27/05/2025
The past few weeks I have been out enjoying the glorious sunshine, like a lot of people in the UK imagine. It’s been an unusually dry and warm spring, which makes me a little uneasy… In the back of my mind during one of the bank holiday weekends, while it was an intensely warm temperature I couldn’t help but feel anxious about our planet. Sure, the sun is good for me in many ways and I don’t mean to gripe, but there seems to be an increase in record breaking weather events which concerns me.
I was doing some gardening when I took a break for lunch. Scanning social media and the news, I saw it had been a record breaking temperature for the 1st of May in the UK, there had recently been an earthquake in Istanbul, and flooding in New Zealand and the Canary Islands. I started to notice a mixture of feelings, along with goosebumps as I imagined what people in those parts of the world are going through. I kept scrolling and I came across a news article saying how the infamous orange gremlin (with way too much power) is cutting funding for scientific departments that monitor flood and drought (The guardian, 2025). This seems like disastrously stupid thing to do. That was when I thought “eesh, that’s enough internet for today”.
What the research tells me
A Yougov poll found that “65% of people are worried about climate change, with 25% (one in four) very worried” (Phillips, 2023), how is this worry impacting us? That same poll found that young people between 16-24 years are planning on having less children than they would actually like to, due to climate fears. A worldwide survey that asked 10,000 young people in 2021 found that, over 45% said their feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily life and functioning. Over 50% said they felt sad, angry, powerless, helpless, guilty as well as anxious, (Young People’s Voices on Climate Anxiety, Government Betrayal and Moral Injury: A Global Phenomenon).
How this relates to Counselling
If I had a client who was struggling due to the impacts of climate anxiety, what could help? Some ideas I have for addressing this in sessions are;
- Creating the space for the client to speak openly about their feelings without being met with dismissive statements
- Acknowledging and expressing feelings which busy modern day society & capitalist culture doesn’t allow for (or is actively demonising, e.g. with long prison sentences.)
- Exploring the behavioural impact of climate anxiety e.g. not having children, isolation, not investing in a career, risk taking behaviours, self medication
- Explore ways to actively restore hope, perhaps by connecting to like-minded others
- Balance the intake of doom news with positive – actively seek climate wins
- Recognise what is in our control vs what is not
- Plan time for skill development e.g. learn to be self-sufficient through gardening, food preservation, household maintenance. Or a different kind of learning, e.g. renewable energy.
- Choose an area in nature to maintain, by keeping clean perhaps.
I go back to gardening with a bit more zest and focus, this something that is within my control that has a (albeit small) positive impact on our environment. I think about how I can simultaneously accept the harsh, frightening news from the outside world as it unfolds whilst feeling gratitude and joy in my own world. For me, tackling climate anxiety reminds me of the concept of tragic optimism from Viktor Frankl.
“I speak of a tragic optimism, that is, an optimism in the face of tragedy and in view of the human potential which at its best always allows for:
- (1) turning suffering into a human achievement and accomplishment;
- (2) deriving from guilt the opportunity to change oneself for the better; and
- (3) deriving from life’s transitoriness an incentive to take responsible action.”― Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
If you feel as if climate anxiety is impacting your life, contact me today to find out more about counselling with me.
