Trillions in Lost Productivity: The Rising Cost of Climate Anxiety
Lifestyle Professor Ralf Buckley proposes that tracking ecoanxiety could help predict societal shifts toward more sustainable lifestyles, as fears regarding environmental crises could lead to reduced birth rates and lesser economic activities, potentially decreasing humanity’s footprint on Earth.Ecoanxiety could forecast future lifestyle choices, potentially leading to significant reductions in birth rates and economic ambitions as society adapts to environmental crises.Could nature and climate anxieties predict future social behaviors, in the same way that consumer sentiment predicts purchasing and investment?The suggestion is made in the Cell Press journal One Earthby Griffith University’s Professor Emeritus Ralf Buckley, in a preview of an article led by Professor Thomas Pienkowski in the UK.The Economic and Health Impacts of AnxietyProfessor Buckley said the international Global Burden of Disease Study had shown that anxiety and depression were widespread and worsening.“Economic costs...