Climate change anxiety: Young people 'feel hopeless'

More young people are seeking counselling over climate change worries, say charities

By Steffan Messenger
BBC Wales Environment Correspondent

Young people who feel "hopeless and paralysed" by fears about climate change need help and support, mental health experts have said.

Place2Be - a charity offering counselling in schools - said the issue was becoming "more and more prominent".

Plaid Cymru said it wanted new guidance for teachers and funding for eco projects focused on pupils' wellbeing.

The Welsh government said changes it had made to the curriculum would help.

While the physical dangers posed by climate change are now widely-reported, the potential impact on people's mental health has not had as much attention.

But Cliona Vaughan, a counsellor who works as school project manager for Place2Be in south Wales, said children's climate anxiety was brought about by a sense that politicians and big business were not acting quickly enough.

"Children shouldn't have to have this worry," Cliona Vaughan says

She said one child told her: "We need to find another planet."

She added: "They're feeling worried, trying to find ways to help sort it out at a young age."

Ms Vaughan said it got more problematic when children got older as "they can feel, at times, the future is hopeless".

"Children shouldn't have to have this worry - they have their hopes and dreams, they want to look forward to a bright future but what's coming at them is about how there isn't much time left."

She said children needed empowering support in schools to help them deal with climate anxiety.

What do young people think?

16-year-old Poppy said her climate anxiety "empowers me to act"

"I definitely think it's been on the rise amongst my peers," said 16-year-old Poppy, who chairs the Youth Climate Ambassadors for Wales programme.

"From my perspective as a climate activist, I do face climate anxiety - but in a way that empowers me to act."

Leo,16, another member of the group, added: "The most soul-crushing thing is not being optimistic about [climate change].

"It's something I'm quite worried about that isn't going to be sorted fast enough. We're already seeing effects at the moment. Not enough is being done."

Ellie said some people did not act because they did not know how to make difference

Ellie, 17 - the group's secretary added: "If somebody's anxious about something, that can also make them refrain from taking action and I think that is my biggest worry with this is that people get so scared that they just don't do anything at all, because they don't know how."

Caitlyn said young people needed to be empowered to make make a difference

"Empowering people, getting people worked up and angry and making it more accessible for people to do things, advertising those little things people can do would conquer it a little and not allow people to ignore it," Caitlyn, 17, said.

Dr Marc Williams said climate anxiety was a "very normal response to a real situation"

Dr Marc Williams, a clinical psychologist at Cardiff University, has recently published a paper suggesting a correlation between web searches about climate change and terms relating to mental health and said more research was needed to understand "what the experience is like and how to help".

"It is something that I don't think we should jump to pathologize. Climate, or eco anxiety as some people call it, is a very normal response to a real situation."

"The government should not see this as something that is just a problem for young people - the other way of actually tackling climate anxiety is to do something about climate change."

Regular surveys by Cardiff University's school of psychology have shown a big shift in people's attitude to climate change in recent years - with 40% of those polled across the UK now saying they are "very or extremely worried" about it.

A third said it triggered feelings of anxiety, fear or outrage.

Plaid Cymru's Delyth Jewell said the curriculum needed to focus on solutions to climate change

Plaid Cymru's spokeswoman on climate change, Delyth Jewell, said she wanted to see more guidance for teachers to recognise signs of climate anxiety and a more solution-focused curriculum with funding allocated to "collective action projects".

"Unless we do something to halt this sense of anxiety and unease and powerlessness [in our young people] it's only going to grow," she said.

The Welsh government said it had strengthened the key concepts of the new school curriculum "to enable better teaching and learning about the climate emergency".

A spokesman said the government had supported Eco Schools and Size of Wales - two "well-established, pupil-led climate and environmental educational programmes for schools across Wales" for several years.

"These programmes go further than just classroom activity, supporting children and young people to take climate action, engage with policy development and have their voices heard."

Your climate change questions

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The targets bring Wales in line with the UK's commitment to "net zero" emissions by 2050

Climate change and the environment are on the agenda more than ever in Wales.

All road schemes in Wales are set to be reviewed and a new law to tackle air pollution will be introduced in this term of the Welsh Parliament.

But, while Wales is also aiming to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, question marks have been raised over whether the nation is on track for this target.

So what would you ask Wales' Climate Change Minister, Julie James?

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