「気候不安」に心かき乱される米国人、子を持たない選択も

【ワシントンＡＦＰ＝時事】氷河の融解が進む北極圏の人々は従来の生活様式を守ろうと急ぎ、海面上昇に直面する太平洋の住民たちは警鐘を鳴らす。一方、米ロードアイランド州のケイト・シャピラさん（40）夫婦は、子どもを持たないつもりでいる。（写真は米ロードアイランド州プロビデンスで、「環境不安」のカウンセリングを行うケイト・シャピラさん。ララ・ヘンダーソン氏提供）
　気候変動への懸念をめぐって世界中でさまざまな対応が取られる中、米国で連鎖反応を引き起こしているのは、プラスチック製品から社会階層に基づく環境格差まで、あらゆる物事に対してひたすら募る不安だ。
　米ブラウン大学英文学科で上級講師を務めるシャピラさんは、さまざまな方法でこの不安に対処しようとしている。子どもを持たないという決断は、悪化する環境に置かれるわが子の将来を案じるからだけではない。それは「世界に対する自分の責任感を、人間１人ぶんの大きさに矮小（わいしょう）化したくないから」だという。
　２０１４年、シャピラさんは地元プロビデンスで開かれる農業市などの公共の場で、「気候不安」についての相談ブースを出し始めた。スヌーピーで有名な米漫画「ピーナッツ」に登場するルーシーの「心の相談室」のようなものだ。
　「気候変動に関する悩み事のカウンセリング、１回５セント（約５円）。中に医師がいます」と貼り紙をして、通りかかる人たちの不安を聞く。そして、不安を抱えているのが自分だけではないことを知った。
　■拡散する不安
　今年３～４月に米エール大学とジョージ・メイソン大学が行った調査では、米国人の６０％が地球温暖化を「やや心配だ」と答え、２３％が「非常に心配だ」と回答した。
　エール大学気候変動コミュニケーションプログラムのアンソニー・ライザロウィッツ氏によると、気候変動への態度によって米国人は６つに分類されるが、気候問題を気に懸けるのは「上～中流の白人で高学歴のリベラル派」だとのステレオタイプは当てはまらない。
　６分類のうち唯一、人種や階級、学歴、政治信条などが共通しているのは「気候変動否定派」だけで、「高学歴の保守的な白人男性」が大多数を占めるという。言うまでもなく、この層は米ホワイトハウスを支配し、米議会の半数を占め、化石燃料業界など多くの米トップ企業を経営する層と重なる。
　■気候不安は「誰もが」抱える
　気候変動が心の健康に及ぼす影響を１５年間研究している首都ワシントンの精神科医、リーセ・ファン・スステレン氏によれば、潜在的な危険を認めようとしない態度は「自分も弱い人間だという事実を否定したい人々」によくみられる。「今や誰もが気候変動に対する何らかの不安を抱いていると、ためらいなく断言できる」とスステレン氏は言う。
　米国心理学会と気候変動対策推進団体「エコアメリカ」は２０１７年の報告で、気候変動に対する心理的反応として「問題回避や運命論、恐怖、無力感、諦めなどが広がっている」と指摘した。同時に、ぜんそくやアレルギーなど身体的な影響も多数報告されているという。
　今年５月にワシントンのナショナル・モールで環境不安に対処するカウンセリングセッションを主催したデビー・チャンさん（４３）も、子どもを持たない決心をした一人だ。ごみゼロ運動を実践しており、使い捨てのプラスチック製フォークの代わりにマイ箸を、紙ナプキンの代わりにハンカチを、ハンドバッグに入れて持ち歩いている。外食時には食べ残しを持ち帰れるようステンレス製の容器を持っていく。
　少し前までは「気候不安や気候悲観、気候絶望、気候カウンセリング」といった情報を見つけるのは難しかったとチャンさん。だが、今は「より多くの人々が、それを問題だと気付き始めている」と語った。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2019/12/02-09:18）

In the melting Arctic, communities are racing to maintain their way of life. In the rising Pacific, residents are sounding alarm bells. And in Rhode Island, Kate Schapira and her husband are not having a baby.
Fears about climate change are prompting worldwide action, but one knock-on effect in the United States is mounting anxiety about everything from plastics to class-based environmental disparities.
Schapira, a 40-year-old senior lecturer in the English department at Brown University, is addressing that unease in a number of ways.
The decision not to have children was not just about concern for their future wellbeing amid environmental degradation, she explained, but also about not wanting my sense of responsibility to the world to shrink down to the size of one person.
Schapira also says she has likely taken her last flight.
She said she was troubled that people were treating her climate fears like a personal, individual problem, she said, and she wanted to see if that was actually the case.
So in 2014, Schapira started setting up a climate anxiety booth in public spaces, such as farmers' markets. It's a bit like Lucy's psychiatry stall from the beloved comic Peanuts.
Climate anxiety counseling, 5 cents. The doctor is in, the booth's sign reads, welcoming passersby in Providence to talk about their fears.
As it turns out, Schapira was far from alone.
- Widespread worry -
About six in 10 Americans say they are at least somewhat worried about global warming and 23 percent say they are very worried, according to a survey conducted by Yale and George Mason universities in March and April.
Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, said Americans can be broken into six categories based on their reaction to climate change, ranging from alarmed to dismissive.
The common wisdom is that only upper-middle-class, white, well-educated, latte-sipping liberals care about climate change. Turns out that's not true, Leiserowitz said.
None of the six groups is majorly driven by one demographic, he said, with the exception of the dismissives -- where well-educated conservative white men reign.
They are dramatically different in terms of how they perceive the risk than everybody else he said, thanks in large part to a worldview that we call individualism -- particularly pronounced in that group.
Of course, that same demographic also happens to control the White House, half of Congress and many of the nation's richest companies, such as in the fossil fuel industry.
As the world's top experts head to Spain for the UN summit on climate change opening Monday, Americans must deal with the idea that President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the Paris climate accord.
- 'Everyone' has climate anxiety -
For Lise Van Susteren, a Washington-based psychiatrist who has been studying the mental health impacts of climate change for 15 years, refusal to recognize the potential hazards is common for people who are trying to deny that they too are vulnerable.
I actually have no hesitation in saying that on some level, I believe that everyone now has some climate anxiety, Van Susteren said.
Psychological responses to climate change such as conflict avoidance, fatalism, fear, helplessness and resignation are growing, according to a 2017 report by the American Psychological Association and ecoAmerica.
And they coincide with an array of physical health impacts, such as asthma and allergies.
At a happy hour for environmentalists in Washington, Alicia Cannon -- who works in environmental policy lobbying -- was asked whether she was experiencing any climate anxiety.
Her response: Oh God, yes.
I think a lot of people that work in climate feel some kind of climate anxiety because it's such a large-scale issue and it's overwhelming and you feel that it's overwhelming because of helplessness, the 23-year-old said.
According to Van Susteren, such feelings can lead people to question whether their individual actions are meaningful in light of the vast nature of the problem.
What we do individually is counted collectively, she said, indicating that one person's behaviors can help establish consequential social norms.
Debbie Chang, 43, who organized a group counseling session on dealing with climate anxiety on the National Mall in Washington in May, has also decided not to have kids and tries to follow a zero-waste policy.
She keeps chopsticks in her purse to avoid single-use plastic utensils, carries a handkerchief to substitute for paper napkins, and brings a steel container with her to restaurants for any leftovers she might want.
Chang said until not that long ago, it was difficult to find information on climate anxiety, climate grief, climate despair, climate counseling.
Now there's more... people are starting to realize it's a thing, she added.