The politics of eco-anxiety: Anthropocene dread from depoliticisation to repoliticisation

Abstract

Eco-anxiety has become increasingly widespread in recent years. Many people are suffering from intense feelings of distress in the face of the horrors of life in the Anthropocene. This article explores the political implications of eco-anxiety. For some commentators, eco-anxiety contributes to the depoliticisation of the climate crisis. It produces fearful subjects who are unable to discern alternative socioenvironmental pathways and distracts attention from the structural forces contributing to the unfolding ecological catastrophe. I contend that this critique of eco-anxiety is mistaken. It is argued that eco-anxiety has the potential to heighten political consciousness on the climate crisis. Drawing on Jean-Paul Sartre’s account of anguish and Karl Marx’s account of alienation, I suggest that eco-anxiety, first, highlights the contingency of political life in the Anthropocene by demonstrating the variety of possible climate futures and, second, articulates a longing for a collective subject that can exercise effective political agency.