Solutions Journalism: Climate Anxiety

‘THERE’S ALWAYS HOPE’ Seeking Solutions to Youth Climate Anxiety

In spring of 2023, the Solutions Journalism Network put out a call for college newsrooms to spend a year reporting on mental health challenges facing young people in and around college communities. The organization selected Pepperdine as one of the eight programs, out of 40, for this school year’s Student Media Challenge. Pepperdine’s group chose to focus on climate anxiety.

Climate anxiety is defined by Harvard Medical School as distress related to worries about the effects, or possible effects, of climate change. The effects of climate anxiety can result in increased levels of stress, anxiety, depression, substance abuse and PTSD, according to the American Psychological Association in 2021. Young people, in particular, are vulnerable to the negative psychological effects of climate anxiety, according to a

2022 article published in Ed Week.

Pepperdine University is located along the Southern California coast in Malibu, and is already experiencing the alarming effects of climate change: coastal erosion, wildfires, drought, flooding and mudslides. Pacific Coast Highway— a main highway that provides primary access to Malibu and Pepperdine—is threatened by rising sea levels compromising its long-term future. And in 2018 the Woolsey Fire—one of the most destructive wildfires in California history—destroyed more than 400 single-family homes in the city and surrounded the Pepperdine campus as students sheltered in place on campus. This is all during a historic drought and, then, historic rainfall that has resulted in extreme flooding.

This project explores Malibu’s geographic

length of 21 miles positioned between the coast and the Santa Monica Mountains and the urgent climate challenges that affect the mental health of those around it, especially young people.

About the cover:

The image, from January 2019, shows the scorched hillside over PCH in Malibu following the Woolsey Fire. The wildfire burned through Malibu and the surrounding areas in November 2018.

Photo by: Milan Loiacano

LETTER FROM THE TEAM

At the beginning of the fall 2023 semester, a group of six students set out to report on the topic of youth climate anxiety in partnership with the Solutions Journalism Network. This group includes six Journalism students and each of us is part of at least one of our student newsrooms: the Graphic and NewsWaves 32.

This project was selected by the Solutions Journalism Network as part of their Student Media Challenge. This year, the Student Media Challenge funded each group with $10,000 to use for reporting on the topic of young people and mental health. Our program is examining climate anxiety. Other groups are reporting on mental health and gun violence (The Daily Tar Heel at the University of North Carolina) and mental health and the Latinx community (Dimelo magazine at USC).

Solutions Journalism is a reporting approach that focuses on more than just exposing a problem. It looks into how people have responded to the same — or a similar — problem

solutions-based journalism in several classes. Because as student journalists, we live within the communities we cover, we have time to dive deep into these solutions and understand how they can fit both the Pepperdine and Malibu communities we live and study in.

We understood from the start of this project, however, this problem would be different. Anxiety is a mental health condition and goes well beyond a policy or government response. Our warming climate will not be going away any time soon, and as long as climate change exists, so will people’s anxiety.

As the academic year and project continued, our group got a front-row seat to our changing climate and our communities’ anxiety over it in action.

In the fall, Southern California had its first-ever tropical storm watch, according to Climate.gov. In the spring semester, the local area experienced weeks of landslides — closing

Even now there are more road closures and delays in reaching our campus than there were when many of us began our education here, as routes remain closed due to slides. Malibu Canyon Road that passes next to our University is sometimes closed for days at a time in advance of rain.

As we reported over the course of this year, we found responses to youth and climate anxiety focused on religious and spiritual responses, activism, and clinical therapeutic responses.

This work serves as a reminder that journalism is more important than ever. As young journalists, we will be covering the consequences of climate change — but this project has taught us the importance of following up with solutions.

This group hopes that this work can inspire young people who are experiencing climate anxiety to search for the solutions that best fit them, and above all, feel encouraged to discover community and know that they are not alone.

CONTENTS

6-9

‘Impending Doom’: Explaining climate anxiety from youth perspective

10-13

‘A scary thought’: Community members wrestle with climate stress

14-17

Psychologists point to discussion and mindfulness to manage climate anxiety

CONTENTS

18-19 20-23

Climate activism helps youth cope with climate anxiety

Planted trees: Religion grows solutions to youth climate anxiety

‘ IMPENDI N

NGDOOM’:

A WARMING PLANET

Written by Abby Wilt & Millie Auchard

Photos by Lucian Himes

Fear. Anxiety. Impending doom. College students at Pepperdine University said they feel these things when they think of the words natural disaster and climate change — leading to a condition scientists call climate anxiety.

Climate anxiety is a heightened emotional distress or worry in response to changes in the climate, according to the National Library of Medicine.

For some young people, climate anxiety guides their day-to-day life, and they said they experience this anxiety based on past weather events and natural disasters they have experienced.

“You just have to live through the storm,” senior Raymund Avenido said. “I can’t really change that and I think it’s pretty terrifying — nature is pretty scary.”

In Malibu, residents have faced a variety of events that could lead to climate anxiety. In 2018, the Woolsey fire swept through Malibu, burning nearly 100,000 acres and 1,500 structures, and evacuating 3,000 people, according to previous Graphic reporting.

More recently, Malibu has experienced severe levels

of rain, closing lanes of PCH and Malibu Canyon, and canceling schools in the area.

Youth Outlook

Young people are facing a climate unlike anything their generation, their parents or their grandparents’ generations have seen before.

In a 2021 Cleveland Clinic survey of students ages 16 to 25, 84% of young people said they were worried about climate change, and 75% said they were frightened for the future because of climate change.

“Climate change is a huge source of stress and anxiety in my life,” college senior Mary Roggleman said.

Especially when considering the future, students said climate change is a significant factor in where to move to and start their careers.

“There’s no safe cities anywhere in the world,” Avenido said. “So I gotta figure out where to live for the rest of my life.”

High school sophomore Aidan Colburn said he used to believe climate change was something that might affect him, but he thought it probably wouldn’t. He has grown up living on Pepperdine’s campus in Malibu in a faculty

housing neighborhood with his siblings and mom, Cindy Colburn, professor of Art History.

“Before, it was a prospect, now it’s becoming more of a reality,” Colburn said.

As the fire started approaching Malibu on the windy November night, he said he and his family packed up their belongings and drove about two hours south to San Clemente — just in time.

Safely staying with family further south, Colburn said he received updates from his neighbors about the status of the fire and the status of his home.

“I just felt really bad about it because it [the fire] was so close to my house,” Colburn said. “I felt like ‘Oh, it could have been me at any given moment.’”

Colburn said the fire stopped 10 to 20 feet short of his house. It was a “twist of fate” that saved his house from burning.

“It [Woolsey] makes it feel like this climate is volatile,” Colburn said.

More recently, Malibu experienced Hurricane Hilary — as a tropical storm that arrived the day before Seaver’s first day of classes, according to previous Graphic reporting.

Students who thought they were attending school in

For more on understanding climate anxiety, scan here

INCREASES ANXIETY

sunny Southern California said the storm came out of nowhere. For first-year Nick Gerding, the storm came as a shock and added extra worry to his move-in process.

In addition, Gerding’s brother was on campus for Woolsey, so he said even before he arrived, natural disasters outside of his control shaped his college experience.

“Every time a Gerding has been on campus, there’s been a natural disaster,” college first-year Nick Gerding said. “I don’t know what our luck is, but it’s not great. That’s always daunting.”

Not only was staying safe a concern for Gerding, but he said he also worried about the roads, buildings and power.

“I worry the infrastructure of California is not built for heavy rains,” Gerding said. “They’ve [Malibu] had heavy rain all year and had severe flash floods. I’m just worried about that.”

Trends in Anxiety

Shuli Lotan, the mental health counseling coordinator for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, said anxiety levels have been on the rise for youth in recent years.

“Climate anxiety is one piece of a bigger anxiety uptick that we’ve seen in students over the past decade or so,” Lotan said. “Both the rates of anxiety and depression have really increased a lot in our youth.”

A 2021 survey of 16 to 25-year-olds found that over half of individuals felt sad, hopeless or anxious when thinking about climate change, according to an article by Nature.

In the early adolescent years, Lotan said most youth

“Climate change is a huge source of stress and anxiety in my life.”

Mary Roggleman, Senior

show signs of anxiety when it comes to interpersonal relationships. Lotan believes climate anxiety is an underlying issue that youth do not vocalize.

In the post-Woolsey Fire world in Malibu, Lotan said youth are grappling with the idea of an “impending doom.” Some youth said they are also feeling helpless.

“There can be kind of a passive acceptance or like a fatalistic view of like, ‘Oh, the world is f*****. I have no power. There’s nothing we can do about it,’” Lotan said.

Activism

While some youth are settling with the idea of an “impending doom,” Lotan said other youth turn to activism to reduce their anxieties. Lotan said the turn toward activism typically occurs in late high school years and into college.

“I’ve seen kids get really interested in bigger social issues and want to affect change, which can be really positive for your mental health,” Lotan said.

Staying involved and educated on climate justice can aid in reducing climate anxiety, Lotan said. Climate justice can help reduce the helplessness some youth are feeling.

“There’s a lot of power that can come from activism,” Lotan said. “So that’s definitely something that I would explore as an option for them to better their mental health. Just feel like they have some say and some voice and changing what’s happening.”

Mom, It’s Not A Phase — It’s Long-Term Climate Change

Written by Marley Penagos, Samantha Torre and Joe Allgood | Photos by Marley Penagos and Lucian Himes (‘23)

The term climate change can mean many things — a political agenda, a fact of life or a signal of impending doom. But for people across all generations, climate change can represent a problem that can only be solved with cooperation — a view that can increase stress.

Community members, ranging from college students to local farmers, all spoke about the ways stress about the impending climate has affected their lives, and how the reactions of those around them to climate change can affect that stress.

“It [climate change] really is a cause of stress, because I really don’t know what’s happening,” Senior Sebastian Griego said. “And climate change is a big worry, and the people in power are all so old, and I feel like they care about it less than me, because I’m so young, and young people have to deal with the consequences of their bad decisions.”

Intergenerational Frustration

Climate change is not just a problem for the youth who have more time to reap the consequences of a warming planet, according to Sci Blog. Rather, middle-aged and elderly people also can feel anxiety about climate change — in proportions similar to their younger counterparts.

Senior Lainey Fenn said for change to happen, there needs to be an understanding across generations.

“Those conversations need to happen more definitely because yes, I think the youth are going to be the ones to fix the issue, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t integrate the voices from the previous generation either,” Fenn said.

For junior Kate Ho, the realization that as an individual she doesn’t have enough power to fix the problem is startling, she said.

“So it’s out of my control, it feels like, and that’s a

scary thought,” Ho said. “Maybe I just have control issues, but that’s a scary thought.”

Ho said her family “is very Republican” and doesn’t acknowledge climate change and that family members do not share the same concerns as her.

“They’re in complete denial, and that’s also scary,” Ho said.

Ho is not the only student to face pushback when bringing the problem to older relatives — senior Mary Rockelman said she tries to talk about climate change with “everyone” she knows who is older than her.

“It’s a consistent source of contention between me and the rest of my family, but it is what it is, and I try my best to deal with it,” Rockelman said.

Because of the seriousness of climate change, Rockelman said it was stressful when people with power weren’t following what Rockelman felt was “correct.”

“Now I’m able to vote, but before, when I wasn’t, it would really stress me out when those who were voting were not really particularly caring about climate change or bills that would protect the environment and prevent climate change,” Rockelman said.

Growing up in a conservative household, Senior Raymond Avenido said his family sees the climate as cycles of “no storm” and then “storm.”

“So they believe it as a hoax, and like it’s just how the world operates, they said, but I feel like it’s getting worse and worse,” Avenido said. “So it’s kind of a hard topic to discuss over the table.”

Global temperatures are on track to reach 1.5 degrees celsius — or 2.7 degrees fahrenheit — above pre-industrial levels by 2030, according to PBS.org.

Change is happening quickly and “modern humans have never before seen the observed changes in our global climate, and some of these changes are irreversible over the next hundreds to thousands of years,” according to NASA.

For other students, parents do not offer the biggest

pushback, such as Sophomore Relena Pattison who said her biggest struggle is with her grandparents, but has a positive reception from her parents.

“I’ve always been pretty vocal about my stresses and worries of the environment and being more eco-friendly and things like that, and I have had little resistance with family members,” Pattison said.

Griego said the fact that his parents most likely will not live as long as he will means they care about climate change less than he does.

“And so the issue is, they [Griego’s parents] understand the issue, and they usually understand that it’s kind of a problem, but they have a hard time seeing how it affects them, and why it’s a hard thing for them,” Griego said.

This means the younger generation must do what they can, which is difficult, Griego said.

“Because older people tend to be more important people, if they’re not doing anything about it, then it’s hard for us to do anything about it as young people,” Griego said.

Junior Lucas Lorimer said that while the topic of climate change is controversial, not every conversation he has is argumentative.

“You bring up climate change, it’s very political nowadays, right?” Lorimer said. “You bring up climate change, you instantly get maybe, like, a frown or something like that. But I’ve had some good conversations with, like, my own family and my own parents about it.”

Change in Plans

For students, climate change has not just caused frustration, but also a change in plans. Avenido said he wants to retire in his home country of the Philippines but climate change has caused him to reevaluate his plans.

Lorimer said he struggles with the question of whether it is “morally permissible” to have children in the

changing climate. His answer is not yet definitive. “My answer right now would be, in my view, it would seem like the morally impermissible thing to do would be to go on having kids,” Lorimer said. “But I’m looking for arguments that would tell me otherwise.”

Senior Tess Bridgesmith said she is from Westlake California, and has experienced weather events such as severe wind and fire — she had to evacuate because of the 2018 Woosley fire. When hearing climate change she thinks of more frequent and more severe natural disasters.

Bridgesmith said her parents are interested and willing to have open conversations about climate change. “It’s just frustrating and alarming,” Bridgesmith said. “Like when I heard this summer about Phoenix and places in Arizona having the hottest temperatures and the road melting, it’s kind of what can I do personally and it feels out of reach for me on an individual level which is frustrating.”

The fact that it feels hard for individuals to enact change is part of the frustration, Bridgesmith said. “Using sustainable cups and straws and stuff for me isn’t giving an impact to the environment that I originally

[celebrities], even if I’m trying to make a difference if they’re not changing it’s not going to make much of an impact,” Bridgesmith said.

Going forward, knowing that climate change will affect people who cannot afford to move away from at-risk areas is “disheartening,” Bridgesmith said.

Climate change has caused Bridgesmith to think differently about her future, she said.

“Will there be enough resources for everyone?” Bridgesmith said. “If I have kids will they be set up in a world that is going to sustain them?”

A Farmer’s Perspective

Gene Etheridge is the owner of Etheridge Organics from Dinuba, California — a farm south of Fresno specializing in organic fruit — and is part of the Healthier Generation committee, which recommends policy changes nationally, with the hope of creating healthier communities, according to good life organics.

Etheridge was born in 1947, before the 50s fast-food scene really began, he said. Twenty years later Ethridge got married and bought a small 1.62 acre farm with the

said. “And when you farm, you have no control.”

For example, Etheridge said, when growing fruit trees it is important to gauge the trees needs and adjust from there — not adjust the trees to fit the farmer’s needs.

“I knew as a person in farming, I had to change,” Etheridge said. “I cannot repeat—If I do the same thing and it dies the first time, it will probably die the second time and the third and the fourth and all that craziness.”

For established farmers climate change threatens livelihoods, which must constantly adjust to varying temperatures and weather conditions, especially in California — the most productive agricultural state in the nation, according to the USDA.

Mike Cisneros has worked in sales for Living Water Farms for four years. Every Sunday, Cisneros and his coworkers drive fresh produce and raw honey from the farm in Delano to the Malibu Farmers’ Market.

This year, Cisneros said, the farm lost two full hives of their bees due to cold weather and experienced a significant decrease in their crop yield due to last spring’s torrential rains and this summer’s heat waves.

“[The heat] has affected a lot,” Cisneros said. “It burned a lot of the watermelon, it burned a lot of the

Mushrooms sold by Living Water Farms at Malibu Farmers Market.

planted early, it killed all of those too. It affected a lot of plants.”

In Ethridge’s life, he said he saw the environment change in multiple ways — for the worse and for the better.

“I don’t know all the answers,” Etheridge said. “I just know that I’ve seen a lot change”

In the past 20 years, Etheridge said he has seen species from his area such as the roundtail fox disappear.

“How are we going to work on that?” Etheridge asked. “We’re getting better at it. We’re not good enough. We’re running out of time.”

Another example is water, Etheridge said. When he began farming, he could find water nine feet deep in the ground —now, almost 60 years later, it can be as deep as 150 feet from the surface.

“I’m not sure if I’m stressed, I’m not sure if I can say it right, but it makes me kind of mad,” Etheridge said. “I’ve been on this earth 76 years. So I’ve seen a lot of change.”

For Cisneros, he said this is the first year he has seen such a drastic change in the production of fruits and vegetables on Living Waters’ farm. He estimated that the farm is producing about half as much fruit as usual.

“Actually, all of the other years we had good production,” he said. “This is the first year that we have just had so much water.

Like Etheridge, Cicneros said Living Water isn’t extremely concerned, but they are worried about flooding with unpredictable rain patterns.

Living Water has a greenhouse for delicate fruits — tomatoes for example — for the winter, but Cicneros said there is not much the farm can do to prepare for extreme weather conditions.

In the meantime, he said they are adjusting their planting schedules to try to make up for the fruit they lost to weather.

The loss of crops to weather costs more on both ends; raising prices for the consumer, and creating significantly more work for the farm workers.

Cisneros also said that while Living Water is situated in a shady area where their farmers can work comfortably, many people within the farm community are experiencing weather-related stress working in extreme weather conditions — like high temperatures.

Climate change disproportionately affects day laborers, according to previous Graphic reporting.

Hope for the Future

If people stop caring for nature, Etheridge said these changes would increase in severity, and the pressure to solve the problem, falls on the younger generation.

‘It’s that people don’t make decisions best for the people, they make decisions only what’s best for them and that’s gonna do us all in,” Etheridge said.

Etheridge said solutions are possible, such as when Los Angeles lessened the amount of smog in the air due to emissions.

“I’m not apprehensive about anything,” Etheridge said. “We can do a good job, still. We just need a lot more cooperation with everybody worldwide.”

Etheridge said he sees possible solutions both in terms of cooperation and new technology, such as A.I. For example, Etheridge’s granddaughter suffers from an overload of iron in her body, however, there is research utilizing CRISPR — a technology used in farming — to help heal people with the disease.

While Etheridge’s granddaughter — and the Earth — are not healed yet, Etheridge said he is still hopeful.

“There’s always hope that things will get better,” Etheridge said.

Written

Psychologists Conversations About

by Joe Allgood and Gabrielle Salgado

Photo by Lucian Himes (‘23)

Psychologists Invite About Climate Anxiety

In 2011, when a deadly 9.1 magnitude earthquake and tsunami struck Japan, Dr. Thomas Doherty was in Portland, Wash., watching the events unfold on TV. His 4-year-old daughter asked him “When are one of the floods going to come to Portland?”

Doherty, a psychologist who focuses on the psychological impacts of global climate change, said the question his daughter asked in 2011 was a normal thing for a 4-year-old to ask after a natural disaster.

In the face of escalating climate disasters more and more parents, guardians, educators and physicians are having to address these questions head-on. Rather than shy away from them, Doherty and other mental health professionals said we should have more discussions about climate change and its effect on mental health.

“The challenge is not to always focus on the negative,” Doherty said. “The challenge is to sort of say, ‘OK, how are we thinking about this?’ And let’s think about it in a balanced way, so we don’t sort of perpetuate a myth that it’s always a problem, or it’s always bad.”

Opening Up to Honest Conversations

The field of clinical psychology only began to explore climate change and its possible effects on mental health in the past couple of decades, with psychologists and researchers like Doherty being on the forefront of that shift.

Climate psychology educator and author Leslie Davenport was also an early proponent of deeper study into the phenomenon. As the field of climate psychology is emerging and developing, Davenport advocates for more conversation on the topic, a strategy that can stave off fear and anxiety, which can lead to thoughts of impending doom.

“When we’re fearful, we fill in the gaps sometimes with that worst-case scenario as though all was said and done,” Davenport said.

In classrooms and homes across the country, parents, guardians and educators may be hesitant to address the topic head-on, especially with younger children, to not make it worse. Davenport said he finds this can often do more harm than good.

“Sometimes there’s this sense of like, I don’t want to make it worse, so I’m not gonna say anything,” Davenport said. “There’s this unintentional barrier that gets created.”

More and more psychologists and those in the field of clinical psychology are addressing the problem and tearing down that barrier. Doherty works with mental health providers across the world as they navigate this space.

Doherty has researched responses to the climate crisis within the field of clinical psychology. Doherty’s research has been used by groups such as the SeeChange Institute, an organization that provides mental health resources for healthcare providers, educators and parents.

Doherty’s advice when working with children in natural disasters or who struggle with climate anxiety, focus on the concrete things around them.

“The kid’s world is small, and so they need to be reassured in really basic ways,” Doherty said. “‘Everything’s gonna be fine.’ This is concrete. ‘This is where we’re gonna sleep. This is what we’re gonna eat. This is when we might come back home if we have to evacuate.’”

Davenport also works with small children in therapy spaces and outside of them, she says that for children up to about age 8, a lot of the focus is on encouraging their curiosity about the natural world around them.

“The best thing we can do is just keep them falling in love with the world because they already do that,” Davenport said. “‘How do rainbows work? Let’s plant a seed, there’s this gray squirrel.’”

Creating a Space for Conversation

When Sarah Newman, founder and executive director of the Climate Mental Health network, struggled with intense climate emotions herself, she found few resources were readily available. So she created her organization as a resource for herself and many others like her, especially young people in Gen Z.

“What we’ve really tried to do is just create spaces for young people to be able to connect and learn and grow with each other, and really bring their voices center their voices in this issue,” Newman said. “We know that young people are

more impacted by the mental health impacts of the climate crisis than any other age group.”

The Climate Mental Health Network has a Gen Z advisory board of students who consult on projects as well as host their own, such as climate-centered film festivals, webinars and climate cafes. All of these are spaces where young people can express their feelings and anxieties about climate change, and wrestle with them

Zion Walker is a high school senior from Columbus Ohio who is on this year’s Gen Z advisory board. Walker said that she and her fellow board members are currently working on a film to raise awareness about climate anxiety.

During her time on the board, she has not only helped advise and educate others but has gained hope herself.

It gave me a new hope that people, at least my age, that people are actually doing something. And it’s actually making a tangible change on climate change and climate mental health. So I feel like that was like the biggest thing that so far that I’m getting out of it.”

Newman said the last cohort of students on their Gen Z advisory board saw a marked change in the two and a half years they were involved.

“By the end they were engaging, they were creating their own resources, they were creating their own programs,” Newman said. “They were doing the climate cafes and all these types of things. So it was really just awesome to see their growth in this space, and also just all of the knowledge and skills that they had developed by being part of the Gen Z Cohort, and also just the friendships, the relationships that developed in that group as well.”

Maksim Batuyev is a climate activist who works in the L.A. area organizing climate cafes and was also on the inaugural Gen Z advisory board for the Climate Mental Health Network.

After Batuyev finished his environmental studies degree at Michigan State University in 2020, climate anxiety was still a stressor in his life, which ultimately led him to host climate cafes and work with the Climate Mental Health Network.

Batuyev said he saw how mental health struggles were common but taboo with peers his age, and many of them were worsened by Climate Change. So hosting Climate Cafes were a response to that.

“I think that’s a trend that we see in mental health struggles, in general, that’s just now exacerbated by this sort of very literal end of the world, like a very existential threat that you know we can’t necessarily self-soothe our way through.”

The climate cafe movement began in 2015 and consists of “community led, informal spaces where everyone is welcome to join the conversation and get involved,” according to the Climate Cafe Hub. They are fully confidential and usually involve food or forms of creative expression like art or music.

“So climate cafes are a container to be like, ‘You’re not crazy for feeling this way,” according to the Climate Cafe Hub.”And look at the others around you that are maybe saying the same thing or mirroring some of these things back.’ So you can start to really feel grounded and sort of more accurately or skillfully interface with reality.”

In the cafes that Batuyev facilitates, he emphasizes the fact that they are not focused on action.

“We recognize that activism, protest, advocacy, all of that is so important,” Batuyev said. “And that’s why every single other space we have is focused on those things. This is probably the one space that’s sort of a haven from all of the busyness and all of the activity.”

Pepperdine Graphic Media hosted a climate cafe at Pepperdine on Alumni Park on April 17. The cafe was open to all students and was facilitated by Falon Barton, campus for the University Church of Christ, and Dr. Helen Holmlund, assistant professor of Biology.

“I think it was really meaningful that students who didn’t know each other and didn’t all know the facilitators were willing to and even eager to share experiences with the climate crisis and of nature,” Barton said. “And I think it’s really profound and inspiring to hear how the environment and how the natural world is so meaningful to all of us.”

Exercises and Practices

When looking for ways to ease climate anxiety, keeping the body moving and the mind clear can relieve some of the built up stress.

Davenport is using her 30 years of clinical experience to explore the field of Climate Psychology. Her book “All the Feelings Under the Sun” breaks down the complexities of climate change.

“It’s tricky to not want to take something so complex and big and make it palatable and a way to engage,” Davenport said.

The book, tailored to youth, contains exercises promoting mindfulness and ways to ease anxiety. Davenport advises readers to take their time reading the book and complete the exercises, such as mindful breathing, journaling or artistic expression through crafts.

One of those exercises is called balloon breathing, a concrete way for a child, or anyone of any age, to participate in mindful breathing. It asks the reader to imagine they are

holding a balloon in front of their faces. When breathing, the reader is asked to imagine they are blowing up a balloon.

“Kids are not very abstract thinkers,” Davenport said. “It’s kind of, they know a balloon, what a balloon looks like, you know, so it just kind of adds that ability to relate to it a little more.”

Readers are invited to create a “Making Healthier World Together” journal filled with reflections and writing prompts listed sporadically throughout the book. The “Internal Weather Report” asks readers to give a weather report describing their feelings and analyze for potential “weather patterns.” Examples include feeling hazy, stormy or warm and breezy.

Greater Good in Action, a program created by UC Berkeley’s Science Center to promote social and emotional well-being, said mindful breathing can reduce anxiety and work as a grounding method.

“Mindful breathing in particular is helpful because it gives us an anchor—our breath—on which we can focus when we find ourselves carried away by a stressful thought,”according to Greater Good in Action’s website. “Mindful breathing can also help us stay ‘present’ in the moment, rather than being distracted by regrets in the past or worries about the future.”

Davenport said she sees the children she works with using the exercises she provides in her book. She said the children are able to take the exercises with them and use them in any scenario.

“They start to take it on as their own because they felt the value and it’s charming too because there’s no shame in it,” Davenport said.

Intergenerational Support

According to the Climate Mental Health Network’s website, people are 12 times more likely to take climate action because of their love for future generations than any other issue, and 78% of parents in the United States. are concerned about the impact of climate change on their children. The problem is that only half of that amount of parents have actually talked to their children about it.

Newman said parents and guardians should make it clear to kids that they are aware of the problem, and that it is not up to kids alone to solve the problem, but rather that there is an intergenerational effort to address it.

“They’re stepping into a movement that is filled with many people that are reaching out, extending their arms and welcoming them into it,” Newman said. “It’s not up to young people alone to solve it. There’s many people across all ages through this intergenerational strategy that are working as hard and as quickly as they can to try to address this.”

Davenport also emphasized the importance of addressing the problem outside of the traditional therapeutic space and within larger communities that range in age.

“I’m a big believer that a lot of the therapeutic tools don’t have to live in the therapy setting,” Davenport said. “A lot

can happen in groups and communities and other types of conversations and resources.”

Ultimately, an intergenerational approach provides new perspectives on common feelings of anxiety, and reassurance that there are many others there to help with them.

“There’s a beautiful value in knowledge and wisdom that’s grown through the ages and knowledge and wisdom that comes from a fresh perspective,” Davenport said.

Climate Curriculum

Mainstreaming therapeutic practices and extending climate education to schools is what counselors like Davenport and Newman hope to see in the near future.

Newman said the Climate Mental Health Network is working to launch their resources from kindergarten to high school and get parents involved in the change.

“We want to create more resources for parents and ways for parents to be able to connect with each other,” Newman said.

Davenport also looks to implement practices in schools by promoting Social Emotional Learning and mindfulness. Davenport said she is working with schools to introduce a climate curriculum and hope some of her exercises are used in the classroom.

“These will be seeds that can become models and just spread out to whatever climate curriculum they’re given,” Davenport said.

Davenport said the patients coming to her office asking for help and getting younger and younger. They are worried about their future.

“The youth have the highest distress because they’re living into this future,” Davenport said.

Creating a space for youth who are experiencing climate anxiety is one way to ease their worries. Davenport ends her book with a quote emphasizing the importance of community and working together to remain hopeful in a world that seems doomed.

“It can be helpful to remember that you are joined by many others around the world who share the same passion and will invest their time and creativity into making a healthier world,” Davenport wrote.

There is much more to the conversation than just anxiety, Batuyev said, and all emotions are welcome in that conversation

“We really wanna welcome all of the wide range of emotions that can come,” Batuyev said. “I mean, that’s why we use climate distress instead of climate anxiety, because it’s a lot more than just anxiety. There’s hope, there’s joy, there’s anger, there’s confusion, there’s sadness. There’s fear, there’s overwhelm.”

‘IT IS POSSIBLE’:

Climate Activism Helps Youth Cope With Climate Anxiety

Written by Millie Auchard

Samir Chowdhury, founder and chairman of the Youth Climate Action Team, an international organization dedicated to climate justice, steps into the city of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. He’s a middle-schooler from Washington, D.C., but much of his extended family lives here in this densely populated city.

Chowdhury looks up and the sky is gray. It’s not the kind of gray one sees on a gloomy winter day, rather it’s the kind of gray one sees when pollution puts a city in a chokehold, devouring its fresh air.

At this point, Chowdhury has learned about climate change. He has seen its effects firsthand. The Bay of Bengal swallowed his family’s farms — their livelihoods.

“It was a very grounding moment,” Chowdhury said.

Chowdhury said he lost a “childhood innocence” that day when he stepped into a smog-filled Dhaka. While he didn’t know it then, that moment would inspire Chowdhury to found YCAT in 2021.

Chowdhury deeply relates to the term climate anxiety, described as “negative cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses associated with concerns about climate change,” according to the National Library of Medicine. He said turning to activism helped relieve his anxiety.

“The more I’m involved in climate work, climate activism, the less my climate anxiety impacts me,” Chowdhury said.

“The more I’m involved in climate work... the less my climate anxiety impacts me.”

Samir Chowdhury Founder of YCAT

Chowdhury is now a junior at Stanford University studying management science and engineering.

Chowdhury’s work with YCAT continues to impact young people.

When 16-year-old Hibah Abdellatif, who is also a member of YCAT, thought of climate change, the first word that came to mind was leadership.

People who engage in climate activism experience decreased levels of anxiety, according to a 2020 study on the psychological responses to climate change. Among six youth climate activists with YCAT, five said advocating for climate justice decreased their climate anxiety.

“This [activism] kind of gives people a sense of empowerment and control over a situation, thus decreasing their climate anxiety,” said Tanvi Modugula, 15 year-old Operations Director of YCAT.

Modugula said she joined YCAT to be a part of the change that would bring climate justice. She said she used to have climate anxiety, but not since joining YCAT.

“That [joining YCAT] decreased my climate anxiety

Alyssa-Leigh Alcantara sits at a table in Maricopa, Arizona, fundraising for the Youth Climate Action Team’s climate education division, Dec. 17, 2022. Alcantara is the director of climate extracurricular education with YCAT.

Photo courtesy of Alyssa-Leigh Alcantara

because I feel like I have an opportunity to create change and help people create change as well,” Modugula said.

Aditya Subramanya, 15, said he feels he’s making a difference as YCAT’s podcast editor.

“I feel like I’m doing something and that really means a lot to me,” Subramanya said. “So it’s gotten rid of a lot of my climate anxiety.

Abdellatif said climate anxiety wasn’t something she struggled with before joining YCAT. Rather, she felt a curiosity about climate change. Even so, Abdellatif said knowing there are people taking action toward climate justice offers her comfort.

“I get more nervous in certain situations where I’m not fully aware of what’s happening,” Abdellatif said. Data suggests climate activism decreases climate anxiety. A Current Psychology article from 2022 offers quantitative support through analyses of survey data to other qualitative articles about managing climate anxiety with collective action.

“Engaging in collective action may combat feelings of despair and helplessness and foster feelings of hope,” according to the article’s research.

A 2023 article from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication stated participating in climate action can help relieve climate anxiety for youth and

increase feelings of hopefulness about the state of the climate.

Abdellatif said finding reputable sources on climate change can help people decrease one’s climate anxiety. She said it’s important to find a source that shares just the facts.

“It’s crucial, especially for those who are wanting to get more involved with advocating for climate change, to make sure that you are confident in where you’re getting your information from and that you’re not doubting whether or not this might be perhaps exaggerated or undermined,” Abdellatif said.

In opposition to research and testimonials of his peers, Marco Casteñada, 20 year-old member of YCAT, said learning more about the climate has made him more anxious. In particular, he said there is more the government can do to reverse the effects of climate change.

Casteñada agreed with the idea that ignorance is bliss. Even so, he encourages people struggling with climate anxiety to tell their community to do more.

“If the higher-ups aren’t forcing it to happen, you can have a hand in helping others realize that they need to help change,” Casteñada said.

Alyssa-Leigh Alcantara, 17-year-old director of climate extracurricular education with YCAT, said the news often

reports negatively on climate change. She doesn’t hear about those fighting for climate justice.

“Working in advocacy and climate, environmentalism and stuff like that, it’s helped me realize that there are people who are fighting for change and that it is possible,” Alcantara said.

To those struggling with climate anxiety, Alcantara said to first learn about climate change and then make a difference.

“Doing those park cleanups, they’re really small, but they make you feel like you’re part of something bigger,” Alcantara said.

Tatiana Hlinka, 16 year-old YCAT finance director, found activism as a way to cope with her climate anxiety. Before YCAT, she joined the Environmental Society at her school. The society created an action plan to do a waste cleanup in their home state of New Jersey.

“When we came together as a group, it [the anxiety] was better,” Hlinka said.

Subramanya said working with others has been a highlight of his experience with YCAT.

“It’s so much fun to work with other people towards a common cause that you all believe in and it just connects you,” Subramanya said.

Below: Tatiana Hlinka stands by a pond as a part of a cleanup initiative. Hlinka has written an article in Vogue about climate change titled

Above: Marco Casteñada, right, keeps a park clean by picking up trash. Casteñada said learning more about climate change has increased his climate anxiety.

Photo courtesy of Tatiana Hlinka

Photo courtesy of Marco Casteñada

Planting Trees: Religion Cultivates Solutions to Youth Climate Anxiety

Written by Samantha Torre and Marley Penagos | Photos courtesy of Peppperdine University, Blue Theology & Lucian Himes

For the youth of his congregation, a large proportion of climate anxiety stems from the fact that many of his students feel as though they are too young to exact any real change, said Joel Foster, youth and family life minister at the University Church of Christ on Pepperdine’s campus.

The group ranges in age from 10 to 18 and while Foster said they are not questioning the existence of climate anxiety, they are frustrated that the people in power are not doing enough to mitigate the problem. While climate anxiety is not the only anxiety his students face, having somewhere to bring it — such as to youth group — is helpful, Foster said.

“For my students to know that they have an adult in their life that’s not their parents that listens to them and that has got their back no matter what in the way that I believe God has our back no matter what I think is the thing that helps,” Foster said.

In June, Foster said the youth group is spending a week with Blue Theology — an organization that connects with churches to fight climate change, with a focus on ocean stewardship — in Pacific Grove, Calif., about 300 miles north of Malibu.

The group will be talking about endangered species and habitat restoration — relevant to Zuma — and reflecting on plastic pollution, temperature and ocean acidity.

Rooted in the Earth

There is a variety in how different Church of Christ congregations interpret the Bible, Foster said.

“We value communal autonomy and so one Church of Christ can make a decision that’s different from another one, we don’t have a central structure,” Foster said. “So University Church can be eco-friendly, eco-consceince concerned fully with the environment and we don’t have to lose friendship with other denominations.”

The Churches of Christ originated in the early 19th

century in the upper American South, and sought to unite Christians on a common platform with a focus on the Bible, according to Pepperdine’s Center For Faith and Learning. The founders also believed “every Christian should be free to read and understand the Bible” for themself, according to the Center For Faith and Learning’s Church of Christ primer.

Additionally, Foster said the original formation of the Churches of Christ was part of an effort to return to the Bible and members emphasized values such as justice, human flourishing and lifting up those in most need within a community.

“If I value the flourishing of not just my person, neighbors, but also the animal life, the trees, the rocks, the sea, everything in between — that is an interconnected web of beings,” Foster said.

The relationship between people and the Earth are intertwined, Foster said, as people create and cultivate the Earth as it cultivates them in turn.

“The Bible starts and ends in a garden,” Foster said. Instead of “escaping someday to some unknown Heaven place,” Foster said he believes people will become connected to the Earth, as their descendants continue caring for it.

“A healthy spirituality is one that is rooted in the Earth,” Foster said. “And Jesus models that as well.”

While members of UCC all have different beliefs, Foster said the staff is committed to being climate-conscious, aware of their footprint and are working with members of the congregation to create an eco-friendly Church.

“I don’t think the Christian story fixes it [anxiety], like snapping the fingers and it’s gone,” Foster said. “But I think what you see is that the story of God through the Christian scriptures shows that God says, I’m on your side, I’m going to suffer with you. So I’m going to feel what you feel.”

All staff members offer pastoral care, Foster said. There is a young adult minister, a youth minister, a children’s minister and a lead minister who focuses on

adults, though they all occasionally swap roles.

“Are you now willing, in that anxiety, to collaborate to work with me so that we can work to a better, more holistic, more beautiful and harmonious next thing, and so the Christian story offers hope, in that God experiences our suffering and anxiety with us,” Foster said.

Climate anxiety is a “significant focus,” Foster said.

“For my youth group students, there is anxiety around it [climate change], but also, the problem seems so big that sometimes there’s apathy,” Foster said.

Blue Theology

Creation Justice Ministries is a national ecumenical organization that works with Christian denominations to “protect, restore and rightly share God’s creation,” Avery Davis Lamb, a Pepperdine alumnus (2016) and co-executive director of Creation Justice Ministries, said.

“Fear is a natural response to what’s going on in our world kind of a natural response to like actually looking with clear eyes to what’s happening, but the antidote to that is is taking action and building community,” Davis Lamb said.

The program Blue Theology is aimed at creating a connection with the ocean through service — there are four locations: Newport Beach, Calif., Pacific Grove, Calif., Texas City, Texas and Arapahoe, N.C.

While there is no age limit to participate, most groups trend toward ages 10 and up. Groups stay at partner congregations or outposts and spend the week sleeping in bunk beds and air-mattresses, going kayaking, on beach cleanups, and other service projects such as nature-based shorelines.

There is also time for theological reflection.

“Engaging with each other and with the leaders about what it means to be a faithful ocean advocate as a Christian, what are our obligations toward caring for the ocean,” Davis Lamb said. “And then engaging in

some creative activities to express that.”

Christian hope acknowledges that things may be bad, but also holds faith and trust in God’s Redeeming Power and encourages humans to act as “agents of active hope,” Davis Lamb said.

“Engaging in real practical actions of hope, of engaging in solutions, building community with each other, and with the Church that they’re at and just falling more deeply in love with God’s creation — we find that those are really positive outlets for people to deal with their climate anxiety,” Davis Lamb said.

The program has been around for 15 years, and is unique in its focus in both children and the ocean as a part of God’s creation.

“We wanted to provide unique opportunities for people who may not have experienced the ocean — especially for kids — for them to have formative experiences where they’re falling in love with the ocean, where they’re understanding how important the ocean is,” Davis Lamb said. “As a crucial part of God’s creation, as a crucial part of the global climate system.”

Anxiety Toward Action

In the past, Foster said UCC has worked with Heal the Bay on beach cleanups and has worked with Tree People in Los Angeles, to plant trees in neighborhoods without.

“One response I’ve heard was, ‘Why do we do this, it’s just gonna be dirty tomorrow,” Foster said.

If his students can utilize their anxiety to propel them toward action, Foster said that will lead to systematic change.

An example is beach clean-ups, where it sometimes feels like there is more trash the next day. Foster said he tries to remind his students that change does not happen overnight.

“You can’t plant a tree, and then you get shade and cleaner oxygen and a good healthy root system tomorrow,” Foster said. “Some of those trees will take 20, 30, 40, 50 years to be the the people above them that are supposed to be taking care of them aren’t.”

And while immediate action is needed, Foster said many of his students cannot vote or pursue other traditional methods of change — but can take care of themselves to prepare the world for future generations.

“They’re kind of like planted trees right now,” Foster said. “And so I’m just trying to get them to see what are you doing to water yourself? What are you doing to plant yourself deeper?”

He and his youth group can do little and big things to hopefully inspire others, Foster said.

“At the end of the day, you can only control yourself,” Foster said. “And so can I be a little more conscious of the packaging of the food that I buy? Can I be a little more conscious of the meat I consume, or any meat at all, right?”

Foster has a lot of hope for the future, but also for today, he said.

“I can’t look at my youth group students and not be excited for what they will do,” Foster said. “And I also hate when people use language that like kids, students, whatever are the church of the world of tomorrow because they are also full, intricate, important. valued members right here, right now.”

Finding Peace in Prayer

Father Matt Murphy of Our Lady of Malibu Catholic Church said there are several principles of Catholic social teaching, which includes caring for God’s creation.

Sitting in the parish conference room, next to a student-made poster stating that the Earth is among the places students see God’s presence, Murphy said the community is called to “care and steward” what is around them.

“[We are called to] Do our best to make sure it lasts a long time,” Murphy said.

While it depends on how people view climate-change — as a natural practice of the Earth or as something manufactured — Murphy said his role as a Catholic pastor is to bring people to faith and prayer, where they can find peace.

“I would call people back to prayer because in relationship with Christ that is where we are going to find peace,” Murphy said.

Foundation in prayer and a trust in God is what can bring calm in “rough waters,” Murphy said.

“Regardless of how you view the climate change discussion, prayer is going to give us that peace,” Murphy said.

A 2009 study found that for participants receiving weekly prayer interventions, the effects of depression and anxiety were greatly reduced — and the effects of prayer lasted for a month after

the last session. However, there was no noticed reduction in cortisol — the stress hormone — levels between the groups receiving prayer and those not.

Faith and science should have a relationship, Murphy said, and while God called for the world to be explored, He also calls for people to have trust in Him

“Not that you’re not trusting in science, but that you’re trusting in a God who has been a provident God for humanity since humanity began,” Murphy said.

In times of anxiety or disorder, Murphy said he turns to prayer. Every morning, he spends an hour down the hall from his room, in conversation with God.

“We’ve had multiple crises in the history of this church since I’ve been here and I always find my peace in Him,” Murphy said.

Making the World Better

Shemesh Farms is a small herb farm in Malibu that is under the Shalom Institute and focuses on providing employment and community to adults with diverse abilities, said Nicky Pitman, director of Shemesh Farms. The employees are called farm fellows.

Shalom Institute and Shemesh farms are committed to sustainability and said they are “zero waste-ish,” because while the farm tries to produce as little waste as possible, there are some things that cannot be avoided, Pitman said.

Shomrei adamah, or the tenant in Judaism that people are the keepers and stewards of the Earth, is incorporated into all work at Shemesh farms, Pitman said.

“We found that working with the earth, and working in the soil, and working hydroponically that we are able to better connect with the natural world,” Pitman said.

The purpose of the farm is the farm fellows, Pitman said. The word Shemesh means sun, and the farm’s tagline is “because the sun shines on all of us,” meaning everyone is welcome.

“One of the beautiful things about working here at the farm is that everyone works at their own pace, their own rhythm, and that bodes well for the connections with the natural world and the rhythm of the seasons,” Pitman said.

A 2022 study found a link between climate

well for the connections with the natural world and the rhythm of the seasons,” Pitman said.

A 2022 study found a link between climate change and extreme weather events in Los Angeles — including megafloods, a consequence of large bouts of rain.

Last winter, Pitman said, rain-affected workers’ ability to get to the farm — and while the rain made the herbs grow, it also affected the schedule Shemesh farms used.

Their original campus, up in the mountains, burned in the Woolsey Fire, though the people and animals living on the farm — including the bees — were rescued.

“Things have been growing back in their own time and their own way, but we have begun to plant, and what we have started with is rosemary and sage and lavender,” Pitman said.

She said she knows the farm manager, members of Shemesh farms and Shalom Institute and she herself suffer from climate anxiety — as do many parents, and volunteers that work with the farm fellows, Pitman said.

Doing their best to “make the world better,” significantly helps mitigate climate anxiety, Pitman said.

“I’m not sure that all of our farm fellows have a feeling or an awareness of climate anxiety but because of the work we do we are all here to make the world a better place and do our part,” Pitman said.

Buddhism

unprecedented time,” Black said.

In its teachings, One Earth Sangha emphasizes individual activism and a following of the Hero’s Journey to go through and come out the other side of anxiety, Black said. To start the journey, the group examines what anxieties they may feel, but are unable to talk about.

“We look at, what am I really feeling here?” Black said. “What might I have been suppressing? And what’s the impact like, what does it really mean that I’m living through these times? And how does that often go unacknowledged?”

The Buddha, Black said, emphasized spiritual community, reproaching a member of his congregation that implied community was only half of spiritual life.

world,” according to the University of San Diego, and can be found in any religious practice.

Members from the group range in age from their 20s to 60s, Opon said.

There are healing meditations once a month, where the monks tap into the group’s energy and send healing energy to the Earth, Opon said. There are also several books people are expected to read as they move through the GCC, detailing rituals and ways to connect more with the Earth. The group uses a practice called sacred reading — similar to Lectio Divina, a method of prayer through reading Scripture — that is open to the public. While Christians would use the Bible, the GCC uses various nature-based or contemplative-based texts. Now, the group is utilizing trees from the Irish tree alphabet to do their meditation around each month.

“And the Buddha,” said Ananda, “Don’t say that, good companionship, good community, good friendship, is the whole of the spiritual life,” Black said. “That’s 100%.”

Tashi Black, assistant director at One Earth Sangha, said his group focuses on helping people get in touch with ecological crises, while also acknowledging other factors in people’s lives that create and exacerbate anxiety.

“There’s a lot of still largely unrealized potential in the teachings of the Buddha, in the various Dharma traditions that have come down over thousands of years since the Buddha lived, that can help ground us in what I feel like a really

Druids Working Together for Healing

Kathleen Opon, abbess of the Gnostic Celtic Church Monastery, said while the GCC does not have a position on climate change, they are called through their commitments to serve the Earth and follow eco-spirituality.

Eco-spirituality “is an approach to faith that celebrates humanity’s connection to the natural

“Every one of them [the monks] mentioned how the contemplative practices, meditation and just being together in a contemplative space, have lessened their anxiety very, very much,” Opon said.

In addition to the 10 monks in the GCC, outside people who attend the meditation have told Opon that it helped their anxiety — in general and in relation to the climate.

“I don’t know how it works, but there’s something about connecting to spirit and calming your mind, calming your body, breathing and we find a special kind of energy that’s generated when we’re together as a group meditating,” Opon said. Prayer — especially group prayer — can help people feel a sense of connection to themselves, each other and a higher power, according to CNN. This sense of connection can combat loneliness, which in turn helps depression and anxiety.

Before a healing meditation, Opon said she puts a notice out on the group’s forum for healing petitions — people submit pets, names of rivers, other natural areas, and trees that are unwell — which the group will then focus on.

“It makes them [people] feel less alone and

helps them to know that their little part, that their doing is multiplied by the rest of the people that are also doing it,” Opon said.

The group also discusses how to have conversations with people who do not believe in climate change, Opon said. There is also a forum for people to ask for advice, although the group is apolitical.

“I insisted on a little bit of leeway in this group, so that people could talk about exactly that kind of stuff because people were coming in really anxious, and they had no place to talk about it, because we’re a non-political group,” Opon said.

“Even if they [members] don’t feel like going out and protesting, or being activists, or whatever they can come and participate in energetic healings and prayer,” Opon said.

This sense of something bigger has helped Opon, she said.

“I don’t feel hopeless,” Opon said.

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