Gen Z's climate anxiety is real and needs action -- for everyone's wellbeing
Gen Z's climate anxiety is real and needs action -- for everyone's wellbeing
Young people have major concerns about climate change, which is having a significant impact on their lives and could have broader consequences decades into the future.
Part of managing anxiety is working to make a difference.
I also recommend therapy. If you are in the United States, you can use this tool to find a therapist. See here for Canada.
Don't a lot of issues come back to learned helplessness? I'm in a good place right now, and I do what I can, but I also feel so disenfranchised in the US political system that it all feels completely pointless.
You don’t have to change your system, you must change your surroundings :)
If the system will come along, better. If not, you still kinda improved the life for those around you
I think it's a combination of learned helplessness and an unrealistic expectation of your ability to affect change.
As of July 1st, 2023, there are 334,914,895 million people participating in the US political system, I think it would be a little ridiculous if every one of them could influence our government. Not all the people can vote, but they're still participating in the political system whether they know it or not.
Each of these people have their own ideas, hopes, dreams, ideologies. It takes a long time to sway that much public opinion, even when you aren't fighting disinformation campaigns from powerful corporations and state actors. Keep at it and have realistic expectations about the impact you'll have and how quickly things will change.
Do what you can, live the best life you can, and don't take responsibility for things that aren't your fault.
Edit: corrected the population of the United States because people oddly focused on that part of my comment.
I've got some specific recommendations on how to work the US system
Yes!
I always recommend checking out the following organizations, which are active in many nations:
https://a22network.org/ the a22 network is a overarching network of many national climate movements using civil disobedience.
https://fridaysforfuture.org/ Fridays for future was created after Greta Thunbergs peaceful protests and now has many national networks using mostly peaceful demonstrations.
https://scientistrebellion.org/ scientist rebellion is a worldwide network of scientists using civil disobedience. Again there are many national groups within.
It's weird how this is being approached as if it's just a mental health problem. Decades into the future Gen Z's mental health is going to be the least of their concerns. It's like saying someone who is starving is suffering from anxiety that may have significant long-term consequences. Yeah, their mental health probably isn't great and it's going to get worse, but that's not their primary long-term difficulty.
Its just crisis stalling, first you ignore the problem, then you distract from the cause of the problem, then you try to mitigate the effects of the problem, but of course we don't try to solve the problem cause that would cost rich people money.
Imagine a miserable fish in a gross aquarium, a capitalist would try to feed the fish happy pills instead of cleaning the environment that makes the fish miserable.
Boomers pretend it's not a problem or don't give a shit. Gen-X (my generation) essentially threw up their hands a long time ago. Idk wtf the Millennials are doing. My best, advice, if you're Gen-z and can vote, do so.