Throwback Episode: Eco-Anxiety and Optimism

Hi, this is Lydia. One of the teens who works on this teenage life. And right now, this teenage life is on a short pause because Molly, the adult who works on this teenage life, is on parental leave. So congratulations Molly. So instead, we are doing a re-release of another one of my favorite episodes, which is about eco-anxiety and climate change. In this episode, we interview a climate scientist, and we also just talk about our shared grief and anxiety when it comes to climate change and the environment. It's easy to get caught up and feeling helpless. I certainly understand that, but there are also things we can do in this episode as a great example of that. Hey, this is Molly Josephs, the adult who works on this teenage life. And. Lydia. And what do you do, Lydia? I'm a teen contributor and the current manager of our Instagram account. And what are we talking about today? We're talking about eco-anxiety and desire for more eco-optimism. I asked Lydia to come today because she is more eco-anxiety than anyone I know besides me. With force fires, droughts, weird weather patterns, loss of biodiversity, teens experience impacts of climate change in their communities every day. Global headlines increasingly use the term "eco-anxiety" to describe a generalized fear of environmental doom. UNICEF USA surveyed over 3,016 to 24-year-olds across 15 countries and found that more than half of youth experience eco-anxiety. However, young people aren't letting their anxieties spiral into despair or worse apathy. Instead, threats of climate change drive our resilience, optimism, and our activism. This is Evelyn, the college student who works on this teenage life. The threat of climate change can be terrifying, anxiety-producing, numbing, and has real world effects on communities and loved ones around the world. When I learned about climate change in school, it was stated like a fact from a textbook, with no room to grapple emotionally with this thing that is affecting all of us. If you feel scared, overwhelmed, or powerless, you are certainly not alone. In this episode, the teens discuss the climate crisis. When they first learned about it, how it makes them feel, and actions teens can take. We are also joined by special guest, Anya Kemenets. Anya is a prolific journalist and author. We are so grateful that Anya was able to share her wealth of knowledge with us. To start, we wanted to give the teens some space to talk about the emotional dimensions of the climate crisis. Having fear about the climate crisis, it's really scary, and I oftentimes try to kind of push in the back of my brain, just because if you truly think about it, at sometimes it can feel kind of like, well, you can't do anything. There's scientists, there's experts, there's activists, there's people willing to put in the work, and as a young person, sometimes it can feel like, what can I do? It's not like I'm a big CEO of an oil company, and you know what? I don't think extracting oil from the earth is a great idea. I don't have that voice, so I'm just like, well, I can do what I can, but I don't know what to do. I don't meant to be a Debbie Downer. Sorry, but what we're scared of is already here. How I do with it is that I try to think of all the amazing people on the earth that I still do and things. It's not over. They're still passionate in the work, because the earth is really, truly amazing. It's so one of a kind. And I just don't think we're done protecting her. I was not a huge believer of working towards climate change. I didn't really feel like so passionate about working for climate change, but I'm a Gen Z, obviously, and I have a huge connection with internet. I came across this post. It was about this river. It was a snowy patch of land with a deep red river flowing in the midst of that snowy patch. And then I researched about it, and I found out that the river actually was bad because of the chemicals that have been released into that river. The amount of hurt and rage and concern I felt, and that way it hits me that I have just been so, you know, unaware. There's been multiple occasions in my environmental science class where I feel like I'm going to cry, and I'll just feel this rock start to form in my throat. And my eyes, like, well, of water, and it's very odd because I almost never cried at school. The only times that I have cried at school or like in public is when I get very overwhelmed because when I get overwhelmed, I can't control it. I can't control tears. And I think that's exactly it. It's just like, I learn about different kind of environmental crises every single day, and it's just really overwhelming. Today, for example, I learned about the microplastics that are in my workout gear. Like all of my clothing that's made of athletic material has microplastics, and when I wash it, it lets the microplastics into the water, and it goes into like the lakes and the oceans and then fish eat it. And it just feels like this snowball of fact. And it's like I'm learning of things that I'm doing that I wasn't aware of having such an impact on the environment. Obviously, I face climate change and I do a lot. I feel really horrified each year during the time of like May, June, July, because during that period, where I live in India, there's like cyclones, like each year, there's like huge cyclones coming up, and many, many lives and many properties are lost. Each year, this happens, and each year, the people living in the coastal regions have to gather their things up and go to a rescue center to live there for like five to six days. And the electricity supply, the current half of the time, it will like full shut down until the cyclone will be over. So like that is a really concerning thing. And we all know that it is happening because of the global warming. But obviously the governmental agencies are responsible about it as some kind of way. Like they can prevent the collateral calamities that is happening of course, but they should be taking some minimum steps to prevent it. I live in a country where I'm not on the front lines, you know, it's the UK. We're doing quite well for ourselves over here. But that's kind of very much the problem because I'll be sitting here in my room thinking everything's fine. But then when I go to visit my family into Africa or in Zimbabwe, it would be like, whoa, the crops or the fruits that used to be ripe around this time of year, they're not ripe. We have to wait like another season, the rain seasons are coming shorter and heavier. And it feels like whilst I'm here in the UK living my life going about my things, seeing no real change whenever I go back for holidays, it feels like everything's changed. And it's quite scary how like even though I'm not on the front lines over here, the whole world is moving along differently. And it's honestly a terrifying because it feels like what if one day come back and this nearly, you know, nothing left and it's just, you know, rainstorms off the rainstorms and then droughts off the droughts because no one talks about it as much here because you all have these all, like, you know, these are the first world problems where we're worried about other things at the front of our minds. And we see it on the news, but it's so diluted and you get so desensitized to it. And I don't know, I guess that's my fear becoming so desensitized whilst I'm living in a good place whilst maybe my family and people there used to be friends with are suffering across an ocean and different continent. Climate change can evoke a feeling of powerlessness, especially for those two young devotee who feel like no one is listening. It can be hard to know where each of us fit into this crisis and how we can leverage the little we have to take action. A lot of my anxiety just comes from like not knowing things, we're not being able to control things. With climate change, it's like no matter how many therapists you go to or like scientists even or your family, like no one can actually tell you the actual outcome. The loss of ecological life is really hard because I don't really think that humans are like the most important thing on this planet because look what we've done, we've kind of ruined everything. So I think that like for me, it's also hard the fact that like we are creating so many problems for other species. I kind of go for a strolls and I see like these plants have been covered with dust. I know this is such a small example, such a stupid example maybe for a lot of people, but there's so much dust that settles on these plants and all the dust that comes from these industries and these are like small impacts. Such more huge and more devastating impacts have been taking on nature that we are just so much unaware of and I feel like our society needs to work for it. So I became vegetarian when I was in fifth grade. I think when I became vegetarian it came from this very sort of innocent perspective of just wanting to do what I could to make the animals feel better, I think, was where my mind was at at that time of my life. As I've got an older, I've started to understand more of the complexities that exist around living an environmental lifestyle because it's not accessible or really ironically sustainable for a lot of people especially people who don't have the luxury of spending as much money on food or clothing can't buy organically grown like plants or organically raised animals or any of that kind of thing. I think it's a dimension of trying to be climate aware that I wasn't really aware of before is that I think trying to live an environmentally conscious lifestyle is a luxury that not everyone has the capacity to do. The first time I actually realized how severe the impact of climate change was when I did an M.U.N. Ironically I realized that I was speaking about ways to reduce the harmful impact when I was guilty of doing the same. According to NASA humans have caused major climate changes to happen already and we have certain motion more changes still. However if we stopped admitting greenhouse gases today the rise in global temperatures would begin to flatten within a few years. Temperatures would then plateau but remain well elevated for many many centuries. There is a time lag between what we do and when we feel it. It's difficult because obviously you know there are smaller ways to go about it you know doing your basic recycling, doing your basic choosing cleaner forms of transport when you can you know not traveling as much with less clean forms of travel because at the end of the day you can only do so much recycling on your own so much cycling on your own so much you know individual things but that's not going to change the big projects that are currently in motion that are going to do rail the net zero objectives because it is those big projects those institutions those entities those corporations that I think are the most effort to blame for rather than individuals who are increasingly increasingly educated about the problems and issues. Understanding that you're only an individual part of this wider branching mechanism that controls climate change recognizing that you're just a cog in that you can only do so much I think it just just helps to keep things in perspective and to recognize who is the most at fault or the most responsible or the most capable really of changing things. Some of us grew up learning about the climate crisis in school or from family members or the news others are still educating themselves and navigating this ever-changing landscape. Here is journalist Anya Kaminets on how she turned her climate grief into action and pivoted to become a climate reporter. I didn't start my work life being very driven by my emotions other than maybe outrage so I was really like very intellectually driven and I was looking at ideas and topics and stories and I wrote about things like student loan debt and what's happening with the economy. What really broke open for me was thinking about in my private life dealing with climate change and so for the first big one would definitely be Hurricane Katrina and that happened when I was like just turned 25. That was terrifying I mean that was like seeing you know the home that I lived in when I went to school and my friends childhood homes and all these places that I'd loved you know just destroyed laid bear and started on my emotional journey with climate change. Taking action to stop climate change can feel exciting and fulfilling but it can also be confusing or draining I find myself asking is this the best thing for me to do? Is this even making an impact? I start to feel defeated maybe I should just let people in power deal with it. How can I take effective action when I'm overwhelmed by such heavy grief for what's being done to the planet? On you provided some great advice for sustainable and effective ways to get involved as well as the importance of self-care in this process. The teens also share how they are taking action and their hopes for the future. When major thing I would say and this is a Bill McKibbin line when people say like how can I as an individual make a difference? He says we'll stop being an individual. Even if it's something like going vegan it's like well it's one thing to go vegan it's another thing to ask your school to have a vegan meal or even sort of vegan food at a party because then it's like a group thing and it's bigger than just one person. That was a huge learning for me because I am a writer I like to be in my room by myself reading books with headphones on. There is an approach to action that's in your sweet spot and you just have to kind of find it. First of all taking action on climate change very very important right but we're not going to fix it right and your your thing that you do is not going to fix it and it's not it's not your responsibility to fix it. You cannot do this by yourselves right so a lot of what we do is also internal work to reframe like your despair is not proof that the worst outcome is happening for sure. It's a feeling that you're having and it's a thought bridge that you're having but you have to also understand that the uncertainty also includes a possibility of good things happening and things you never been realized and in the time the short time that I've been involved in climate activism I've seen things improve to a huge extent especially in people's awareness that I help me understand that we are tilting things. By advocating for awareness around the climate or advocating for certain bills to be passed that will support less greenhouse gases going into the air and using West single plastics this is all really good for the here and the now and in kind of lessening the impact that we are currently making but if nature had the same kind of respect that faith does like kind of gives you some perspective to your insignificance of the earth and our environment could be treated in that same way in which it has more respect and kind of like humbles us if we see the earth and the environment as a living thing I think we'll start to treat it differently. Still to the state of everyone believes it's real and that's quite shocking given the overwhelming amount of scientific evidence it's easy to become cynical when you see those large institutions that are running this whole machination the best way about it in my opinion is just to see your role as participating in anywhere you can either through voting through speaking out critically and whether that's what you have and making sure that you are supporting brands supporting politicians supporting people that are actually going to do something and I think it helps when I educate myself about the positive things going on around the world that are being done like this pressure gap in the USA our children's trust how they have been helping young people young plaintiffs take their legal case their legal environmental case to their state legislature I follow Instagram accounts that speak out about these environmental concerns such as environmental impact I think sharing those online with your friends are very helpful as well because then you're taking an active sense to educate people getting people young people especially involved in thinking about these issues as legitimate concerns and rather than just seeing news corporations aren't projecting these stories as much as other stories and seeing them as legitimate in and of themselves so I think that's important to you and that's how I can feel bit better because otherwise I'd feel so solutioned by whatever I could do I think if I didn't was able to also try and educate other people very bad things are happening and they're worth being upset about every single day what is your practice of honoring that grief and really making space for it in your life and sharing with people that like cares much as you do climate work in particular it's connected to our love and our belonging to life so the feeling that you have for animals or for plants or for just a special place that you grew up in that is yours and nobody can take that away from you and it's part of being a human being but it's also evidence that you're not just a human being and you're connected to the whole world and so the sense of loss and grief can be turned around into a feeling of love and gratitude that we have it here and we're here now with it sometimes I feel really confident about the climate change this thing being a past it being a history because when I see kids like us taking steps I also feel confident about climate change being a history we need support to take initiative and you know just gather up and let us take some kind of initiative about climate change no one likes teenagers and I again I'm not saying this because I am a teenager but it's true no one really likes teenagers teenagers don't like themselves but they have such sort of radical ideas for the world and how to shape the world which is I think why people don't like them because it means that people have to change I feel like teenagers have a lot of really radical ideas of how to shape the world and that if they were listened to then things maybe would be on a better track thank you for listening to this week's episode of this teenage life if you have any questions episode requests or just want to say hi feel free to reach out to [email protected] that's T-E-A-M at this teenagelife.org or reach out to us on Instagram at this.teenage.life thanks so much and talk to you next week