Thirteenth International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses

Abstract

Due to both the direct impacts of climate change and as a result of growing up in a discursive space infused with climate anxiety, youth around the world show increasing levels of mental health distress, including generalized feelings of sadness, guilt, changes in sleep and appetite, difficulty concentrating, solastalgia, and disconnection from land. To learn more about youth’s perceptions of climate change, and the mental health benefits of involving youth in climate actions, policies, and community planning, we conducted an environmental scan and an interpretive content analysis in NVivo12. The literature shows that youth are aware of the impact climate change has on their lives and the planet, and that they use a variety of mechanisms (adaptive and maladaptive) to cope with these realities. Additionally, research points to the importance of involving youth in meaningful ways in climate change mitigation community-planned activities to promote feelings of hope, self-efficacy, agency, and resilience and mitigate feelings of anxiety. Gaps remain in the literature around determining which local actions and aspects of youth involvement in British Columbia’s communities are attributable to improvements in youth’s mental health. This presentation will provide examples of the impact of climate change on youth’s mental wellbeing through an equity-centered lens - the areas for climate advocacy our team will be exploring with various communities over the next 5 years through a Youth-based Participatory Action Research (YPAR) approach. We will also invite the audience to reflect on opportunities for including youth as change-makers in climate policy and community initiatives.