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Climate Distress? ABC offers therapy and forgiveness to failed Ecowarriors who still use plastic nappies and styrofoam cups

It’s all a bit much for snowflakes

The ABC is just a Lifestyle Magazine for the Upperclass, paid for by everyone else.

For twenty years the media EcoRulers told people they will destroy the Earth if they use disposable coffee cups and nappies.  Their whole identity as a Good Person depended on doing the right thing. And “every little bit matters” — etcetera, and ad nauseum.

Who would have guessed that asking people to save the Planet with every purchase would cause anxiety, a perpetual sense of failure, and long term stress? 

And it never mattered anyway — the point was not the environment, but the political power. So now that hapless fans are being struck down with “Climate Distress”  — it’s time to forgive them.

Here’s the ABC Agony Aunt column letting all of them off the hook:

Climate distress is real and it’s rational. Here’s how to manage it

Edwina Seselja

While researching how to reduce her carbon footprint a few years back, Brisbane woman Zara Monteith quickly fell down an anxiety-inducing rabbit hole, with each search opening her eyes to a different environmental problem to try to solve.

Despite doing everything she could, Zara felt like nothing she did to reduce her consumption or environmental impact made a difference.

She saw a psychologist and said “I just can’t do anything”.  And the psychologists said ‘I feel the same way.'”

Now is not the time to mention that “every little bit helps”. The new approach is “nevermind“.

No-one is perfect

First up, recognise that you’re not always going to be able to make the environmental choice and be the perfect Instagrammable eco-warrior.

For some families disposable nappies are necessary, for some products styrofoam containers are unavoidable and on some days the air conditioner is going to run for much longer than the climate (or your wallet) would like.

Plan B is “cry”:

Dr Burke says emotion-focused coping means addressing the uncomfortable feelings like guilt or hopelessness.

She says this can be done by “moving” the stress hormones out of your body through actions.

“That might be things like having a cry —

So if you have to use disposable diapers, you can. Whole generations were raised on cloth nappies, but we can’t expect EcoWorriers to do that. Just like using your own mug rather than a styrofoam-dolphin-killing cup. It’s all too hard.

What matters is just that Ecoworriers are saying the right thing, they’re in the right Team, even if they can’t adopt all the symbolic tokens. No one really cared about the plants, the poor or the dolphins, they just wanted to look like they cared.

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