From deadly wildfires to record-breaking storms to life-threatening heat waves, climate change has brought disastrous effects that are profoundly impacting human health and increasing young people’s anxiety about their future. This is especially true for young people from under-resourced and frontline communities of color. And while young people are leading efforts to respond to the climate crisis, as philanthropists, we must play a larger role in supporting them.
The opportunity before us involves catalyzing the development of resources that help young people emotionally navigate the climate crisis. A challenge of this magnitude calls for a groundswell of investment in climate mental health initiatives across philanthropic sectors – private, public, and corporate.
Meaningful field-level change begins when we work as funders across deeply interwoven issues, including mental health, climate change, education, and community resilience building, to seize the opportunity to support communities that need resources to heal, to adapt, and to sustain themselves. Most importantly, we must engage in intergenerational collaboration with young people to deepen the ways we understand the urgent challenges at the intersection of climate change and youth mental health.
The need
Vanessa Villanueva, a 24-year-old climate activist and member of Climate Mental Health Network’s Gen Z advisory board, has felt uncertain about her future for as long as she can remember:
“I was anxious as I watched the world continue to procrastinate on climate action, frustrated that older generations enjoyed luxuries and stability that I knew would become scarcer,” she recalls. “Without realizing it, I stopped envisioning my own future. I suppressed my own grief, and I pushed myself to advocate for actions that could mitigate the worst of the realities we continue to face, gradually pushing me deeper into my grief and keeping me cycling through stages of burnout.”
Vanessa’s story is far from an anomaly. In the wake of yet another record-breaking summer, it’s evident that the climate crisis is profoundly impacting the lives and mental health of young people. They are deeply distressed about the state of our climate – with 75% of youth worldwide reporting the “future is frightening.” Climate-induced natural disasters and climate-caused migration and displacement, heighten the risk of PTSD, anxiety, depression, and substance use among teens and young adults, and extreme heat has been directly linked to increased mental health-related emergency visits among young people.
Youth from under-resourced communities and communities of color are especially impacted. They have greater exposure to carbon-related pollution and extreme weather events, such as heat or flooding, and fewer resources to mitigate these impacts or recover in the long term.
Emerging Research and Solutions
Philanthropic field leaders are starting to grasp these interconnections and beginning to fund initiatives at the intersection of youth mental health and climate. While the need far exceeds current resources, there is a significant role philanthropy can play in bringing positive change to this intersection. The Climate Mental Health Network (CMHN), in collaboration with Hopelab, calls upon funders who have considered the climate-mental health connection to fall outside the scope of their portfolios to reconsider their role in helping young people navigate the emotional consequences of a rapidly warming world.
We encourage funders across sectors to strategize cross-programmatic collaborations that will strengthen their scope and reach, and could result in significantly increasing their impact. We also urge philanthropic organizations already working at this intersection to support their colleagues in navigating the youth climate-mental health landscape, including building structures to pool funding for greater impact.
Fortunately, some funders are already investing in research and programming to support the mental health of young people in the face of the climate crisis. And while their efforts are not exhaustive, they provide important data and resources needed now more than ever.
Research
The Wellcome Trust has been a leader, sponsoring “Connecting Climate Minds” aimed at bringing together researchers, nonprofits, and individuals, including youth with lived experiences, to align climate mental health research and action. Its goal is to make it easier for other funders to act on gaps and opportunities, and to build collaborations. Through their “BlueSky” program, Blue Shield of California has funded a foundational whitepaper by the See Change Institute in partnership with CMHN that highlights promising approaches to improving the climate mental health resilience of young people.
Socioemotional and action-oriented education
Scientifically accurate climate education that recognizes climate change as a social justice issue is essential, yet learning about climate change can cause feelings of anxiety and helplessness. Due to its broad reach, K-12 curricula provide a key opportunity to give students social and emotional resources to navigate the climate crisis. Several organizations are focused on addressing this need, including the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Global, which has funded a project spearheaded by CMHN and the National Environmental Education Foundation to develop an intervention to help middle school teachers and their students process climate emotions. Also vital is an action-oriented curriculum that provides opportunities to mitigate or adapt to climate change. Some notable examples include programs developed by Taking Action Global and Ten Strands .
Socioemotional and action-oriented education
Scientifically accurate climate education that recognizes climate change as a social justice issue is essential, yet learning about climate change can cause feelings of anxiety and helplessness. Due to its broad reach, K-12 curricula provide a key opportunity to give students social and emotional resources to navigate the climate crisis.
Several organizations are focused on addressing this need, including the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Global, which has funded a project spearheaded by CMHN and the National Environmental Education Foundation to develop an intervention to help middle school teachers and their students process climate emotions. Also vital is an action-oriented curriculum that provides opportunities to mitigate or adapt to climate change. Some notable examples include programs developed by Taking Action Global and Ten Strands .
Collaborating with young people to co-design resources
While providing community-based opportunities for meaningful climate action is essential, acting out of fear and anger, overlooking moments of joy, or taking personal responsibility for solving the climate crisis can lead to burnout. To prevent this, it’s critical to have spaces where young people can acknowledge and process difficult emotions related to the climate crisis and activism, and learn how to balance action with self and community care. Individual psychotherapy is inadequate to respond to this need on a mass scale due to its limited capacity and cultural and financial inaccessibility to millions of young people.
The crucial work of building resources to support youth wellbeing in the face of the climate crisis has only just begun, but the need is growing daily. This is the moment to unite across sectors, amplify young voices, and channel resources where they’re needed most. Together, we can foster greater resilience amidst climate challenges. How will you help us build a resilient future for young people?
Emma Bruehlman-Senecal is the Research Lead at Hopelab
Sarah Newman is the Founder & Executive Director at Climate Mental Health Network
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