2 Climate anxiety

Please note that as you work through this section, there may be content or activities that you find difficult because of your own experiences of mental distress, or those of others close to you. Suggestions of steps you can take to support your own mental health and wellbeing while you study are included.

If you need more immediate help and are based in the UK, you can contact:

• Samaritans – Tel: 116 123
• Mind – Tel: 0300 123 3393
• SANEline – Tel: 0300 304 7000 (4pm-10pm)
• your local GP for medical advice by making an emergency appointment
• NHS (England & Wales) Tel: 111, NHS 24 (Scotland) Tel: 08454 242424, NI Direct (Northern Ireland) Tel: 0808 808 8000
• or go to Accident and Emergency (A&E).

Any educator addressing the climate crisis will need to have strategies for supporting their learners’ emotional responses to climate change, and for taking care of their own wellbeing. In this section of the course, you’ll consider the impact of climate anxiety and how learners can be supported in coping with it, and you’ll explore some strategies for taking care of your own wellbeing.

There is a growing awareness of the anxiety and distress that people experience around the climate and ecological crises, even when they have yet to experience their effects personally. Various terms are used to describe these feelings, including climate anxiety, climate distress, eco-anxiety, eco-despair, eco-depression, solastalgia and climate grief. None of these terms adequately capture the range of emotions that people feel, which might include fear, grief, guilt, shame, stress and anger, as well as anxiety.

Researchers have identified multiple, overlapping forms of anxiety and depression in relation to climate change. At their most severe, they can lead to a complete inability to enjoy life, and to thoughts of suicide. Common feelings include a sense of hopelessness and powerlessness.

Some groups are more prone to anxiety and distress than others, including people whose livelihoods and identities are closely connected with the land and those who experience natural disaster in early childhood (Hrabok, Delorme and Agyapong, 2020). While young people and women report higher levels of climate anxiety than other groups, Pihkala (2020) suggests this may be because it is repressed and under-reported. This can be accompanied by an unhelpful tendency to dismiss others’ anxiety as overreaction. Those considering parenthood or thinking about their grandchildren also report greater anxiety.

There’s increasing concern about the extent of climate anxiety in young people and its impact on their day-to-day lives. A survey of 10,000 16- to 25-year-olds across 10 countries found that respondents in all countries were worried about climate change, and 59% were extremely worried (Hickman et al., 2021). A perceived failure of governments exacerbates the distress. The extent of anxiety and its impact on young people’s ability to function is worst in the Global South, where climate change has the greatest impact.

Psychologist Caroline Hickman (2020) describes the additional burden experienced by children, saying that what frightens them most is the failure of adults to take climate change seriously, while simultaneously dismissing, pathologising or even criminalising their attempts to make their voices heard.

Activity 2 Coping with emotions

Timing: Allow about 25 minutes

Part 1

Watch the following video, which focuses on the anxiety that children and young people experience in relation to the climate emergency.

Download this video clip.Video player: Video 2

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Transcript: Video 2 How to talk with children about climate change

IMMIE

If climate change were like an animal or a plant, I think it would be some sort of parasite because it’s the only thing that’s actually growing and getting bigger while everything else starts dying off.

MILLY

The environment is definitely very special because if we get rid of it there’s nowhere else we can go. Like, it’s like a very one in a million sort of planet.

CAROLINE HICKMAN

A 10-year-old some years ago got cross with me and said, ‘You don’t get it’. He said, ‘You grew up thinking that polar bears would be there for ever’. He said, ‘I’ve grown up knowing that they will go extinct.’

ESTHER

I don’t remember when I first became aware about climate change. I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know what it was because it’s always been there.

CAROLINE HICKMAN

Children are growing up with this knowledge and this awareness whereas anyone over the ago of, let’s say, thirty, is having to wake up to this and realise it. When we asked young people about how climate change made me feel, three quarters or more think the future is frightening, so we know that it’s having an emotional impact on children and young people all around the world.

IMMIE

I think that climate change is really scary and the fact that lots of people aren’t doing much about it just sort of freaks me out.

CAROLINE HICKMAN

Eight out of ten told us that people had failed to take care of the planet. So this is young people and children looking to adults, looking to older people, looking to people in power and saying, ‘Why haven’t you done something about this?’

ESTHER

It makes me feel angry to see such a clear issue and to see everyone knowing about this issue and still not doing anything that they really should be. It’s just frustrating and I think it’s also tiring to feel so sort of scared and angry.

CAROLINE HICKMAN

One of the worst things we can do to children and young people is to say, ‘Well, it’s your responsibility now’. I’ve heard this said to children. ‘Your generation will fix this. Your generation is so inspiring and creative and innovative. We’re going to leave this to you to fix.’

ESTHER

There is an idea by older people that it is sort of on young people to fix it but I think that’s really unfair and I think it’s a collective responsibility, not just on young people and not just on me.

CAROLINE HICKMAN

One of the most worrying statistics was that 48% told us they were dismissed or ignored when they tried to talk about climate change. That we could do something about this afternoon. That we could do something about today.

IMMIE

In places like school, I feel that they don’t really listen and don’t respect the fact that I’ve thought about it and tried to educate myself about it. I kind of feel really angry and frustrated because I am actually saying something meaningful and it you’re not prepared to listen to your children, it’s going to have a big effect because we actually do have something to say and we are actually trying to make a change.

CAROLINE HICKMAN

My advice to adults, parents, teachers is do not put it off. Don’t push it away. Don’t save it up and just have that big conversation. Talk about it regularly. That’s crucial. And it’s okay for you to say to your children, ‘I don’t have all the answers. We’re not sure exactly how to deal with all of this but let’s find out together.’

End transcript: Video 2 How to talk with children about climate change

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Video 2 How to talk with children about climate change

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Part 2

Reflect on your own experience since starting this course. In the box below, note the different emotions that thinking about the climate emergency has prompted for you. If you feel comfortable doing so, you could share your list of emotions with a trusted friend, family member or colleague.

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Part 3

If you’re an educator, in the broadest sense of the term, reflect on the extent to which you feel equipped to support your learners in coping with emotions related to the climate emergency and any strategies you’ve used to date (where relevant).

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