The Guardian view on climate anxiety: we live in frightening times | Editorial

When psychologists warn that global heating could cause trauma to become normalised, world leaders should take notice"It makes sense" is the first thing to say about the phenomenon being described by psychologists as climate anxiety. Wherever in the world you live, there are very good reasons to feel anxious about the rate of global heating and the lack of adequate action to tackle it by governments, businesses and organisations of all sorts.The predicted consequences are frightening: hotter weather in already inhospitable places, sea-level rises caused by melting ice sheets, and increased disruption of weather systems leading to floods, fires, hurricanes, food and water shortages - with the linked biodiversity crisis another cause for grave concern. Depending on the steps that are taken (or not) over the next decade, a period during which the UN estimates that carbon emissions need to be cut by 7.6% annually if we are to avoid temperature rises above 1.5C, the disruption caused to human societies could be immense. For countries such as Bangladesh, the effects are likely to be devastating. Continue reading...