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Thinking about climate change is enough to make anyone anxious.
But for young people today, the future can feel especially bleak. Many are keenly aware of the environmental challenges facing our planet, and the anxiety young people experience over the looming crisis is rooted in a powerful and increasingly common fear: climate distress.
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In fact, across North America, climate change-induced angst among youth is helping to fuel growing mental health instability, according to Generation Distress, a cross-border investigation involving Canada’s National Observer, the Investigative Journalism Bureau, the Toronto Star and NBC News.
“Anxiety for me is when I’m sitting doing my schoolwork and feeling like it is useless because I might not have a future to work towards," says MacKenzie Harris, a University of Guelph graduate student who heads up a group called Climate Justice Guelph.
“Your heart races. Your vision can blur. Your throat gets caught. And you get very flushed and you just can’t focus on what you’re doing because it doesn’t feel productive.”
Read about how climate anxiety is impacting youth mental health, why South Asian Canadians are supporting farmers' protests in India, the latest on COVID-19 and more in today's top stories:
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