That doomed feeling: How rising concern over climate change affecting people and nations

Every day, Delhi-based Kaushal Jairam’s social media timeline is inundated with news feeds on climate change. Whether it’s a forest fire in California in the US, a glacier breaking apart in Antarctica or the rising heat in the national capital, these events have made him anxious, so much so that they have also started affecting his daily routine.

The 34-year-old marketing professional has started carrying a water bottle to work and his own cloth bag for shopping, takes public transport or a metro ride from Delhi to his workplace in Gurugram and walks for about 1.5 km as an alternative to driving a car. “It triggered last year with the rising heat waves and took months to get to this change, but the stress and concern were real,” he adds.

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While Jairam’s daily habit isn’t misplaced, he is a victim of ‘eco-anxiety’ or ‘climate anxiety’, a term associated with distress relating to the effects of ecological crises with complex repercussions on physical and mental health. Harvard Health Publishing states that this form of anxiety is rooted in uncertainty about the future and alerting us to the dangers of a changing climate.

Eco-anxiety affects only those who are aware about the crises and act for the sake of saving the environment and undertake behavioural changes like saving fuel and energy and buying second-hand items to fight high-carbon lifestyles.

At the global level, the crisis has triggered an alarm for scientists. The latest report by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows a grim picture of the world dealing with the climate crisis, as not much has been done to achieve net zero goals. “The report underscores the urgency of taking more ambitious action and if we act now, we can still secure a liveable sustainable future for all. The pace and scale of what has been done so far and current plans are insufficient to tackle climate change,” says IPCC chair Hoesung Lee.

All warnings from scientists cannot be dissuaded as the rising eco-anxiety over climate change is directly or indirectly affecting people and nations, reasons enough to trigger excessive stress and anxiety. Yet have we done enough to avoid this crisis?

Chain of events

Events like wildfires, hurricanes and floods have been the deadliest consequences of climate change in the past few years. Heat waves and rainfall are now common all over the world. India, Spain and the US have set provisional records in exceptionally high temperatures ranging between 40 and 47.2 degrees Celsius.

According to the World Bank Report titled ‘Climate Investment Opportunities in India’s Cooling Sector’, India will experience heat waves that can break the human survivability limit. By 2030, the predictions show that India might account for 34 million of the projected 80 million global job losses from heat stress-associated productivity decline.

So, naturally, ecological stress has been found to be common among young people. In a recent survey by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, almost three-quarters (73%) of 16 to 24-year-olds reported that the climate crisis was having a negative effect on their mental health, compared with 61% of all people in the UK. The figures were up from 61% and 55%, respectively, in 2020.

Climate change is not just restricted to anxiety and stress but is also leading to respiratory diseases, cardiovascular issues, infectious diseases, air- and water-borne illnesses, mental breakdowns or premature deaths. “It has a changing effect on mental health of the population leading to trauma, stress, anxiety and other psychological conditions,” says Dr Nikhil Modi, consultant, respiratory and critical care medicine, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals.

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“Our health is severely compromised when our environment is deteriorating,” adds Pradip Shah, co-founder, Grow-Trees.com, a social enterprise that has planted over 17 million trees across India and has done several projects to restore the vulnerable ecosystem. These trees will absorb more than 349 million kg of carbon every year upon maturity.

To curb CO2 emissions, Shah suggests that one can plant trees and support afforestation efforts. “Developing environmentally beneficial transportation habits like riding bicycles or carpooling is another way, but climate change will exacerbate existing health issues or create new ones. The sooner we see the value of living a sustainable lifestyle, the better we will be able to protect ourselves from the perils of global warming,” adds Shah.

The IPCC Working Group II’s report predicts that children, teenagers (especially girls) and those who have mental, physical or medical difficulties are at greater risk of adverse impacts on wellbeing and this can further deteriorate their mental health.

According to Neera Nundy, partner and co-founder of Dasra, an organisation that catalyses India’s strategic philanthropy movement to transform a billion lives with dignity and equity, the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) analysed extreme climate events at the district level and found that 75% of Indian districts, which are home to over 638 million people, are hotspots for extreme climate vulnerability.

“Different communities will experience climate effects differently. Women, children, marginalised communities, working-class, urban poor and disabled people are the most vulnerable due to their dependence on daily wages and limited access to infrastructure and necessities such as sanitation, water supply and healthcare,” says Nundy, adding such disasters can result in trauma and stress, disrupting education and harming relationships due to separation and displacement, particularly for children. Thus, investment in horizontals such as data, research, narrative building and human-centric storytelling will be critical, especially at the intersection of the two themes of climate change and mental health, both of which need greater funding and attention from the philanthropic community, adds Nundy.

The relationship between emotions, behaviour and the environment are closely intertwined with research indicating that exposure to nature and green spaces can improve mental health by reducing stress, anxiety and depression.

For this purpose, it is essential to reimagine cities and examine the customary use of public spaces and their availability. “India’s Urban and Regional Development Plans Formulation and Implementation (URDPFI) guidelines recommend providing 10-12 sq metres of open space per person, but most Indian cities do not meet these criteria. For example, Mumbai offers only 1.28 sq metres of open space per person, while Bengaluru offers 2 sq metres. It is critical to revitalise public spaces and make them more resilient to future disruptions,” says Nundy.

Climate concern is related to unseasonal rains of varied intensity, floods, soil erosion, landslides, dust storms, drastic change in air circulation patterns leading to polluted air circulation, says MS Mohan Kumar, pro vice-chancellor, Bengaluru campus, Gitam, a private deemed university in Visakhapatnam. “These effects of the agricultural activity and food production or water bodies getting polluted and air quality are highly questionable and a cause of concern. Thus, we need to improve our activities to have a good life,” says Mohan Kumar.

Take, for instance, the average global crop yields for maize, or corn, which may see a decrease of 24% by the late century, with the declines becoming apparent by 2030 due to high greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new NASA study. Climate change may affect the production of maize (corn) and wheat as early as 2030 under a high greenhouse gas emissions scenario, according to a new NASA study published in the journal, Nature Food.

“The next 15 years’ timescale requires a detailed study on how crop and pollination will be affected by climate change. Europe and the US already have a long-term study in this sector,” says Bengaluru-based climate scientist NH Ravindranath, former professor at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, who has worked with the ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEFCC) contributing to the assessment of impact of climate change on forest sector.

Walk the talk

At the government and organisational level, initiatives and infrastructure have been put in place to track, reduce and report carbon footprint seamlessly. So far, progress has been made by some global leaders who have appointed city’s chief heat officers and have the most important tasks at hand—to deal with rising temperatures in their cities. Athens has one since 2021, followed by Miami in Florida, Phoenix in Arizona, and Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, in West Africa. The intent is to coordinate efforts to protect people from heat, promote greener spaces, landscape design that sheds heat and cope up strategies for residents.

Meanwhile, at COP26 in 2021, countries agreed to deliver stronger commitments, including updated national plans with more ambitious targets. However, only 24 out of 193 countries have submitted their plans to the UN. Some nations have set their targets and timelines to evade the crisis. The US and EU aim to reach net zero emissions by 2050, China by 2060 and India by 2070.

India faces the highest risk from climate change’s impact, ranging from heat waves to cyclones and urban and rural displacement. The net zero targets by 2030 by Indian Railways will lead to a reduction of emissions by 60 million tonne annually. India’s massive LED bulb campaign is reducing emissions by 40 million tonne annually. Airports will reach the target of net zero carbon emissions, says the Union ministry of civil aviation. India also stands committed to reducing emissions intensity of GDP by 45% by 2030 while developing sustainably, says Bhupender Yadav, Union minister of environment, forests and climate change.

Even the corporate world is combating climate stress by offering solutions to understand and curb carbon emissions. For instance, SEBI India has mandated the top 1,000 listed companies in India by market capitalisation to make filings as per the Business Responsibility and Sustainability Reporting (BRSR) from FY23. Thomas Cook (India), an omnichannel travel services company, and its group company SOTC Travel announced partnership with global technology consulting and digital solutions company LTIMindtree, to launch ‘Green Carpet’—a global platform to monitor and manage business travel emissions. The SaaS-based platform is designed to address specific concerns faced by organisations, helping them capture, monitor and reduce their carbon emissions from business travel.

ReNew Power, a renewable energy power producer, is gearing up to roll out a Climate Change Education pilot project in 10 states, involving 100 schools and close to 20,000 students. It has launched the campaign, ‘Rice Bucket Challenge’, to eradicate hunger in the country. The campaign has aimed to donate 40,000 kg of rice this year. PVR is committed to reduce power consumption and usage of green measures like sugarcane bagasse containers, IOT-based centralised energy pressure and temperature monitoring, occupancy sensors in restrooms, and water flow restrictors in wash basin faucets and many others. Startups like Kheyti, Phool and Doodlage are using the theory of ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ to understand the environment, and embrace the circular economy to reach net zero.

Prioritising options

All the crisis and distress is real and escalated to different levels of communities and government interventions, but climate activists and supporters feel there are failing efforts to mitigate climate change and it’s more about rhetorical smokescreen. Nations and their policy makers must promote net zero targets not just in intellectual engagement but through pro-environmental behaviour. The action so far has commenced at policy level, but the magnitude of intervention is scattered among various local, state and central government machinery.

In this regard, environmental activist Greta Thunberg tweeted, “After #IPCC report, everything is back to normal—as always. We continue to ignore the climate crisis as if nothing happened. Our societies are still in denial, and those in power go on with their never-ending quests to maximise profits. We cannot afford this.” In fact, environmentalists have strongly opposed the controversial $8-bn drilling oil and gas drilling project in Alaska recently approved by US President Joe Biden as it will accelerate climate breakdown and undermine food security.

Even the level of positive impact that a central government rule or policy can make in India is heavily dependent on the adoption of the same by respective state governments and it is on ground implementation, says Umit Bhatia, director, sustainability strategy West Asia, JLL, adding: “A collective and collaborative effort between various local, state, and central authorities is paramount to achieve net zero target both at a country and global level.”

The science is unequivocal in establishing that the bulk of climate action must come from developed countries, especially providing technology and finance to developing countries, as they are battling several other crises like rising food and energy prices due to the conflict and developmental deficits.

In India, there is increased progress towards mainstreaming low carbon and resilience in every development policy, says Ashish Chaturvedi, head, Action for Climate and Environment, UNDP India. “But trickling down takes time and doesn’t succeed in all cases if it is not accompanied by enabling reforms in governance and capacity development. A great example is India’s rapid expansion of solar capacity over the last decade and rise in adoption of electric vehicles. The unprecedented scale-up demonstrates how an enabling policy system accompanied by enabling reforms incentivises industries and consumers to go green.”

For effective and equitable climate action, an ideology to reduce the impact of human activities on Earth is not enough. Instead, the need is to have political commitment, coordinated policies, international cooperation, ecosystem stewardship and inclusive governance. If technology, know-how and suitable policy measures are shared, and adequate finance is made available, communities can reduce carbon-intensive consumption.