The facilitator, Toronto-based Kady Cowan, opened the conversation by prompting others to acknowledge any climate change-related concerns weighing on their minds. Worrying her, Cowan said in her soothing voice, were the unprecedented"zombie fires" burning in British Columbia that feed on peat and woody tree roots over the winter and re-emerge in the spring.
At that session in early May, several people in the group expressed a sense of relief at being able to open up with like-minded peers. That's important, said Cowan.The impetus for the group came out of the"huge disconnect" Cowan said she felt between what scientists had to say about climate change and the inaction it was met with by decision makers.
Climate anxiety is a piece of that larger public health challenge. It often refers to the heightened distress a person feels about the impending threat of climate change. Those fears may be rooted in a direct experience with extreme weather or exposure to climate change messages. "That's where the mental health crisis comes in, because I'm feeling this way and being told I can't feel this way, but I can't change that hopelessness either and then you get stuck."
"Something that makes them feel like they do have a sense of agency," said Palmer-Fluevog, the executive director at the Mental Health and Climate Change Alliance. Researchers out of Lakehead University conducted a survey of people between ages of 16 and 25 across Canada and found four in 10 reported that their feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily functioning.
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