2 . Recently the term “climate anxiety” has been used to better describe our growing concerns about climate change. While there is evidence that climate anxiety can be identified and reliably measured, what’s less clear is how it relates to mental illness. Mental health providers across the world are noting the presence of climate anxiety in their patients; however, the degree to which it is influencing mental illness is not yet clear, though evidence addressing this question is slowly growing.
For years now, mental health clinicians have seen climate anxiety influencing presentations of mental illness in a variety of ways, some extreme. Recent studies are starting to look at links between climate anxiety and mental illness in larger samples to help better understand the directionality of their relationship. In a U.S. survey of more than 340 people published in 2018, climate concerns were associated with depressive symptoms (症状). Ecological coping, which includes pro-environmental behaviors such as reducing energy consumption, appeared to be protective against depression, indicating that climate concerns and the poor coping skills used to address them could be causing depressive symptoms.
So who might be more at risk of mental illness secondary to the uncertainties around climate change? Unsurprisingly, climate anxiety appears higher in individuals with more concern about environmental issues at baseline and those already experiencing direct effects of climate change. Climatologists also face increased risk given their in-depth knowledge on the issue coupled with the upsetting task of trying to convey it to individuals and governments that often deny or downplay it. People with high levels of neuroticism, a personality trait that increases susceptibility to mental illness, are also likely to be at high risk.
Some individuals report adaptive responses to climate anxiety like adopting pro-environmental behaviors and participating in collective action, while others are unable to respond behaviorally at all. It’s not yet clear how these varying reactions manifest (呈现) on a population level and how they’re influencing humanity’s response to climate change. However, a recent survey of nearly 200 people found that, while climate anxiety was associated with an emotional response to climate change, it was not correlated with a behavioral response.
If this is true for humanity as a whole, we must urgently help motivate the anxious among us. Doing so successfully will require many approaches, such as delivering cognitive-behavioral therapy (认知行为疗法) to the most severely affected and demonstrating to entire populations that change is possible by better publicizing productive efforts by organizations to reduce their carbon footprints. We can’t let climate anxiety stop us from responding to climate change, because now, more than ever, we need action, not inaction.
1. What can be learned from the first two paragraphs?
| A．Mental illness may increase the risk of climate anxiety. |
| B．Reducing energy consumption can help treat depression. |
| C．Failure to handle climate anxiety may cause depressive symptoms. |
| D．The influence of climate anxiety on mental illness can be measured. |
2. The underlined phrase “secondary to” in Paragraph 3 probably means
.
| A．as a result of | B．less important than |
| C．as serious as | D．regardless of |
3. Which of the following might be effective in helping the anxious overcome climate anxiety?
| A．Publicizing the latest research on climate anxiety. |
| B．Funding studies into cognitive-behavioral therapies. |
| C．Delivering speeches to anxious people on a regular basis. |
| D．Informing the public of practical ways to live a greener life. |
4. What is the purpose of this passage?
| A．To reveal consequences of climate anxiety. |
| B．To show new findings about climate anxiety. |
| C．To compare climate anxiety and mental illness. |
| D．To demand care for those experiencing climate anxiety. |
