To the Teacher
This lesson consists of two readings designed to dig into conversations about the emotional impacts of climate change in the lives of young people today. The first reading opens a discussion about times when climate change moves from the abstract to the real for students. The second describes different ways to deal with and move beyond “climate anxiety,” which has become an increasingly common concern, with a 2021 survey of young people finding that more than half were “very or extremely worried” about climate change and the inadequate government response to it.
The lesson supports students in discussing possible responses to the experience of feeling “sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless, [or] guilty” about the climate crisis. From suggestions from experts about processing feelings and getting support from friends and family to suggestions for engaging in activism, this lesson provides antidotes to the natural feelings of hopelessness many experience in the wake of climate change.
Microlab (small group listening circles) directions and questions follow each reading.
NOTE: For more ways to address students’ social and emotional needs in the face of the climate crisis, see Teach for Climate Justice: A Vision for Transforming Education by Morningside Center’s founding executive director, Tom Roderick.
Photo by Manny Becerra on Unsplash
Reading One: When Does Climate Change Start to Feel Real to You?
It’s one thing to understand that climate change is a big problem, and another to feel its impacts in your own life. As the effects of climate change accelerate rapidly, larger and larger numbers of people are experiencing those impacts, whether due to wildfires, floods, heat, or smoke keeping them from spending time outside.
Writing for Teen Vogue in April 2021, education columnist Mary Retta explored the moment when climate change begins to feel real for students, interviewing dozens of young people:
We’ve heard the facts so many times that it’s easy to become numb to them. The world is steadily growing warmer, certain parts of the world are facing extreme droughts or floods, many wildlife populations are shrinking — and things are only projected to grow worse, with carbon emissions rising and countries contributing to mass deforestation….
These overarching facts are important to reiterate. But it’s also critical to understand what climate change feels like on an everyday level — how it affects our mental and physical health. It’s a problem so enormous and disorienting that it’s often easier to just shove it into the darker corners of our minds, where we don’t want to look. Living under the spectre of climate change can make it feel surreal to try to plan an education, a career, a family, or any concrete aspect of your future.
That’s why younger generations have risen up, calling on global leaders to treat our rapidly changing climate like the emergency it is.
[https://www.teenvogue.com/story/when-climate-change-became-real-to-people]
These testimonials were among the responses from the dozens of young people Retta interviewed:
Delina, Houston, Texas, 21, college student
I live in Texas, so the recent winter-storm outage has scared people around me and made us want to take matters into our own hands. I am a coordinator for mutual aid efforts in the Austin area, and seeing people share funds, housing those in need, and sharing food and water has brought me so much hope when seeing how we can help those who are victims of climate disaster….
Ace, Brooklyn, New York, 28, astrologer
I go through moments of realizing that this will define my future, but it’s hard to understand that fully. When I was 21, I remember having a moment [in which] I learned that climate change is irreversible. COVID has been an exercise in learning that crisis happens slowly. In the past few years, NYC has been reclassified into a subtropical climate. That has been scary. I feel anger at those in power. I feel fear for my family members in the developing world.
Kiran Misra, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 24, Government Partnerships Officer at the World Food Programme
My hometown has experienced two ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ natural disasters in my lifetime — first, a flood in 2008 and next, a ‘derecho’ inland hurricane in 2020. Seeing homes underwater, roofs torn off, and more, really hit home that the effects of climate change aren’t just happening in coastal areas or deserts — it can happen in Iowa too. Of course, the impacts of these disasters are most felt by those who are non-white or low income: when a city floods, those living on higher elevations can often emerge relatively unscathed, and during the derecho, those with stronger roofs who could afford to get them replaced or repaired more often experienced less damage to their homes.
[https://www.teenvogue.com/story/when-climate-change-became-real-to-people]
As climate change has moved from an abstract concept to a force that feels undeniably present, growing numbers of young people have been making life decisions to account for the ways climate may impact them moving forward. In a December 2022 article for education news publication Education Week, reporter Madeline Will wrote about the way concerns about climate have been shaping students’ educational experiences and their future plans:
“I feel like generally there’s a lot of hopelessness among people my age,” said Croix Hill, a 16-year-old junior at Benjamin Franklin High School in New Orleans. “When talking about it, people are just kind of like, ‘Well, whatever. We’re not even gonna have a planet in 50 years, so it doesn’t even matter.’”
The consequences of climate-related distress are profound for youth. The fear of climate change is influencing their decisions about where to attend college, whether to stay in their hometowns as adults, and even whether to have children….
Croix has lived in New Orleans since she was 2. The city is home, but the signs of climate change are everywhere—from remnants of debris from Hurricane Ida, which ravaged the city in 2021, to the wafting smell of controlled marsh fires, which are regularly set to boost the health of wetlands and reduce the sea level rise that’s contributing to the disappearance of Louisiana’s coastline.
She’s also painfully aware of the oft-cited threat that New Orleans could be underwater in the coming decades as sea levels rise. As Croix considers where to apply to colleges, she increasingly feels like New Orleans won’t be where she ends up.
“The increase in hurricanes and detrimental tropical storms that we’ve been experiencing definitely influences the decision that I’m making as far as college and my plans, because I don’t know if that’s something I want to have to deal with,” she said. “I love New Orleans, it’s my city, but I just don’t know if ... evacuating every single year, and it getting worse and worse, is something I can deal with.”
Croix isn’t alone in that calculus: A fifth of teenagers said the threat of climate change has impacted the location of where they’d prefer to attend college, and 37 percent said it’s affected where they want to live as an adult, according to the EdWeek survey.
As more and more people experience the impacts of climate change in their day-to-day lives—whether these impacts are physical, emotional or both—our schools, governments and healthcare systems need to find ways to help us all cope with climate anxiety and address the underlying crisis that is causing it.
Post- Reading Microlab Activity:
Here's how to do a microlab in the classroom.
1. Divide the class into groups of three or four using puzzle pieces, number cards, or by counting off. Ask participants to arrange themselves in their small groups so that each person can easily see and hear everyone else in the group.
2. Before you begin, explain the guidelines for a microlab:
It's okay to pass if you need more time to think or would rather not respond.
This is a timed activity. I will let you know when it is time to move on to the next speaker. You will each have one [or two or three] minutes to speak.
Speak from your own point of view.
Be your own barometer - share as much as you feel comfortable sharing.
Confidentiality is important, especially when we come back together as a large group. We need to agree that what we share among ourselves in the small group will stay private.
3. Introduce your first microlab question. (Use the questions below or create your own.) In introducing each question, it's usually helpful to say the question, then give some specifics about the question or model answering the question yourself, and then repeat the question again. This gives participants some time to think about what they would like to say. In between microlab questions, you may want to remind people to try not to interrupt or engage in dialogue.
Does climate change feel real to you? If so, do you remember when it began to feel that way?
As the impacts of climate change begins to feel more present in the lives of a larger percentage of the population, do you think it will change how people behave? How you behave? In what ways?
In the reading, high schooler Croix talks about the way climate change is influencing decisions about her future, including where she might live or go to college. Is this something you think about in your own life? How does thinking about your decisions in the wake of climate change make you feel?
The young people quoted in this article talk about their feelings regarding climate change that range from hope to anger. What feelings, if any, of theirs did you connect to and why? What other feelings do you have? Why?
4. Reconvene the full group. Invite students to share how the microlab was for them. Then ask for volunteers to share something they said or felt in their microlab. Remind participants of the need for confidentiality - each person should only speak from their experience.
This sharing may lead to a wider classroom discussion. If the issue is a volatile one, discussions can sometimes get heated. If you decide to open up the topic, it would be a good idea to establish some guidelines for discussion or "community practices" ahead of time.
You may want to end the session by having the students brainstorm about questions they have on the issue that would lead to gathering information and further study.
Reading Two: Strategies for Grappling With Climate Anxiety
As the impacts of climate change have become more tangible to growing numbers of people, “climate anxiety” has become an increasingly common concern. A 2021 survey of 10,000 young people in ten countries published in The Lancet found that 59% were “very or extremely worried” and 84% were at least “moderately worried” about climate change and the inadequate government response to it, with more than half feeling “sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless, and guilty.”
In a February 2022 article for the Thomson Reuters Foundation, journalist Sonia Elks spoke with psychologists and changemakers on the subject of climate anxiety and ways to cope with its effects. She wrote:
So what can you do if you are struggling with eco-anxiety? The Thomson Reuters Foundation asked mental health experts and prominent climate campaigners to share their tips on tackling climate fears and building resilience.
Here's what they said:…
Margaret Klein Salamon, psychologist and founder of Climate Awakening
"Talk about it. The #1 emotional experience I have had reported through my years of climate work is alienation. The feeling that 'no one understands' how bad it is.
"Talking to friends and family, talking to climate activists, talking to a therapist ... it's all good. You might be surprised how receptive people are, and that they have been struggling with similar things."
Elizabeth Wathuti, Kenyan climate activist and founder of the Green Generation Initiative
"Reconnect with your love for nature. Remember the feelings that came before the pain and the anxiety — your love for this earth; your love for nature. Remember there is still so much beauty to protect and fight for. Let your love fuel that action."
Esther Maughan McLachlan, oversight lead of The Resilience Project
"Don't try and ignore or dismiss what may seem like 'negative' feelings, befriend them instead.
"Fear, despair, and anger are all entirely legitimate emotional responses to what the science tells us ... Such feelings simply show you are a well-functioning person who understands the scale and impact of the challenges.
"You don't need to feel bad about feeling bad."...
Mitzi Jonelle Tan, Filipino climate justice activist
"Remember that there is something that we can do about it; that through collective action we can change the world and we're not alone in fighting against the climate crisis.
"When you remember that, it takes off the pressure and the fear that you're facing things alone and it gives you a community to hold onto.
"This ... is so important because this is the community that will hold you, be sad with you, grieve with you, comfort you, and be afraid with you, but also fight alongside you."
Patrick Kennedy-Williams, co-director of Climate Psychologists
"Avoid doom scrolling — balance difficult and negative information with positive climate stories and actions."
[https://news.trust.org/item/20220210091958-dwe56/]
While there are a variety of potential strategies for addressing climate anxiety, experts stress that feelings of concern and distress are an entirely rational response to the existential threat that climate change poses to us all. Plans for coping with climate anxiety must also address the need for structural changes to address the crisis and highlight the importance of taking collective action.
In a spring 2023 article for Harvard Medicine, writer Charles Schmidt interviewed mental health experts about how taking such action can change individuals’ responses to climate anxiety:
[Elizabeth Pinsky MD’06, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital], emphasizes that any attempt to help young people navigate climate-related emotions must start by acknowledging the validity of their fears. News reports and researchers often refer to these feelings collectively as climate anxiety, or eco-anxiety, but Pinsky admits to having misgivings about the terms.
“Many people interpret anxiety as a pathological response that needs to be treated and solved,” she says. “But it’s also a constructive emotion that gives us time to react in the face of danger. And anxiety in the face of climate change is a healthy response to a real threat.”...
The overall goal, she says, is for young people to achieve more resilience in the face of climate change, so they can function in spite of their environmental concerns. When people find meaning in what they do, she says, they have a greater sense of their own agency and self-efficacy. “You’re more empowered to take action, and that can be a powerful way to deal with strong negative emotions,” Pinsky says….
[Christine Duhaime, associate director of the Mass General Center for Environment and Health,] says young people may benefit from seeking the rewards that come from being part of a group or a movement working to advance an agenda that furthers actions that protect the planet’s climate. “Social rewards are really powerful in the climate change battle, especially for young people,” Duhaime says….Even if you don’t see climate improvements or policy changes right away, she says, “that won’t diminish the importance of engaging in these efforts.”...
“I believe the fundamental and best treatment for youth climate distress is a rapid and just transition from fossil fuels,” Pinsky says. “I genuinely consider all that work to be in the area of mitigating climate anxiety.”
[https://magazine.hms.harvard.edu/articles/climate-anxiety]
Acknowledging difficult feelings and getting support from friends and family are important parts of responding to climate anxiety. At the same time, taking collective action can be particularly powerful, providing both community and an antidote to feelings of hopelessness.
Post- Reading Microlab Activity:
Here's how to do a microlab in the classroom.
1. Divide the class into groups of three or four using puzzle pieces, number cards, or by counting off. Invite participants to arrange themselves in their small groups so that each person can easily see and hear everyone else in the group.
2. Before you begin, explain the guidelines for a microlab:
It's okay to pass if you need more time to think or would rather not respond.
This is a timed activity. I will let you know when it is time to move on to the next speaker. You will each have one [or two or three] minutes to speak.
Speak from your own point of view.
Be your own barometer - share as much as you feel comfortable sharing.
Confidentiality is important, especially when we come back together as a large group. We need to agree that what we share among ourselves in the small group will stay private.
3. Introduce your first microlab question. (Use the questions below.) In introducing each question, it's usually helpful to say the question, then give some specifics about the question or model answering the question yourself, and then repeat the question again. This gives participants some time to think about what they would like to say. In between microlab questions, you may want to remind people to try not to interrupt or engage in dialogue.
According to the reading, a recent survey reported that 59% of young people are “very or extremely worried” about climate change and the inadequate government response to it, with more than half feeling “sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless, and guilty.” What do you think of those numbers? Is this true to your own experience talking with friends and classmates? How would you characterize your own feelings?
According to the reading, what are some of the strategies for coping with climate anxiety? What did you think of these recommendations? Which did you find most compelling? Have you tried any of these strategies? Are there others not listed in the reading that work for you? Others you’ve considered trying?
Taking collective action sometimes is not considered a way to address personal troubles or distress. Why do the experts quoted in this reading believe that acting with others can be a powerful response to such feelings? What do you think of their argument? Have you ever taken collective action around an issue before? What collective action would you consider taking around the issue of climate change?
After considering different viewpoints on this issue, what approaches do you think schools, the government, and mental health professionals should prioritize when it comes to supporting young people experiencing climate anxiety?
4. Reconvene the full group. Invite students to share how the microlab was for them. Then ask for volunteers to share something they said or felt in their microlab. Remind participants of the need for confidentiality - each person should only speak from their experience.
This sharing may lead to a wider classroom discussion. If the issue is a volatile one, discussions can sometimes get heated. If you decide to open up the topic, it would be a good idea to establish some guidelines for discussion or "community practices" ahead of time.
You may want to end the session by having students consider strategies they want to do as a class. Explain that you’ve already engaged in strategy #1 (talking about our feelings around climate change) and #3 (acknowledging and validating “negative feelings.”) Maybe students want to reconnect with their love of nature or take collective action to combat climate change.
—Research assistance provided by Sophia Zaia