion that she shares with the young people in the study mentioned above.

"Greta Thunberg Effect"

The media have even sometimes presented it as the symbol of the anger of an entire generation.

When she says, for example, "How dare you still look away?"

During an intervention at the United Nations in September 2019, it is a cold and argued anger that is expressed.

It is also all his anger that we feel in these words:

“You let us down.

[…] And if you decide to let us down, I tell you: we will never forgive you!

»

Greta Thunberg illustrates the potential for anger to be turned into action.

She manages, on her scale, to put emotions at the service of climate action.

A recent study even shows a real “Greta Thunberg effect”.

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Beyond this emblematic example, we see that emotions can play a positive role in the fight against global warming.

Emotion is, as our previous work has shown, a fundamental driver of change in our habits and behaviors.

Today, it seems that we have all the necessary information on climate change, without there being any relationship between the knowledge available to individuals and the modification of their behavior.

The question that legitimately arises is therefore whether emotions, and in particular anger, could further promote action in the face of climate change.

The relationships between emotions and global warming appear more and more evident and are increasingly studied.

Scientists themselves are increasingly encouraged to let their emotions speak.

​Overcome fear

We have also recently highlighted in the journal

the fundamental and underestimated role of emotions in the daily practice of research.

If the effects of global warming on anxiety are well documented, this is less the case for emotions such as anger, which can nevertheless be put to use in the fight against global warming.

Many studies show that anger can lead to concrete and lasting changes in behavior, in a way that is more favorable to the climate and the environment.

Carbon

, created in 2006, is a concrete example of converting emotions, including anger, into concrete and effective actions.

The method was invented and developed by psychotherapist Rosemary Randall and engineer Andy Brown.

In these

, in small groups of six to eight people, participants are invited to let their feelings about climate change run free and to reflect together on solutions that can be applied in their daily lives.

The objective is to halve the carbon footprint of participants over a period of 4 to 5 years, knowing that we observe a reduction of nearly one tonne of CO₂ emissions from the first year.

In 2009,

newspaper even featured “Carbon Conversations” in its selection of “Twenty Solutions to Fight Climate Change”.

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We can also think of the actions carried out by young climate activists, very concerned by the feeling of anger.

In their study, sociologists Jochen Kleres and Åsa Wettergren clearly show that anger is the operator by which initial fear and guilt are transformed into hope: the paralyzing potential of fear will be overcome by anger.

Their colleagues Maria Bright and Chris Eames analyzed the 2019 climate strikes in 2022, and came to similar results.

For young climate strikers, anger remains an important step in the emotional journey to action.

​Eco-anger to (finally) get involved

We also see in this study that emotions and information are not independent of each other, and that the fact of being more and more informed tends to increase the feeling of injustice as well as the anger of the strikers. .

A recent Australian survey also highlights that “experienced eco-anger” predicts greater engagement in pro-climate action and behaviors than eco-anxiety.

The study highlights the potential of anger as “a key emotional driver of engagement in the face of the climate crisis”: a strong correlation does indeed exist between anger and collective action.

The study concludes that “encouraging eco-anger can promote climate-friendly behavior change, while preserving mental health”.

It should also be noted that according to most of the studies cited here, the feeling of injustice reinforces anger and therefore promotes action.

Thus, as Gauthier Simon, a doctoral student in political science, points out in an article published on

:

“Emotions would be more reliable predictions of “ecological conversion” than classic sociological variables”

We note in our work

that this is all the more true in a context where the disqualification of emotions and the opposition between objectivity and subjectivity are less and less appropriate.

In Gauthier Simon's article, the author wonders about the fact that originally political questions take a psychic turn.

Conversely, the examples of

and climate activists show that emotions, including anger, can take a real political turn.

Finally, the position of Greta Thunberg and that of the journalist Éric la Blanche bring out the full potential of a “righteous anger”, as Aristotle already highlighted it.

Dossier “GLOBAL WARMING”

In

, the philosopher explained that both insufficiency and excess of anger are blameworthy, but that proportionate anger, exercised in a measured and justified manner, can lead to virtuous behavior.

In certain contexts, such as global warming, we can consider with Aristotle that “those who are not irritated” show excessive “stupidity”.

Thus, in the environmental field, apathy is very similar to a vice, the harmful consequences of which we measure every day.

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This analysis was written by Delphine Pouchain, lecturer in economics at Sciences Po Lille and Emmanuel Petit, professor of economics at the University of Bordeaux.

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