Reducing anxiety about climate change

A photograph of Helen Young smiling with a beach in the background — Image caption,
Helen Young, educational consultant

Young people need to learn about climate change, but teachers need to be aware of increasing levels of eco-anxiety too.

By Helen Young, educational consultant

Helen Young is an educational consultant and has provided curriculum advice on content for Bitesize: The Regenerators, a ��ý initiative aiming to inspire children and teenagers to live a greener life and look after our planet.

Eco-anxiety

A recent study in found that almost 60 percent of young people are experiencing eco-anxiety. The study defines eco-anxiety as ‘distress relating to the climate and ecological crises’. There are an increasing number of terms emerging to describe eco-anxiety, such as .

Young people are exposed to a variety of news outlets and can find it difficult to filter out fact from sensationalism. It is important to teach about environmental concerns in a factual manner. This Bitesize guide to climate change for KS3 students is a good starting point for exploring these issues. This gives a student-friendly overview of the:

• natural and enhanced greenhouse effect
• evidence for climate change
• impacts of our warming planet
• mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Students need to be in possession of the facts. However, we must be aware of, and try to manage, the overwhelming fear of environmental catastrophe that many young people experience.

COP 27

The United Nations climate change conference for 2022 in Egypt, also known as COP27, or the Conference of the Parties, will be the 27th event of its kind. The conference marks the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Whilst there is inevitably more work to do, the world has made some progress in understanding and tackling climate change.

Global events inevitably generate news content that filters down to students. There are tips available to support parents and teachers with this, some of which can be found on the ��ý Teach COP27 page. It is important to talk to students who may be feeling anxious about the headlines they see and hear. This can be a fine balance as students must be aware of global issues, whilst also maintaining perspective.

Understanding key terms

A girl with an illustration of the Sun and the Earth behind her — Image caption,
Bitesize: The Regenerators is a ��ý initiative that aims to help school-aged children learn more about sustainability, as well as encouraging families to try something new or do things differently in their daily lives.

Understanding an issue helps to contextualise and rationalise thoughts and feelings around it. Getting to grips with unfamiliar terminology helps students to understand climate change. There are many tried and tested ways to embed key terms, including:

Repetition, or hearing words explained by different people
The Regenerators Green Themes Explained series explains key terms such as Net Zero, Carbon Footprint and Deforestation in a pupil-friendly way. Hearing these words repeated by someone other than a teacher or parent is a good way to help students to understand and remember them.
Using a glossary or word mat
The KS3 climate change guide has a comprehensive glossary of key terms. Some students are reluctant to admit that they don’t understand a word and are therefore unlikely to ask. Word mats provide a constant point of reference during a lesson.
Word games
These could involve matching up key terms, using online flashcards or devising “follow me” activities. Games with incentives or a competitive element can work particularly well.
Dual-coding
This term appears more frequently of late, but is by no means a new idea. Dual-coding involves drawing images to illustrate what different words mean. Students can be more likely to remember words if they associate them with an image. The process of drawing images helps to form memory traces.
Being creative!
This could be writing rhymes and raps, or telling stories with a green theme.

Taking a solution-focused approach

Students feel empowered when they become changemakers. They should be shown how local actions have global effects, and that they can make a positive difference. The Regenerators have lots of ideas for families, such as “hacks to slash energy use” or “ways to be a zero waste hero”. ��ý Bitesize also has a new game, Planet Planners, which allows students to understand complex issues such as climate change and deforestation, and take control.

Looking ahead, students could be encouraged to investigate the types of jobs that lead to environmental change. Short clips featuring Wind Turbine Engineers or Sludge Scientists show that positive change is taking place and that they can be a part of it.