A scientist from UNSW explains how the climate crisis is affecting the mental health of young people worldwide.
In August 2018, student Greta Thunberg famously stood outside the Swedish Parliament with a sign that read "Skolstrejk för klimatet", which translates to "school strike for climate".
Since then, school students around the world have skipped some Friday classes to participate in demonstrations to demand action from political leaders to prevent climate change and call for the transition to renewable energy.
While the impact of climate change on our physical health - such as respiratory diseases and tropical diseases - has dominated the research landscape, the emotional and psychological repercussions are less understood.
However, as global temperatures continue to rise and climate change increasingly informs public discourse, climate anxiety research has come into focus, and emerging studies have revealed the mounting toll it is taking on young people.
In fact, international reports have found that over 50 per cent of people aged 16-25 felt sad, anxious or powerless, or had other negative emotions about climate change.
In Australia, YouGov polling results from last year found that more than three in four young Australians are concerned about climate change, and two-thirds believe climate concerns are having a negative impact on youth mental health.
"Eco-distress, or eco-anxiety, is not necessarily a new area of research. There's some fascinating older research on how people are affected by degradation to their local environment, for example," says Dr Samantha Stanley, from the UNSW Institute of Climate Risk & Response, whose research includes a focus on the emotional impacts of climate change.
"But as we're entering a climate-changed world, more people are experiencing distress about the environment without necessarily having that first-hand experience of environmental disaster. I think it's an old area that was not very popular and has suddenly exploded.
"While these concerns are not pathological - it's not something to be diagnosed with - it is something that researchers are interested in understanding, to know how it may be affecting people's wellbeing more generally or even potentially motivating them to take part in climate actions like protest."
