In 2023, eco-anxiety became one of the most searched words on the web, reflecting a growing concern about climate change and its impact on everyday life. According to Google Trends, there were exponential increases in searches for “eco-anxiety” and “climate anxiety” in several languages. This rise points to a worried awareness of climate change and its consequences.
We already talked about eco-anxiety a few months ago, after an interview with Prof. Casolari. We refer you to the interview, "Eco-anxiety. What it is and how to deal with it", set in an Italian context. But the concern the term reflects is international.
Indeed, most of these searches come from Europe, in particular from the Scandinavian countries, which are perhaps the most aware of the risks of climate change. Searches in English for “climate anxiety” have risen 27-fold compared with the same period in 2017, while searches in Portuguese have grown 73-fold. It is interesting to note that the Nordic countries such as Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway showed significant interest in searches on climate anxiety.
