How worried are you about environmental issues? If thinking about climate change and biodiversity loss stresses you out, you're not alone. Psychologists are trying to understand this feeling – referred to as eco-anxiety – and they're finding that this worry may be essential for our fight to save the planet.
In late 2021, Australian applied psychologist Teaghan Hogg and colleagues proposed a new scale to help us measure eco-anxiety: the Hogg Eco-Anxiety Scale. It