Understanding Climate Anxiety (BPS Ask The Experts in Psychology Series) - Softcover

Beattie, Geoff

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1032616768 ISBN 13: 9781032616766

Publisher: Routledge, 2025

Synopsis

How should we react to climate anxiety? This accessible book discusses anxiety and other emotions brought on by climate change, examining what climate anxiety is, why it is becoming so prevalent and how it differs from other types of anxiety.

Written by an expert psychologist, the book examines why climate anxiety is developing so rapidly, particularly in younger people. It looks at how it can manifest differently―sometimes as hopelessness or despair, and sometimes as anger which can serve as a catalyst for action. The book dives into the nuance around climate anxiety, questioning what we can do about it or whether climate anxiety should be pathologized at all, given the very real threat of climate change. It considers cognitive biases that underlie information processing and discusses how politics and interest groups affect people’s views. Seeking to understand the polarisation that occurs around this topic, the book suggests how we might alleviate climate anxiety without minimising serious concern about climate change.

This highly topical book will be of great interest to students of psychology, environmental science and social science. It will also be of interest to psychologists, mental health professionals and climate communicators, as well as anyone interested in learning more about climate anxiety.

About this title

About the Author

Geoff Beattie is Professor of Psychology at Edge Hill University and Visiting Scholar at the University of Oxford, UK. He is a prize-winning psychologist, author and broadcaster with a PhD in Psychology from the University of Cambridge. He was awarded the Spearman Medal by the British Psychological Society for ‘published psychological research of outstanding merit'. He has published over one hundred academic articles in a range of journals including Nature, Nature Climate Change, Environment and Behavior, and Semiotica. Beattie has acted as a consultant to various international organisations with a focus on sustainability, including Unilever, the Leadership Vanguard (established by the CEO of Unilever), and the Born Free Foundation. He is also a member of the International Panel on Behavior Change (IPBC) which aims to collect and integrate knowledge and evidence on environmentally-related behaviour change.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1032616768
• ISBN 13: 9781032616766
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 218