When Eezu Tan thinks about the future and how climate change will transform the world around her, she feels a lot of fear and uncertainty.
The 24-year-old from Sydney tells SBS News she first became aware of climate change in high school but her feelings of dread became acute in 2019 during the .
“Just seeing it on the news was so harrowing and having all the air pollution,” she says.
“Knowing people who were affected was also quite confronting to think about.”
Tan remembers working at a cinema in southern Sydney during the fires when coworkers received texts telling them to evacuate their homes. It led her to reflect on how the impacts of climate change were already affecting her daily life.
She says she feels anxious about the next few decades, considering the scale of climate-fuelled disasters the as a result of rising temperatures.
“My sister lives in LA and she’s had to evacuate [last month] and I just feel like these events are going to be more frequent and more severe, so it feels like anxiety and dread,” she says.
I really do believe that we’re probably going to be the generation who loses friends and family to climate change because of climate-related injuries, death, migration and so on.
A mental health crisis
Tan is far from alone in her distress about climate change and the broader impact this has on her mental wellbeing.
According to one study from the University of Bath published in 2021, which surveyed more than 10,000 children and young people across 10 countries, 75 per cent of young people agree that “the future is frightening”.
On top of this, 45 per cent say climate anxiety and distress is affecting their daily lives and functioning.
Young Australians are also reporting high rates of distress about climate change.
According to research conducted by youth mental health organisation Orygen, 76 per cent of young people are concerned about climate change and 67 per cent say it is having a negative impact on youth mental health.
Another survey from the Climate Council looked at all age groups in Australia and found that over half (51 per cent) of Australians say they are “very worried” or “fairly worried” about climate change and extreme weather events in Australia.
Dr Chloe Watfern, a researcher from the Black Dog Institute, says the mental health issues associated with climate change aren’t just “abstract” concerns.
“It might be affecting their sleep, it might be affecting the way that they interact with friends and family and their communities,” she says.
“It’s a major issue for young people but also for lots of different people.”
Dr Chloe Watfern researches the effects of climate change on young people’s mental health. Source: SBS News /
As for any relationship between climate anxiety and clinical anxiety or depression, Watfern says there is some evidence to suggest the two are linked but it is still unclear how closely associated they are.
Although it may be tempting to conflate climate anxiety with clinical anxiety — which is defined by excessive anxiety or worry — the World Health Organization emphasises that intense sadness, fear, despair, helplessness and grief “may represent understandable and congruent responses to the scale of the crisis the world faces”.
Carly Dober is a clinical psychologist and says she sees the distress the climate crisis is evoking in young people through her clinical work.
But she says she found it particularly pronounced while working in a school that had students from kindergarten through to year 12.
“There’s a common thread that almost all of them will discuss in some degree the climate crisis and their future,” she says.
Dober says climate change is a “huge looming public health threat” and she’s concerned young people are not receiving the support they need when looking to their futures.
“I’m just not sure that all of the adults around them, all of the health professions around them, the policy-makers and decision-makers are really, really understanding that.”
Carly Dober is a psychologist and says adults may not be taking the climate distress of young people seriously enough. Credit: Supplied
While anxiety and distress may be more acute among young people who are likely to see the worst impacts of climate change, Dober says she too can feel overwhelmed by the “petrifying” possibilities.
I don’t know what kind of animals might be around in Australia or in the rest of the world when I’m in my 40s or 50s. I don’t know what kind of vegetables and fruits will be available.
“I don’t know how many days of the year I’ll need to wear a mask that prevents me from getting smoke inhalation.”
How climate anxiety is shaping people’s lives
University of Bath research found that climate anxiety was not only affecting young people’s day-to-day functioning, but their plans for the future, including their careers and family and reproductive decisions.
Tan says that one of the biggest ways her distress about climate change has impacted her life is through her career decisions: it drove her to work for an environmental organisation.
After she graduated from university, she felt she needed to do something with her career that would effect “meaningful good”. Without that, she says she would have felt as though she was “ignoring the problem”.
For other young people, the decision about whether to have children is complicated by climate change.
Ruhee Meghani tells SBS News that at 34 years old she and her partner have made the decision to not have children. Her distress about climate change has been one of the biggest contributing factors.
Ruhee Meghani (left) says she has chosen to not have children because of her concern about climate change. Credit: Supplied
Meghani says she has watched human-made climate devastation unfolding in her home country, India, from afar and felt a lot of grief about the toll on its natural beauty.
“I remember seeing beautiful sunsets in Mumbai and now not even being able to see the sun very clearly because of the haze and smoke that exists,” she says.
When she tells others she won’t be having children because of these concerns, Meghani says she is generally met with empathy and understanding.
“I know a lot of people are in the same boat as myself of feeling trepidation around the future and what sort of resources will be available for the kids.”
Listening to climate anxiety
While climate-related anxiety and distress are becoming increasingly common, the psychological support to navigate these feelings can be limited within schools, family units and the mental healthcare system.
In her research at Black Dog Institute, Watfern says she has sought to understand the kind of support young people are looking for when faced with difficult feelings about the future.
Overall, she says young people are looking for older people to simply acknowledge and engage realistically in these discussions.
“They want to be listened to, they want to be talked to more about the real problems facing us and not making the issue belittled or invalidated.
They just want more open conversations.
When it comes to seeking psychological care, Watfern acknowledges there are many psychologists who are equipped to speak about climate impacts but she also believes there’s “a lot of work to be done” to raise awareness about the experience of climate distress.
Her team at Black Dog is working with the NSW government to evaluate a pilot program to be rolled out in schools this year, which will include lesson plans and videos exploring emotions about climate change and the environment.
Reflecting on how best to address the impact of climate anxiety on young people, Dober believes there needs to be a broader societal normalisation of climate conversations.
While there are some dedicated organisations that cater to this, such as climate cafes — places where people with climate anxiety are encouraged to speak about the climate crisis and action — Dober says the use of these groups and regularity of discussions hasn’t reached a “tipping point” yet.
Activism for mental health
Dober also worries that the in NSW, Tasmania, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia in recent years has stifled young people’s ability to express themselves openly about the climate.
“That option for them to express themselves in a very refined and connective way is being quashed, which completely invalidates what they’re going through and what they are demanding of decision-makers,” Dober says.
While Watfern agrees activism can provide a productive outlet for many people gripped by this type of distress, she is also conscious of the burden it places on individuals — particularly young people.
“I think there is that element of people feeling like their youth is getting taken away from them by the responsibility to act,” she says.
Following the Black Summer bushfires, Tan launched a community for people experiencing the same climate anxiety she was gripped by.
Along with a friend from university, she organised for a group of friends to come together to write letters to politicians urging climate action and learn from guest speakers.
The Climate Writers group rapidly ballooned from its initial sharehouse living room setting and has since moved to a community centre, with around 200 people regularly attending sessions.
Eezu Tan established the Climate Writers group to help cope with her feelings of climate anxiety. Credit: Supplied
Tan says establishing the group, which has sent upward of 400 personalised emails to state and federal MPs since it launched, has been beneficial for her mental health.
“It’s been really heartwarming, honestly, to be able to transform that kind of anxiety and sense of frustration, sense of hopelessness, into a space where people are able to discuss their climate anxiety feelings,” she says.
“I feel so much more spiritually invigorated because of it.”
