If we label eco-anxiety as an illness, climate denialists have won

LAST week I had a sobering conversation with an editor from one of the BBC’s flagship science programmes. He had been reading my column and wanted to pick my brains about emerging environmental issues. After half an hour chewing over the dire state of the climate and biodiversity, he asked me: how do you cope? How do you sleep at night knowing all of this?

I admit that I sometimes lose sleep, usually when I’m working on a story that brings me face to face with the realities of climate breakdown or biodiversity loss. I worry for my sons’ future…