How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Eco-Apocalypse: An Existential Approach to Accepting Eco-Anxiety

Abstract

Climate crisis presents a near-term existential threat to the human species, one that society has neither the physical nor psychological infrastructure to manage. Eco-anxiety increases as awareness about climate crisis spreads. Despite an urgent need for resources on how to help people cope with the psychological ramifications of climate crisis, there is little literature that both addresses people’s apocalyptic fears and takes the scientific bases of those fears seriously. In this article, I synthesize research on existential psychology, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, grief, and end-of-life care to present an original perspective on how people, individually and collectively, can become psychologically resilient to climate crisis. First, I establish that death anxiety underlies eco-anxiety. Second, I demonstrate that preparing psychologically for eco-apocalypse requires people to cultivate death acceptance. Finally, I illustrate how commitment to palliative values can enable people to live rich and meaningful lives despite their most likely imminent end.