Inside Climate News reports that a 2021 "Eco-anxiety Study (with a sample size of 10,000!) found that about 75 percent of 16-25-year-olds from 10 countries, including the United States, said “the future is frightening,” and 83 percent think "people have failed to take care of the planet.”
Aspen Global Change Institute (AGCI) reported that "the biggest ever stand-alone survey of climate opinion, conducted by the United Nations and the University of Oxford, found "more than half of people globally are more worried about climate this year than they were last year."
This year, the UN Development Programme surveyed 73,000 people in 77 different countries (one of the largest surveys of its kind.) and found that 80 percent of respondents want their governments to do more to act on climate change. 72 percent said they want a swift transition away from fossil fuels. And 56 percent of those surveyed said they think about climate change “daily or weekly.”
So how do our emotions about climate change either motivate us or immobile us to take action?
A June 2024 Research Review by AGCI investigated the effect of four emotions (guilt, anger, hope, and sadness) on support for four different policy types:
Personally costly policies (e.g., a tax on gasoline)
Regulatory policies (e.g., rules to limit pollution from factories or power plants)
Proactive policies (e.g., new investments in solar)
Climate Justice policies (e.g. providing restitution for losses.
They found that:
Feelings of guilt lead people to support personally costly actions.
Feelings of hope about climate change lead people to support proactive climate policies.
Feelings of anger or sadness about climate change lead to more likely to support proactive policies (not climate justice).
Feelings of anger are more likely to support proactive climate policies (not regulatory).
Feelings of fear are more likely to support regulatory, policies because they are a way to protect themselves from harm.
People who feel fear, as compared to the other emotions, are more likely to support all four kinds of policies.
The Aspen Institute’s This Is Planet Ed program "prepares children and young adults to thrive in a changing climate and empowers them with climate knowledge." Their work Supporting Students, "provides resources and technical assistance to community leaders and serves as a place to bring diverse groups of people together to drive equitable climate action." In August 2024 This Is Planet Ed released its Higher Ed Climate Action Plan, which calls for a systemic approach to climate education at the university level.
University of San Diego's Adaptive Mind Project (ADP) research emphasizes community connections and social support as key coping mechanisms for the emotions that accompany traumatic events. Strong social connections can increase psychological resilience to major life changes and traumatic events.
"Various studies imply, that messages about climate threats should be paired with concrete guidance for how acting with others can prevent great harm. Though the threat is great, solving this existential climate crisis is entirely possible, and informed communications is critical to motivating action." ~ Sarah Spengeman, PhD
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