As environmental destruction becomes more extreme around the planet, the way humans experience the natural world is changing, giving rise to more frequent and intense experiences of eco-anxiety. Not simply personal or social, eco-anxiety is distributed across the relationships that humans have with the life, land, air, and water of Earth. This anthology presents international and interdisciplinary perspectives on eco-anxiety, with attention to two of the most prominent sources of eco-anxiety today: pandemics, specifically with regards to COVID-19, and the climate crisis. The book examines how these phenomena are causing unprecedented forms of psychological distress, including anxiety and related emotional or affective states like grief, anger, guilt, and depression.

Douglas A. Vakoch is an American astrobiologist, search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) researcher, psychologist, and president of METI International, a nonprofit research and educational organization devoted to transmitting intentional signals to extraterrestrial civilizations. He has edited over a dozen books in SETI, astrobiology, the psychology of space exploration, and ecocriticism. He is general editor of two book series in ecocriticism and in the intersection of space and society. Vakoch has appeared widely on television and radio as a commentator on SETI and astrobiology. He is an emeritus professor of clinical psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS).
Sam Mickey is an adjunct professor in the Theology and Religious Studies department and the Environmental Studies program at the University of San Francisco. He is the Book Review Editor for the journal Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, a Research Associate for the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, and an author of several books exploring intersections of philosophy, religion, and ecology, including On the Verge of a Planetary Civilization: A Philosophy of Integral Ecology (2014), and Coexistentialism and the Unbearable Intimacy of Ecological Emergency (Lexington Books, 2016).

• Introduction: Eco-Anxiety, Climate Change, and the Coronavirus


• Panu Pihkala


• Part 1. Cultivating Connection and Resilience


• Chapter 1. Cultivating Belonging: Healing Defensive Anxiety in Times of Collective Trauma


• Jan Edl Stein


• Chapter 2. From Eco-Anxiety to Eco-Resilience: Toward a Psychology of Care


• Linda Buzzell and Craig Chalquist


• Chapter 3. Walking, Wilderness, and Exposure: Learning from Thoreau's Episode on Katahdin


• Christopher C. Kirby


• Chapter 4. Self-Quarantine: Deepening Natural Encounter During COVID-19


• Elektra Mercutio


• Chapter 5. Setting Up for Practice with Eco-Conscious Clients


• Jamie Keaton Jones


• Part 2. Sociology and Cultural Psychology


• Chapter 6. Eco-Anxiety as a Global Affect


• Jaouad Achtitah and Said Mentak


• Chapter 7. Eco-Anxiety in a Risk Society: A Sociological Perspective


• Leonard A. Steverson


• Chapter 8. The Complex Role of Anxiety in Public Engagement: Lessons from the COVID-19 Crisis for Climate Communications


• Rhéa Rocque, Laura Cameron, and Ian Mauro


• Chapter 9. Behavior Change During COVID-19: A Matter of Life and Death?


• Filia Garivaldis and Muhammad Iqbal


• Part 3. Diverse Global Responses


• Chapter 10. The House of Man: Sheltering in the Anthropocene


• Susan Haris and Bharati Puri


• Chapter 11. Adapting to Eco-Anxiety: Experiences from Zambia


• Fred Moonga


• Chapter 12. Psychiatric Ward Lockdown in Latin America: Experiences from the Coronavirus Pandemic


• Juan Evangelista Tercero Gaitán Buitrago


• Chapter 13. Telepsychology as the Primary Mental Health Care Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Philippines


• Emmanuel Villoria Hernani


• Chapter 14. Sounding the Environmental Benefits of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Southern Nigeria


• Olusegun Stephen Titus