• Climate anxiety is an overwhelming feeling of grief, stress or despair about climate change, and is especially prevalent among young people.
• Some experts recommend processing emotions and taking action without substituting one for the other.
• The Inland Seas Education Association is holding a workshop on how to talk about climate anxiety with young people.
This coverage is made possible through a partnership with IPR and Grist, a nonprofit independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future.
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When Rachel Ratliff, a volunteer coordinator with the nonprofit Inland Seas Education Association, isn’t sure how to approach a conversation about climate anxiety, she looks inward.
“What I am, at my very core, is a very ticked-off 11-year-old who just learned that all the plastic we've ever made still exists,” she said. “And it has fueled me every day.”
Based in Suttons Bay, Inland Seas has a host of youth programs on and off the water, monitoring aquatic life and the environment. Now, it’s holding workshops in northern Michigan on how to talk about climate anxiety, or what it calls “climate doom.” And they’re focusing on youth.
Climate anxiety refers to overwhelming feelings of grief, stress and despair about climate change, as well as worry about the future. While definitions vary, it can encompass feelings of existential dread as well as helplessness and frustration at governmental inaction.
“It's always great to learn how to be a better empathetic listener and how to have these tough conversations with kids who are dealing with really adult topics,” Ratliff said.
Climate change is wreaking havoc on people’s health across the world, with low-income countries and communities especially burdened by its impacts. That applies to its psychological effects as well.
Feelings of climate anxiety are especially prevalent among young people, although generational differences change depending on other demographic factors. The American Psychological Association published a survey in 2020 showing nearly half of the participants between 18-34 years old said stress about the climate affects their daily lives.
In 2021, researchers published a study in the journal Lancet Planetary Health. Of the 10,000 children and young people surveyed in ten countries, more than half were “extremely worried” about climate change.
“Climate anxiety and dissatisfaction with government responses are widespread in children and young people in countries across the world and impact their daily functioning,” the authors write. “A perceived failure by governments to respond to the climate crisis is associated with increased distress. There is an urgent need for further research into the emotional impact of climate change on children and young people and for governments to validate their distress by taking urgent action on climate change.”
One approach to this issue aims to balance acknowledging and processing these emotions with taking action without substituting one for the other.
A 2023 article in Harvard Medicine examined a strategy called “meaning-focused coping," which leans into individual actions and beliefs while also relying on trust that others in society are doing their part.
Because it allows for both negative and positive emotions, the article says, researchers have found that “young people who adopt it have an easier time maintaining hope for the future.”
Ratliff said that when a young person expresses frustration or despair, it’s important not to dismiss that — some climate engagement strategists have called this “disavowal.”
“We're a very connected world, and we can see our neighbors near and far suffering from some of the implications of this human impact,” she said. “And it is too late, in some senses.”
While supportive adults might want to try to help young people by telling them not to worry, Ratliff said, it’s important for adults to talk through these issues with young people. Doing so can help make space to focus on things we can change.
“It's not too late to start building the societal structures that are going to allow humans to continue to exist and continue to be neighbors in the coming future, in the changing future,” Ratliff said. “It's not too late to be a compassionate neighbor in that instance, as a matter of fact, we're right on time, and we're going to need all the help we can get.”
Inland Seas is holding a workshop to talk about it at 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Traverse Area District Library.
