Since climate change is getting bigger and more worrying, will there be a phobia of climate change? And if so what would it be called?

At the moment there is no specific “phobia” of climate change that I know of. However many people do suffer from common mental health issues such as anxiety or mental distress and climate change may be the focus of what causes their symptoms. You can find out more about anxiety here. In terms of specific names for feelings related to climate change, an Australian philosopher called Glen Albrecht wrote a book called “Earth Emotions” which provided names for a range of feelings about our relationship to the planet and what’s happening to it. One of his most famous terms is:

Solastagia: A feeling of distress or homesickness for a place affected or destroyed by environmental change

You may have also heard of terms such as eco-anxiety, eco-distress and ecological grief. These are not currently considered mental disorders, but do describe well what a lot of people feel when they think about environmental issues. Similarly, “anticipatory trauma” or “anticipatory grief” refers to feelings of distress about events that may happen in the future, and could be related to climate events.

Whilst some people find these new terms to be helpful, other people in climate-affected communities may not relate to them, or find clinical or uncommon/fancy language to be alienating. Therefore just learning to talk about stress and anxiety in general, and express how we are feeling in whatever language is comfortable is a great place to start.