SPECIAL | Eco-anxiety is on the rise
The Excerpt
USA TODAY
4.4 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 10 July 2025
⏱️ 15 minutes
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Summary
Devastating rains in Texas Hill County on the morning of July 4th created deadly floods that have now claimed over 100 lives and counting. The catastrophic rains took place in a region that's known as "flash flood alley," causing the Guadalupe River to rise from less than a foot on July 3 to more than 34 feet by the morning of July 4. Experts say that warming temperatures over land and especially in the Gulf are stoking extreme rainfall events across the United States, largely due to climate change. These super storms are also unleashing extreme fear in young people. It's called eco-anxiety. How can we maintain the mental health of young people in the midst of our worsening climate? Caroline Hickman, a psychologist who has been treating eco-anxiety for decades and sits on the board of the Climate Psychology Alliance, joins The Excerpt to share her insights into this growing psychological issue.
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| 0:00.0 | Thanks to Dana Farber's foundational work, protein degradation can target and destroy cancer-causing proteins right inside the cell. |
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| 0:18.5 | Hello, I'm Dana Taylor, and this is a special episode of USA Today's The Excerpt. |
| 0:23.6 | The Excerpt. |
| 0:24.6 | Devastating rains in Texas Hill County on the morning of July 4th created deadly floods that have now claimed over 100 lives in counting. |
| 0:41.5 | The catastrophic rains took place in a region that's known as Flash Flood Alley, causing the Guadaloup River to rise from less than a foot on July 3rd to more than 34 feet by the morning of July 4th. Experts say that warming temperatures |
| 0:56.6 | overland, and especially in the Gulf, are stoking extreme rainfall events across the United |
| 1:01.9 | States largely due to climate change. The fear of these superstorms are unleashing in young |
| 1:07.2 | people has a name, Ecoanxiety. How can we maintain our mental health in the midst of our worsening climate? |
| 1:14.9 | Here to help us explore the topic is Caroline Hickman, a psychologist who is specialized in treating |
| 1:20.5 | eco-anxiety for decades. |
| 1:22.3 | She also sits on the board of the Climate Psychology Alliance, a global coalition of |
| 1:27.2 | mental health experts |
| 1:28.3 | whose focus is anxiety related to global warming. |
| 1:32.0 | Thanks for joining me, Caroline. |
| 1:33.5 | Thank you for inviting me. |
| 1:35.3 | Let's start by taking a step back here. |
| 1:37.7 | Can you please define for us what eco-anxiety is? |
| 1:42.7 | So eco-anxiety is also eco-distress, depression, despair, frustration. |
| 1:51.0 | It's a whole range of emotional responses that people have in response to what's happening |
| 1:56.1 | globally in the world in terms of climate, but also biodiversity loss, ecological stress. It's a mentally |
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