It’s not easy being green
Captain Paul Watson announced his retirement from Sea Shepherd, an organization which he founded, along with his role as co-founder of Greenpeace. In his retirement statement, Watson said he was marginalized by the organization he founded, forced out as Sea Shepherd pivots from a controversial organization to a more research-focused mission. Watson’s message was a letter of resignation, not just from an organization he created, but in the emotional sense of fighting 45 years for marine conservation, and yet overfishing continues, and the marine environment faces an existential threat from climate change.
There are strong points of view on the role and actions of Sea Shepherd, which won’t be debated here. This article is focused on the emotional toll of long-term environmental efforts and climate stress only.
Climate Stress is unique for each generation
According to a Blue Cross Blue Shield poll, 75 percent of Gen Z youth, those born after 1997, stated they experienced stress, anxiety, and feeling overwhelmed by reading, seeing, or hearing news about climate change. Notably, this generation was in grade school while their parents stressed over the 2007 economic crisis. This generation also witnessed the war in Afghanistan which endured for most of their existence, the 2016 election was the first they voted in, and a global pandemic that took away some of the best years, milestones, and experiences of their youth. Just as they graduate college, if they could afford college, we have Russia attacking Ukraine, inflation, a challenged democracy, and less than 10 years to stave off the worst of climate change. It’s a heavy burden to inherit.
For Gen X and older (who are not in denial), the doom scroll of headlines of today includes identical news items to ones from thirty years ago. Some of the headlines have a crueler twist: we almost prevented our current climate predicament, coming within just a few signatures of a binding, global framework to reduce carbon emissions in 1989. The biggest shift in the past few decades is not resolution of the issues, but the increased abundance of headlines.
Scientists and Climate Stress
It’s not just activists and youth feeling the emotional toll. Scientists and researchers in the climate field are burning out, according to an article five climate science professionals published on Eos. The authors said they felt helplessness, despair, fear, and anger in the process of informing policymakers, decision makers, and the public on climate change, especially if the information was ignored, misinterpreted, misused, or met with ongoing inaction.
In 2022, Peter Kalmus, a climate scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, protested the funding of fossil fuels by gluing himself to the front door of a Chase Bank building in Los Angeles. Kalmus was just one of over 1000 scientists from 25 countries who crossed the line of objectivity to activism.
Don’t Give Up
Avoiding issues that cause anxiety can increase anxiety. A better approach can be learning to balance avoidance and action. Tactics for finding balance include:
- Acknowledge others’ climate anxiety is real, especially for younger people.
2. Don’t feed the trolls. Each of us has a finite amount of energy that we can use for positive action or lose to energy vampires and negativity. Conserve and protect emotional resources as well as environmental resources.
3. Read less. Do more. Focus on steps you can take for example reducing your climate footprint, buying local food, supporting climate justice efforts, or joining a local chapter of an environmental group.
4. Remember the why. Go hiking, get outdoors, recharge. Laugh with friends and loved ones.
5. Choose deep education from reliable sources and connection over doom scrolling. Consider taking a collaborative course to build your critical thinking and science knowledge while connecting with others, in-person or online. Here are a few online options:
United Nations System Staff College offers climate courses and interaction with global attendees to build perspective and hope.
EdX.org and other resources have environmental studies courses and teaching materials for free.
NOAA has a book club. NASA has educational content.
6. Thank a scientist. Many get hate mail and threats. Maybe save the hugs, though.
