6 Ways to Turn Climate Change Anxiety Into Action

Imagine something you love. Then imagine it’s threatened.

That’s what Jada Alexander experienced when she was studying coral reefs in French Polynesia. During her first trip, as a student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, she was captivated. “The coral reef was vibrant. It was beautiful,” she recalls. It was teeming with life, full of crabs and fish.

But on a return trip one year later, much of the reef appeared dead. “It was dull and gray,” she says, which left her feeling hopeless.

Alexander is not alone. Survey data has shown that more than half of young adults have felt anxious, angry, powerless or helpless about human-driven climate change.

“If our young people can’t have hope and engage in climate action, then we’re going to have that much harder of a time bending the curve back,” says Elissa Epel, a renowned stress researcher at UC San Francisco.

So, she and a group of her colleagues developed a new course, called Climate Resilience, which they offered for the first time at several UC campuses last spring. The goal is to turn students’ distress about the climate into collective action. Alexander signed up for the class and became a teaching assistant.

The course offers inspiring lectures from scientists and leaders in the climate movement to introduce a counternarrative to the doom and gloom. Many of us are living in an “information bubble” that can be devastating, Epel says. We’re inundated with negative stories about record heat, hurricanes, floods and wildfires. The challenge is real, but so too are the potential solutions.

And, crucially, the course teaches resilience and coping skills, including mindfulness meditation, to empower students.

“There’s an arc — or a process — for leading people out of these dark inner worlds where they feel alone and separate,” Epel says.

People who feel negative and hopeless are more likely to disengage or walk away.

“The great Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh says the way out is in,” she says. To transcend fear and anger, people need to practice compassion, not only for themselves but for others.

“Students do come in very skeptical,” says Jyoti Mishra, a neuroscientist at UC San Diego and co-director of the course. But by the end of the class, there’s a shift in mindset among many, she says. Once a person feels more positive, it can be easier for them to imagine being part of the solution.

End-of-class surveys were very positive, and the course will be offered at 10 UC campuses next spring.

Students reported an increased sense of belonging and a belief that they could “work with others” on climate change, says Philippe Goldin, a clinical neuroscientist at UC Davis who co-leads the Climate Resilience course.

Students in the course took action: They worked in community gardens dedicated to sustainable agriculture, a waste reduction workshop and a recycling project focused on clothing. Jada Alexander, who has graduated, is now starting an initiative that integrates surfing with environmental stewardship.

Alexander knows the solutions are complex, and she still fears for the planet, but “I think that the class increased my ability to be a part of the solution,” she says.

Epel says the techniques and exercises taught in the class are “universal skills” that can help people manage stress from all sorts of situations. If you want to try, here are some strategies adapted from the course.

1. Slow down with moments of calm

If you want to stay engaged with the world’s problems, you have to start with your own well-being.

When you pause to be present and let go of worries, it’s a chance for a quick reset.

In daily life, you can look for prompts or create new rituals to help you slow down. For instance, if there’s a church, town hall or campus bell that chimes, you can use that as a moment to pause. Or you can set a reminder on your phone to take pauses throughout your day.

“There’s all sorts of cues and signals that can remind us to stop and take a breath,” says Diana Hill, a clinical psychologist who teaches the course at UC Santa Barbara. When we focus on breath we can activate the parasympathetic nervous system — so our body feels more at ease.

If you want to try a longer self-care pause, here’s a nature meditation used in the course from meditation teacher Mark Coleman.

2. Just like me: Stare into the eyes of a stranger

In the class, people are asked to pick a partner, typically someone they don’t know. Then, they’re asked to look into each other’s eyes as they’re led through a guided meditation. “This can be uncomfortable,” Hill says, so it’s OK to close your eyes.

You can use this recording by Jack Kornfield as a guide.

“This person was once a small child just like me. This person has had happy times, just like me,” it begins.

The exercise is intended to help people see how much they have in common with every human, even strangers or people who see the world differently.

“This person has been hurt, just like me. This person has experienced physical pain, just like me. This person wants to be loved, just like me.” 

The meditation ends by asking you to picture your partner’s happy moments and to send them this message: “I know you want to be happy, just like me.”

This practice of seeing that common humanity is pretty powerful, Hill says.

You can also use the Just Like Me exercise with someone you have a difficult relationship with. Even if they’re not sitting opposite you, you can imagine looking at them.

3. Honoring others’ pain: It’s OK to cry

“To be activists for any cause, we need to work together, and that starts by expressing our grief, ” Epel says. The course adapted a practice from Joanna Macy and Molly Brown, called Honoring our Pain, which takes about 15 minutes.

Find a friend to try this with. Take turns voicing your concerns. Begin with this prompt: “What concerns me most about the world and society today is….” As one person speaks, the other listens.

People think no one wants to hear any thoughts of gloom or grief, Epel says. “But we need to talk about it. We need to process these very heavy emotions of sorrow.”

And here’s an important takeaway: Listening is a gift. “The quality with which we really listen and offer our attention to others is an act of compassion,” Goldin says.

During these conversations, “you begin to experience a sense of trust in experiencing your own emotions, sitting with your own emotions and the emotions of others,” he says.

If you do this repeatedly, you really begin to understand what is possible in trusting and being with another person. “It’s very powerful,” Goldin says.

4. Joy spreads, and so do grumbles

Partners again! This takes about 10 minutes, with each person talking about half the time. For two minutes, you get to complain. It can be a stream of consciousness gripe session — everything that annoys you, anything that’s wrong!

Notice how it feels to let it all out. Now it’s time to flip the script.

For the next two minutes, talk about things that bring you joy. What is bringing you happiness today? What are you grateful for at this moment? A recent study found that people who are taught to practice gratitude have better mental health and fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression.

“I very distinctly remember this exercise,” says Alexander. When people complained, the negative energy spread really quickly. Then there was a distinct shift when they switched to gratitude. “People were laughing, people were smiling, and it created such a vibrant energy throughout the room, “ she says.

5. Write a love letter to the Earth

Take a short walk outside — five or 10 minutes should do it — or just sit quietly in a favorite outdoor spot. Think of it as a mini nature retreat to connect with the natural world. When you feel relaxed, you can start to write down some thoughts and compose a letter. Here are some potential prompt questions borrowed from the class.

What has your experience been like in nature? Have you felt love?

Epel says letting yourself feel love and gratitude for the Earth can elicit strong emotions, so let go and fall into the stillness. You can check out Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh’s love letters to the Earth to help you get started.

6. Letter to your future self

Writing a letter to your future self is a “perspective taking” practice, says Hill. It’s a way to step away from your current struggles or stressors and shift the focus to all your potential opportunities.

Start by imagining yourself at some date in the future, be it one year from now or even 20 years down the road. What is it that you hope for yourself? Where do you want to be? What kind of hurdles have you overcome?

Maybe you can see a future where the climate crisis is being solved, where you’re working with others on solutions to specific problems. Once you have that kind of future in mind, you could start thinking about some specific goals — and steps to take — to get there. “It can be quite motivating,” Hill says.

Another option is to write a letter to your future self about what happens if you don’t engage in helping solve the problem. “If you bring awareness to the pain or the discomfort of what could happen if you didn’t do anything, that can be a motivating force too,” Hill says.

Stress Less editors are Carmel Wroth and Jane Greenhalgh.