By Alliance President Terry Gips
America, we have a problem. Climate change is causing widespread distress and adverse effects on the mental health and well-being of US youth, according to a newly-released study in the Lancet. In the largest survey of its kind, the authors found climate anxiety is affecting nearly all American adolescents and young adults, even across the political spectrum. The study exposes a number of deeply disturbing mental health challenges:
- 85% of respondents feel at least moderately worried about climate change with 58% very or extremely worried
- 76% say the future is frightening
- 43% said it affected their mental health
- 38% said climate change negatively affected their daily life, including “their ability to focus on work or school, eat and sleep, have fun, and enjoy friendships and other relationships.”
I could cry. This is not ok. And it’s deeply personal for me as I’ve experienced similar grief and depression as I share in this accompanying personal story.
Amidst these dire findings I do find a surprising amount of hope by reflecting on the opportunities they present for simple solutions we can all undertake. But first we must face the facts that should raise 5-alarm fire bells.
The Impact of the Climate Crisis on Young People
The reality is that young Americans are experiencing a growing mental health crisis that goes beyond the overwhelming thousand-year climate-caused droughts, torrential downpours and hurricanes we’re suffering through every year. Our children face a bleak future, along with our country and world.
As the Journal of the American Medical Association points out, “Direct exposure to traumatic events can lead to posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, phobias, and substance abuse. Climate change also affects mental health indirectly as a social-ecological determinant of health and through its interaction with other determinants like racism, poverty, and access to housing and education.”
The Fierce Urgency of Now and Its Call to All
The Lancet study warns the crisis will continue to worsen: “As the effects of climate change become more evident, the emotional, psychological and behavioral consequences might also intensify.” The urgency is undeniable.
This crisis calls for all hands on deck. We need to respond by both supporting our young people and addressing the causes of climate change on a personal and political level. Sticking our heads in the sand, leaving it to a few or just praying won’t do. We need to be all in.
What Young People Are Feeling and Steps to Solutions
To understand the depth of the problem, we have to face the fact that more than two-thirds of young people feel anxious or powerless, with six in ten feeling sad and more than half “feeling afraid, angry and despair.” It is really upsetting to me that so many of our adolescents and young adults are living this nightmare and that 46% feel depressed, which can also result in the deterioration of their physical health and functioning.
And guess what two of the biggest factors are in their feeling this way? More than 8 in 10 young people attributed their negative feelings to the actions of corporations and nearly 8 in 10 to the lack of action by our government. The study cites the “common desire among US youth for decisive action by governments, including the US Government, and corporations and industries to address climate change”, which “they most frequently viewed as being responsible for causing and addressing climate change.”
In other words, while the climate crisis can feel overwhelming, there is something positive that could make a huge difference today for young people: Action by business and government. We are not powerless. We need to call on both to address this crisis.
Being Painfully Ignored and What We Can Do
Six in ten young people have tried talking to others about climate change. Sadly, of these, “58% felt ignored or dismissed by other people.” But the good news is that most don’t want to give up trying. The study found that more than seven in ten want people to talk openly about the dangers of climate change, with the same percent about how climate change makes people feel. This is a huge calling for honest, open expression of feelings between all of us.
There is more good news we can easily implement. Young Americans want the discussions to come home. Two-thirds of them want their parents’ or grandparents’ generations to try to understand their feelings. This is a huge, doable opportunity.
And in addition to real conversation and sharing of feelings to address this, young people are simply asking for all of us to take simple steps at home as well. The study says young people support “individual responses to address climate change, including through their house-hold practices, purchases, and career plans.” This is not hard but is something we can all do.
Underneath Climate Anxiety: The Larger Impact of Our Role with Attachment and ACES
Taking the steps mentioned above can have a much larger effect than we may have thought. From the psychological perspective of Attachment Theory, the lack of being heard and seen is particularly deleterious to the well-being of young people. When this absence of connection is combined with the young person’s sense that they and their world are not feeling protected from a serious threat by their caregivers, it can lead to what is termed “insecure attachment.”
This can result in trauma and be an Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) with long-term negative impacts on health, opportunity and well-being, according to the CDC. In fact, the CDC points out that three in four high school students reported experiencing one or more ACEs. This is deeply troubling for the future of these young people.
And the cost is staggering. The CDC estimated that ACEs-related health consequences cost an estimated economic burden of $748 billion annually in the US, Canada and Bermuda.
Fortunately, the CDC points to studies showing that preventing ACEs could reduce persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness by as much as 66%. Given that climate anxiety is a clear ACE, we can take important steps to address it while improving the present well-being of our young people and saving huge amounts of money.
The Urgency for Youth Support, from Sharing Emotions to Empowering Action
The authors emphasize the “immediate need to support youth who are feeling distress related to current and unavoidable future impacts and losses.” They add, “A central focus of many interventions and programs for climate change-related distress is to provide opportunities to share climate emotions and strengthen relationships among peers and within families and communities, and in many cases to empower individuals to take action.”
“Youth can benefit from opportunities to share their distress and to act in response to climate change, including in their families, schools and universities, and communities, and through participation in policy development,” according to the Lancet study. This is something we can and must do in every setting.
One Approach to Supporting Youth in Expressing Their Feelings and Taking Action
This study underscores the urgent need to address the hopelessness and climate anxiety felt by so many young Americans. For the past few years, the Alliance for Sustainability has sought to address this challenge through its Akepa Youth & School Program. It’s a key component of our Campaign for Sustainability, Health, Equity and Kindness (S.H.E. Kindness), which is led by our diverse, energetic college and grad school students. The Campaign is bringing about fundamental systems change through personal and organizational transformation and impactful public policy.
Akepa is an innovative, comprehensive youth leadership development, education, action and creativity Program designed to inform, inspire and engage diverse middle and high school students across the country, half of whom are in disproportionately-impacted, under-served communities.
The students can share their feelings and be empowered through a positive Akepa presentation, eBook and website encouraging them to take action, just as the study recommends. They’ll also save money while affecting their lifestyles, homes, school operations and school district and city policy. It expands the impact through a S.H.E. Kindness Creativity Prize for student artistic expressions, the student-run Students for Sustainability and school or youth organization Sustainability Team.
Finally, Akepa trains our college and grad student interns as leaders to share the presentations and work with the schools, as well as taking it back to their own colleges, communities and future workplaces. It’s meant to be a highly cost-efficient, replicable model that can be scaled nationally.
There is Hope Amidst Despair
While most people reading the dismal, disturbing statistics from the study might feel overwhelmed, I think they present an exciting opportunity. To confront a challenge as huge as the climate crisis and its resultant psychological impacts, there is an important place to begin – facing the facts and acknowledging the deep feelings it evokes.
But once we can experience those feelings, we can examine the underlying unmet needs and how we can satisfy those, as presented by Non-Violent Communication. This can be a surprisingly liberating process because often it is easier to meet those needs than it is overcome the initial challenge, in this case the climate crisis.
In many ways, this is born out by the study authors sharing their hopeful conclusion that young people support “plans to respond to climate change with their votes and choices about their purchases, lifestyle, and career.” Clearly, just the act of young people feeling they have agency and can make a difference is an important step in addressing climate anxiety.
It’s significant that the study emphasizes “the response to address this distress must be for industries, governments, and policy makers to act at the necessary scale.” What an invitation to do the right thing. The act of key institutions choosing to take real measures to solve the climate challenge can give young people a sense of hope. This is exactly what the Alliance’s S.H.E. Kindness Campaign is seeking to do with our college and grad school interns leading our programs for both business and public policy, as well as for middle and high school students.
Our Choice
Clearly, we have a choice. We claim to care about our children and their future. But our young people are in pain and face a dismal tomorrow. Are we willing to step up and set aside vested interests, partisan divisions and denial for the sake of our children? I hope so. And I hope you’ll join me and the Alliance in making sure our young people know we care about them and our planet.