ON EDGE: 2 - ‘Climate, Anxiety, Action.’ How attitudes towards climate breakdown have changed since the coronavirus pandemic

by Clare Green

Wednesday 22nd of April was Earth Day, a celebration which this year will have been spent behind closed doors. With normal life postponed, the lockdown is giving us time to reflect on our attitudes towards the planet. ‘Eco-anxiety’, understood as sustained fear in relation to environmental crisis, was explored during Science Gallery London’s ON EDGE season, through the project ‘Climate, Anxiety, Action.’ This asked the public how anxious they felt about climate change and how able they felt to take action.

There’s a strong correlation between the pandemic and the environment: deforestation and farming risk greater animal to human viral transmission, air pollution reduces ability to fight off diseases like COVID-19, and our desire to travel has facilitated faster spread.

Feelings towards the pandemic and climate change are not too dissimilar, with one poll showing that climate-concerned adults were more likely to wear masks and socially distance than those who did not feel concerned. During lockdown, I have reflected on ‘Climate, Anxiety, Action’, considering the parallels between the pandemic and climate change, and whether long-lasting changes will endure.

Attitudes towards food

We’re accustomed in the UK to a breadth of choice and convenience in regards to food, and the pandemic has rewritten these standards. You only have to open social media to see that attitudes towards food have changed during lockdown. One poll of 2,000 people in the UK showed that 44% are enjoying cooking more, 48% are throwing away less food and 41% are getting better at using leftovers. Food buying habits have also changed, as long queues and social distancing measures in supermarkets push people to use local suppliers. This poll showed that 89% will continue to use at least one new shopping alternative post-lockdown, and that 25% are buying better quality food. Therefore, new habits are being formed which may have a long-lasting effect on food buying.

Consumer culture: fast fashion and flying

The pandemic has made us re-consider what we value, with many investing in human connection rather than the fragility of consumer culture. The physical closure of shops has encouraged living with less, or mending old clothes rather than buying new ones. Instagram is inundated with clothes-making tutorials, while Fashion Weeks have been exhibited virtually. However, for some, now is the opportunity to online shop, and companies like ASOS haven’t closed down warehouses despite claims that staff feel unsafe. Meanwhile, international workers may not be paid for the clothes they made for pre-pandemic demand. Simply closing shops is not an antidote to what’s wrong with the fashion industry, but rather exposes cracks in how it functions. The lockdown may make companies consider reducing overproduction and value paying clothes makers fairly. Listening to how consumer mindset has changed, they could encourage ‘capsule wardrobes’ or versatile items: buying better rather than buying more.

The temporary suspension of aviation—the UK’s most polluting sector —may relieve anxiety about how reliant we are on flying. It’s been estimated that only 30 out of 700 airlines will survive the next few months without government intervention, and the benefit of the government having a stake in the industry is that it can, in theory, oversee policies to reduce air travel. Thus sustaining environmental benefits post-lockdown is intertwined with what climate policies governments choose to adopt. Public attitudes towards flying may be more complex: once lockdown has lifted, people may be happy to travel to their nearest beach, or could be desperate to jump on a flight half way across the world. Yet, it’s likely that business travel will be seen as an unnecessary luxury whilst companies attempt to recover economically. It will be interesting to see whether a prolonged period of no travel leads people to question if the unhealthy habit was worth it.

Eco-anxiety: parallels with the pandemic

News about the initial reduction in pollution levels in China or animals returning to previous uninhabited areas may provide temporary relief for eco-anxiety, but the reality is more complicated than that. The lockdown is estimated to decrease CO2  emissions by 5.5%, but a 7.6% decrease per year is needed to stop global warming surpassing pre-industrial levels. Just having a break from normal life is not going to reverse years of damage: we need to emerge able to build greener policies and systems, and to continue to reduce emissions by a greater amount year on year.

What both the lockdown and eco-anxiety have in common is loneliness. Currently, loneliness may be felt by being distanced from friends and family during difficult times. For sufferers of eco-anxiety, many claim that worrying about what others find easy to brush aside generates a feeling of being alone. Psychotherapy is sometimes offered for eco-anxiety, encouraging people to reflect on depressive thoughts about the climate and transform them into positive action. Perhaps knowing that we were able to adapt during the lockdown may help people deal with eco-anxiety, which plays on fears that people are doing nothing and that the world is not prepared. Yet, COVID-19 has forced us to prepare: it has been a ‘stress test’, exposing our vulnerabilities to disaster but also how to build resistance for future events. With no two countries taking the same approach against COVID-19, the importance of global coordination for future crises has been heavily emphasised.

Looking forward

‘Climate, Anxiety, Action’ proposed that fear might not be the catalyst for change. We need to illustrate active, achievable steps in order to motivate public engagement. The same is true during the pandemic, where engagement with scientific advice has been key to a successful response. Looking forward, the pandemic may help us understand what motivates engagement and how we can ensure people have access to correct information. I believe that COVID-19 has changed our views on climate change because it’s forced us to consider how our actions might affect our world. As I’ve illustrated, mindsets towards food, fashion and travel have been shifted by this crisis, and eco-anxiety may be ameliorated by feeling more prepared about what’s to come. However, individual changes must be accompanied by uniformed, global efforts. One key step will be voting for policies which benefit the climate, so that changes are made on a national, industry-wide scale. Climate activist Greta Thunberg honoured Earth Day by urging the world to take a new path forwards after the pandemic: COVID-19 has certainly shown that change can happen when we all work together.

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This is part two of an ongoing blog series, inspired by and reflecting back on the Science Gallery London exhibition ON EDGE: Living in an Age of Anxiety during the time of the Covid-19 Crisis.

Clare Green is a Mediator at Science Gallery London, interacting with visitors on gallery and giving tours. She has a life sciences background, and holds a BSc in Biomedical Science from King's College London (2018) and an MA in Health Humanities from UCL (2019). She is interested in the merging of science and art and how this can be communicated through writing or through engaging visitors in conversation.

Lone Tree in a Dome. Image: Tom Hunter