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Kamala Harris trolled over claim that 'climate anxiety' is making people rethink about having children

Vice President Kamala Harris asserts that 'climate anxiety' is causing young people to second-guess having children and buying home

BERKS COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA: Vice President Kamala Harris said on Tuesday, September 19, that young people are suffering from "climate anxiety" as a result of the effects of the environment, which is forcing them to reconsider important future decisions like starting families or buying homes.

Harris spoke to a crowd during the most recent stop of her nationwide "Fight for Our Freedoms" college tour at the Reading Area Community College in Berks County, Pennsylvania.

As per Fox News, the vice president stated that the Biden-Harris ticket witnessed an all-time high turnout of young voters during the 2020 election, inspiring the government's initiative toward forgiving student loans, which lately hit a roadblock in court.

Several critics responded to Harris' "climate anxiety" remark on social media, stating that Americans are more likely to think about the growing expenses of housing, food, and energy when deciding whether or not to have children.

Young voters, according to Harris, are committed to upholding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) measures against those the vice president referred to as "extremists" who are opposed to them.

Harris further added, "Because people voted, we have been able to put in place over $1 trillion in investment in our country around things like climate resilience and adaptation, around focusing on issues like environmental justice and understanding that despite what these extremist so-called leaders are trying to do when they're trying to get rid of DEI diversity, equity and inclusion, we know that we're going to stay committed to issues like equity."

Social media critics troll Kamala Harris over 'climate anxiety' topic

Internet users immediately took to social media, particularly X (formerly Twitter), to criticize the vice president over her remarks on "climate anxiety."

One X user wrote on the online platform, "And she really believes that," with funny emojis.

A second user explained, "The weather today is not the weather of yesterday, we have to live in the current forecast because the weather forecast is tomorrows weather history, sadly lost in time, where future weather history will be written. This is our time shared, by your time, because we all have watches."

A third X user quipped, "I'd have climate anxiety except as predicted by Left-Os I died in 1970s from the ozone hole and the ice age and in 1980s from acid rain. Then I drowned in 2013 AND 2014 when, as Al Gore predicted (2x) the polar ice cap melted. Then i died from all the other climate BS."

Referring to the topics of future families and buying a house, another X user noted, "Or maybe people can't afford either one because of Bidenomics!"

"No Kamala... It's politics run by politicians like you that make us doubt in the sense of having children. Nothing to do with the weather outside..." chimed in another.

One more user wrote, "I can imagine young adults are put off by the cost today of setting up households and raising children. It was worrisome 50 yrs ago."

"She is so crooked it because of all the prices and hosuing interest rates and unfairness of the hosuing market compared to decades ago," claimed another user.

Another one snarked, "No conversation among anyone outside the political class includes “climate anxiety” as a topic. None. Sorry @KamalaHarris."

What is climate anxiety?

Climate and social scientists are paying more and more attention to climate anxiety as we start to understand the psychological effects of climate change on our mental health.

Climate anxiety, which is classified as a condition of increased anxiety, is frequently expressed with words like remorse, despair, and anguish as an overwhelming sense of foreboding about the situation of the environment develops, as per Earth.org.

More individuals with symptoms of climate change anxiety, also known as eco-anxiety, eco-grief, or climate gloom, are presenting to mental health physicians, and they're not always sure what to do about it.

Online searches for the term "climate anxiety" increased by 565 percent in 2021, per the news source Grist, supported by public surveys and statistics from online searches.

According to clinical psychologist and associate professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Yale School of Public Health Sarah Lowe, there is a behavioral component when climate anxiety interferes with one's social interactions or ability to perform at work or school, as well as a physiological component that includes racing heart and shortness of breath.