A majority of kids think the planet is doomed. Here’s how to help reduce their anxiety | Opinion

According to the Clarify Health Institute, mental health inpatient admissions of minors to U.S. hospitals increased by 61% from 2016 to 2021. According to the Center for Disease Control, the number of adolescents experiencing “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” increased from 28 percent to 42 percent over the last ten years, and the number who “seriously considered attempting suicide” increased from 16 percent to 22 percent. The kids are not alright.

There is no single driver of these disturbing trends. The rise of social media, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the failure of society to protect youth from mass shootings and climate change all play a role.

A global study of climate anxiety in 10,000 16-25 year-olds published in Lancet in December 2021 found 59% were very or extremely worried about climate change, 83% felt people have failed to take care of the planet, 56% concluded humanity is doomed, and 39% are hesitant to have children. “Climate anxiety and distress were correlated with perceived inadequate government response and associated feelings of betrayal.”

Some of the climate anxiety could be based on projections of global warming that are now considered unlikely, because some climate solutions (wind and solar power, heat pumps, electric vehicles) have become cheap enough to compete with fossil fuels, the primary driver of climate change. But those climate solutions will not be implemented at the necessary scale if local opposition blocks their implementation.

If you have children, what can you do about their climate anxiety? First, ask them about their feelings about climate change, and listen carefully. You might be surprised by their answers.

Second, if they are indeed frightened about their future, form and execute a Family Climate Preservation Plan to reduce your household carbon emissions. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, there is abundant funding for generous tax credits and rebates on electric vehicles, heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, home weatherization, induction stoves, and solar panels. These investments will substantially reduce both your household carbon emissions and your monthly heating and transportation bills. In addition, embrace bicycles as a convenient, healthy and enjoyable mode of local transportation, and replace at least some of your consumption of beef and lamb (major emitters of methane) with delicious vegetarian or chicken dishes. Reconsider your plans for distant travel. You can cut your family carbon emissions in half while improving your family health and saving money in the process.

I teach climate change solutions to students at several local high schools, using the EnROADS Climate Solutions Simulator. Some of the students have expressed cynical attitudes about climate change, driven by lack of confidence that the adults in their world will take action to preserve the climate for their generation. But when they learn about the many climate solutions available and their potential to reduce future warming from 3-4 degrees C to 2, their attitude about climate change and their own future becomes much more hopeful.

While reducing your family’s carbon footprint is important, more climate action is needed because much of our national carbon emissions is built into how electricity, steel, concrete, and fertilizers and indeed all consumer products are produced. Your representatives in Congress need to hear from you. Tell them you expect effective action on climate change. It won’t take long to say or write that, and once you’ve done it, it’s much easier to repeat it every month.

Finally, to sustain your plan and tap into power and resilience, get involved with Citizens Climate Lobby, which empowers citizens (children as well as adults) to exercise their citizenship by advocating effective national solutions such as Carbon Fee and Dividend, with a Carbon Border Adjustment that drives international reductions in carbon emissions. That climate policy can reduce U.S. carbon emissions more than the Inflation Reduction Act without driving up the federal deficit or depleting the household budget of most families.

Action is the remedy to despair. Your kids will thank you for taking charge of their future, and will feel much better about it. The kids can be alright.

Steven Ghan is a retired climate scientist for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and leader of the Tri-Cities chapter of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby.