This idea is explored in the Cell Press journal One Earth by Professor Emeritus Ralf Buckley from Griffith University, in a preview of an article led by Professor Thomas Pienkowski in the UK.
Professor Buckley highlighted findings from the international Global Burden of Disease Study, revealing that anxiety and depression are widespread and worsening.
"Economic costs are up to 16% of global GDP, with 19 days per year on average lost for every person worldwide," Professor Buckley said.
"There are many causes, and these including the current climate, biodiversity and livelihood crises."
"Professor Pienkowski's article points out that health-sector responses such as counselling and chemotherapies address only symptoms, not underlying social determinants."
"Anxiety and its economic costs will therefore keep growing until we can achieve major changes in global economic and political systems."
Professor Buckley suggested that current types and intensities of eco-anxiety could be used to measure people's expectations of planetary futures.
"Higher anxieties may mean that more people adopt 'lie-flat' lifestyles, with fewer children and lower financial ambitions," he said.
"Lie-flat social changes at large scale are just what is needed to reduce human impacts on the Earth before it becomes incapable of supporting its still-growing human population."
Professor Buckley proposed tracking changes in various types of eco-anxiety and matching them to lifestyle choices to predict likely changes among the billions of people on the planet.
The opinion piece 'Immediate economic significance of nature, climate and livelihood anxieties' has been published in One Earth.
Research Report:Immediate economic significance of nature, climate, and livelihood anxieties
Related Links
Griffith University
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
A world of storm and tempest
When the Earth Quakes
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