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Whether it's from a catastrophic storm, a brutal heat wave, or dying coral reefs, we're all dealing with the effects of climate change. All that stress and sadness can lead to climate anxiety (aka eco-anxiety).

If you've felt anxious about the state of our climate, you're not alone. In our first-ever Community Voices episode of Second Nature, we're focusing all on you, our listeners, to hear various ways to cope with climate anxiety through nature, community, and gratitude.

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If you're looking for more resources to help with climate anxiety, we highly recommend this list from the team at All We Can Save.

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Here are some of the people you'll hear from in this episode:

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Episode Credits

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• Listener contributions: Adyasha, Artie Sadahiro, Camille, Liv, Natalie Pullen, Nick Blocha, Savannah Vize
• Editing and engineer: Evan Goodchild‍
• Hosting and production: Katelan Cunningham

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Full Episode Transcript

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Katelan (00:00):

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Hello, hello and welcome back to Second Nature, a podcast from Commons. If you're the kind of person who wonders about the carbon impact of every single choice that you make, the Commons app might help you out. Thousands of people use the Commons app to track their real-time carbon footprint, learn how to live more sustainably and earn rewards when they do. On this show, we talk to people about how they're living sustainably in an unsustainable world.

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Katelan (00:28):

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This is a community rooted show and since we started this whole thing like five months ago, we've gotten audio submissions from about 100 people from around the world, from the Netherlands to New York, from Portugal to Pennsylvania. So many people have given us a peek into their sustainable lives. I am so grateful. I have laughed, I've cried. I've felt like I'm right there with you in your gardens and at your dinner tables. And the only problem is we can't fit everyone's stories into these episodes. So today we're trying something a little different. I'm your host, Kaitlyn Cunningham, and this is our first ever Community Voices episode of Second Nature. If you keep up with the climate news or participate in some form of climate action, you've probably experienced some amount of climate anxiety. Maybe you felt completely overwhelmed by natural disasters, bad climate news, or just general systemic inaction. Well, you are certainly not alone, but sometimes it can feel like you are. So for our first Community Voices episode, we wanted to share some of our community's experiences with climate anxiety and most importantly get tips on how we're all coping. So without further ado, I'll hand it off to you.

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Liv (01:57):

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Hi, my name is Liv. I'm from Southwestern Colorado. I've had climate anxiety since I was very young. I have this very visceral memory of being on a road trip with a family member and expressing this concern. I was probably 10 when this happened. And we're driving through the desert, right? We're going to California and being told, if you're so worried about this problem, how about I leave you here in the desert so you can return to the earth and we'll see how you like it. I think it's kind of hard to quote unquote get treatment for climate anxiety because there's still a lot of therapists that aren't like really on that level of realizing how bad it is and how scary and how overwhelming it can all be. There are so many concerns and some days it can feel so bad and so hopeless, but at the same time we're here. What a gift. Yeah, what a present from our ancestors that they struggled and strived to help keep us alive and get us to where we are today.

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Adyasha (03:06):

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Hi, I'm <inaudible>, a 21 year young zoology major student climate and mental health activist. I belong from a coastal state in India. That is oa. My works have also led me to become a youth co-creator at UNICEF India. I was also a counselor for a STEM camp where I had to mentor around a hundred girls. When you are in the climate space, there are a lot of news that you hear, some amazing news, some news about progress, but most of the time there are news about natural calamities, the news about policies being stuck and no improvements being made and all these uncertainties. I do find a lot of people around me dealing with climate anxiety, especially as I say, the younger generation and the kids I've worked with to ease my climate anxiety have always said this to myself and people who I see suffering from climate anxiety. If you want to contribute to climate action, it's well and fine, but sometimes it's better to reflect about what capacities you can help in climate action. Focusing on one thematic under climate change also helps because you know where you're focused at and it also helps ease your climate anxiety.

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Natalie (04:23):

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Hi, my name is Natalie Pullen. I am 30 years old and I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Unfortunately, one of the things that really triggers that climate panic is my job. I'm a commercial interior designer. I work mostly on arts and community projects like museums and performing arts centers and the design and construction industry. My industry is responsible for nearly 40% of global carbon emissions each year. My friends are inspiring me to not give up just because climate change feels like this impossible task. Sharing small ways that we're changing our personal choices makes me want to make even more changes and then share those changes with my friends. And we all know that social media can be quite hellish at time, but it's, it's also a way to authentically be in conversation with your community. And I've recently started sharing more info just on my personal Instagram about recycling properly and avoiding plastics and the cleaning products we use in our home and what I've committed to stop buying. And I've had great conversations with a handful of people each time I post about it. So that is teaching me that people want to know what they can do at an individual level.

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Artie (05:36):

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A little bit about me. My name is Artie. I am 20 years old. I'm originally from Seattle, Washington, but I currently live in Baltimore, Maryland. The first memory I have of having climate anxiety would be in 2017. I have this vivid memory of waking up the day, the wildfire smoke spread to Washington state, turning over to the window next to my bed and just seeing yellow clouds and just being like, okay, the world's ending. Alright, fine, <laugh>. Um, but what's helped me, I found, is to do things that are within my control instead of just like spiraling about what isn't. I've been very intentional about my plastic use. I've been starting a bottle brick and working on that, I've been very intentional about where I'm getting my food from. Places where it's not the norm for things to just come coated in plastic. Making those choices for myself has like kind of helped me feel better about it. Going out and meeting people who feel the same way, like going to like the community garden and being able to talk to people who have the same passions and also come out of it with some really awesome locally grown produce.

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Nick (06:50):

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My name is Nick Blanca. I'm 26 years old. I currently live near Milford, Iowa. I, like many people, have a decent amount of climate anxiety. I myself got to a pretty bad place when I was living in Los Angeles because I did not have nature around me. Not nearly enough. I had a lot of noise, I had a lot of pollution and many times the best thing I could do was driving out to whatever Angeles National Forest or something and taking a long hike, although I kind of hated that, I needed that extremely long drive. So certainly being out in nature is, is climate anxiety for me. Seeing other people that enjoy this as much as I do and participating in these things like community gardens and working with politicians and with the DNR Fish and Wildlife Services in whatever state I've been in, it gives a lot of ease and reassurance that things are on the way.

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Camille (07:45):

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Hi, my name's Camille Louise. I'm 31. I live in sunny San Diego, California. I'm a park project manager and own my own online landscape design business. I started having climate anxiety. I'd say in middle school one, I was starting to understand them as you know, a middle schooler. And to be honest, we don't talk about it enough. Everyone just has so much to worry about <laugh>, I'm, I'm not finding that the people I'm surrounding myself with talk about it too much. Maybe I should fix that. I started making steps right after college in kind of doing my part, really, which was to study landscape architecture. I was just like, well, I know I'm only one person and I can't, you know, change the world, but maybe I can plant trees and design spaces that are green for people to visit and be healthy and happy, get their nature fixed while also reducing carbon emissions that eases my climate anxiety to be able to leave a legacy with an environmental intention. And, you know, purpose.

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Savannah (08:52):

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Hi, uh, I'm Savannah I am 28. I'm from the uk but I currently live in Helsinki in Finland. I work as a regenerative designer and researcher, and I work here in the field of sustainability transitions, which means that I apply design approaches and creative ways of working to address eco social issues. I started having climate anxiety probably when I was doing my bachelor's degree, but it really started to hit home, uh, when I moved to Finland to do my master's degree, which is in a program called Creative Sustainability at Alto University. It's a fantastic degree, but it, it focuses so much on climate and eco social issues on a really daily basis and engaging with them in a very systems thinking oriented way. So it's great to be able to see the connections between social, environmental, economic issues, but when you're managing them so closely and understanding of the complexity and how interconnected they are, it can be really overwhelming.

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I actually used my thesis as an opportunity to explore this. So I looked into the value of play and playfulness for engaging with environmental issues. So using more of a light touch approach that doesn't cause complete burnout and understanding how we can still be joyful whilst managing these really, really difficult conversations. As with my colleagues, we're exploring ways of imagining more hopeful and realistic futures around the climate. So we're so used to this utopia, dystopia binary that's kind of forced us through the media, both in terms of fiction and then non-fiction news cycles that it's actually really healing and nourishing to imagine the in-between So futures that are hopeful but still are in touch with reality and accepting that the climate is gonna change. It sounds really simple, but being more in tune with the seasons as well and what we eat and the activities that we do. So being outside in nature, I think that helps to nurture a much more regenerative way of living in really everyday interactions. And that helps me feel like I'm more of part of nature rather than separate from it and the issues being kind of layered on top of it. So that I think also helps on more of a personal level.

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Katelan (11:16):

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The next time you find yourself about to fall into a climate doom spiral, you've got some great stuff to come back to here first. If you feel like you're in the dark on climate change, get a flashlight, start learning more about it. Clarity and understanding is often a great path to opportunity and action. I've definitely found this to be true for myself, but on the other hand, if you find yourself overwhelmed with climate news and information, try just seeking out the good stuff or even taking a media break from time to time. I know it's tough, but you can do it. Speaking of taking a break, reconnecting and grounding yourself in nature is a great way to calm your nervous system. And you know it's a good reminder that your nature too, we are all nature and sometimes easing climate anxiety can be as simple as reminding yourself that you're not in it alone. In those moments, try reaching out to a friend or finding local climate groups or even just coming back to this episode. And if you can try seeking professional help from folks who navigate people through climate anxiety all the time. Of course, we've included resources for all these tips in the show notes. A big old thank you to the folks in our community who shared their climate anxiety experiences today. You heard from ...

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If you wanna continue this conversation, please come join us on Instagram at Second Nature Earth. This episode was edited and engineered by Evan Goodchild. It was written and produced by me, Caitlyn Cunningham. Next week, believe it or not, we are kicking off gifting season early before your bombard bombarded with sales, dragging around a mile long gift list and like watching your bank account plummet. We are going to help you set some intention and find some clarity. Sound good? Cool. See you soon.

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Artie (13:20):

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This is really fun. I love getting to talk about this kind of thing. Um, love, Commons, Second Nature, all that good stuff. Yeah.