Surviving Climate Anxiety: A manifesto for flourishing in climate change

Guilt-driven environmentalism that favours moral absolutism and blames individuals for inaction on climate issues is the wrong approach to climate action

Surviving Climate Anxiety

By Dr Thomas Doherty

Published by Hachette India

416 pages  ₹799

 

Nine years ago, when I attended the Unesco NGO Forum in Riyadh, a riveting conversation began to unfold at lunchtime. An activist I was speaking with was on the lookout for vegan options. Curious about the reasons for his choice, I ventured to ask why. “I love travelling,” he said, “I cannot give that up to reduce my carbon footprint; giving up meat was easier.” 

It struck me as a self-aware, imaginative response to the climate crisis, tailored to his own situation rather than an oppressive, top-down approach that might seem perfect on paper but tough to implement. I remembered the conversation while reading Thomas Doherty’s book Surviving Climate Anxiety: Coping, Healing and Thriving on a Changing Planet. It is geared towards helping readers reclaim their agency and creativity amidst environmental disasters. 

The author is a clinical psychologist, who researches the psychological impacts of climate change and integrates them into his practice. He also trains mental health professionals addressing eco-anxiety. This professional grounding shines throughout the book, which delivers information with emotional intelligence and restraint, making it not only a source of reassurance but empowerment. There is no peddling of false hope or minimising the scale of the crisis. 

Dr Doherty is clear about the stakes. He describes “out-of-control climate breakdown” as “the greatest public health threat humans face in the twenty-first century, or certainly a force multiplier for other threats”. He gives readers accessible language to discuss the mental health consequences of fires, storms, floods and heatwaves. This includes their immediate effects as well as “indirect ripple effects” and “the emotional toll of anxiety, loss, and depression”. 

One of the book’s strengths is its broad appeal. It demands no prior expertise in psychology or climate activism. Dr Doherty insists that feeling anxious about the planet is not a pathological response but “a normal and healthy emotion that manifests in your mind and body”. It is to be explored and understood, not fixed or cured. The individual is never reduced to a diagnosis. 

The author’s recommendation to build a rich emotional vocabulary encompassing languages other than English is particularly relevant for a multilingual context like India. He points out that Germans use the word  Weltschmerz to capture what it feels like to carry the world’s weight on one’s shoulders whereas the Portuguese use saudade to mean “yearning for a happiness that once was possible”. It would be rewarding for Indian readers to look for words in our own languages. 

Equally refreshing is Dr Doherty’s resistance to guilt-driven environmentalism that favours moral absolutism over what is possible given one’s personal circumstances. “Blaming individuals for inaction on climate issues,” he writes, “fails to consider the structure of society: precarious economic situations, limits and barriers to making sustainable choices, and decades of false information and propaganda.” This is not a free pass to engage in actions that are harmful. 

At the heart of the book is the revolutionary idea that readers can cultivate “a growth mindset” and develop “coping skills” to live with purpose and meaning, not just stay afloat as cataclysmic changes take place around them. Dr Doherty makes space for joy, humour, creativity and connection to coexist with fear, grief and anger. Readers inclined to dismiss such possibilities as naïve, delusional or hokey may be persuaded by the author’s glowing credentials. He has served on the American Psychological Association’s Task Force on Global Climate Change. 

Dr Doherty repeatedly invites readers to lean on and replenish inner resources. He offers a wide range of practices, including breathwork, mindfulness, journalling, contemplating the cycles and rhythms of nature, outdoor activities, making art, building a network of eco-friends, opening up to sacred teachings, setting boundaries around the consumption of climate news, and learning how to have productive conversations with those who disagree with one’s environmental values. 

The most unusual practice mentioned here is called the “eco-confessional”. It is a ritual wherein people share personal stories of ecological irresponsibility in order to release themselves from the burden of self-blame they carry. It is attractive because it promises to free people from the self-righteousness that is often part and parcel of activism and destroys relationships. 

Dr Doherty urges readers to embrace what he calls “a manifesto for flourishing”. One is asked to take a deep breath, and read with conviction:  “Nature is not just a place outside of me. I am nature. I have a unique environmental identity, and set of experiences and values that give me a place to stand on the planet.” This framing is an act of courage because it dares to question the very basis of what leads human beings to treat trees, animals, mountains and rivers as resources. At first glance, it might seem only poetic and philosophical but it is also profoundly political. 

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The reviewer is a writer, journalist, and literary critic. Instagram/X: @chintanwriting