Inspiring climate action without inducing climate despair
Authors: Christie Nicole Godsmark
Journal: The Lancet Planetary Health (2020)

As we learn more about the environmental crisis on our doorstep, effective and balanced teaching about it must be in place. For example, the latest Emissions Gap Report from the United Nations Environment Programme shows that adhering to nationally determined contributions to reducing global emissions puts the world on a trajectory to reach 3·2°C by 2100; countries' commitments would have to be five times larger to limit global warming to 1·5°C above pre-industrial times.1United Nations Environment ProgrammeEmissions Gap Report 2019. UNEP, Nairobi2019Google Scholar This sobering realisation from the Emissions Gap Report 2019 is often sufficient to stimulate university students' interest during lectures on climate change and health. For students who might still not feel the pressing nature of the climate emergency being presented to them, the statement that "it is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century" by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change2Field CB Barros VR Dokken DJ et al.Climate change 2014: impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, and New York, NY, USA2014Google Scholar is almost certain to convey the reality of what the world is facing—the greatest environmental, societal, and health crisis of the 21st century—and the responsibility to take action in response is shared by everyone. From an educator's perspective, there are two approaches to learning: the deep approach, whereby the student attempts to understand the meaning of the learning material, and the surface approach, in which the student focuses on simple recall of the learning material with little attempt at understanding the meaning of it.3Marton F Säljö R On qualitative differences in learning: I—outcome and process.Br J Educ Psychol. 1976; 46: 4-11Crossref Google Scholar Educators in university institutions will probably encounter a mix of learning approaches among students. However, to inspire personal climate action and engagement with the climate–health literature across the entire class, lectures are often tailored with the surface approach learners in mind. University students are taught, for example, exposure pathways on the vast extent of the impact of climate change on health. Recently, in assisting such a class with a climate–health learning activity focusing on solutions, one student commented to another that she just could not see a way out of the present situation. Comments such as this can bring the ethical safeguarding responsibility of educators into focus. Should educators be providing support to students who consciously and internally engage with the devastation of the climate and its impacts on health, and so might be susceptible to experiencing solastalgia, ecological grief, eco-anxiety, or pessimism? There appears to be a fine balance for educators between safeguarding the mental health of students who might feel climate despair on the one hand, and inspiring students to take personal climate action on the other by presenting the facts of this unprecedented and existential threat to humanity. Here, I outline three key considerations that can be used to navigate this balance. The first point is about empowering students. The concept of fostering hope through empowerment, especially in environmental education, should not be overlooked. Li and Monroe4Li CJ Monroe MC Exploring the essential psychological factors in fostering hope concerning climate change.Environ Educ Res. 2019; 25: 936-954Crossref Scopus (22) Google Scholar found that in a group of high school students, belief in competency was a factor that lead to the development of hope. Indeed, students in the study were more likely to be hopeful when they could make sense of the information, including being aware of meaningful actions and the ability to contribute to solutions that can make a difference—an application of the reasonable person model, according to Li and Monroe, whereby people are more likely to act in a reasonable manner when their information needs are satisfied.5Kaplan S Kaplan R Health, supportive environments, and the reasonable person model.Am J Public Health. 2003; 93: 1484-1489Crossref PubMed Scopus (128) Google Scholar Applying this model to university education on the climate crisis will need broad and extensive coverage of the climate–health literature that can cover students' informational needs for climate action. For example, when exploring the most appropriate climate action response, educators should cover as diverse a set of options as the promotion of health co-benefits in climate action through to international climate action (eg, Green Climate Fund), or include brainstorming on individual-level and community-level climate actions, applying the theoretical concept of so-called glocal action. Secondly, supporting students throughout the process is key. It might be beneficial for educators to outline, after lectures, various mental health support resources available to students within their institution. Of course, this requires universities being adequately equipped to support students who experience the mental health-related effects of the climate crisis. Peer support is another useful resource that can be made available but that, again, would require thoughtful preparation and a strong understanding of eco-anxiety. Thus, such meaningful support for students might not necessarily require radical methods or novel approaches with regard to mental health support services already being offered but might require additional training and an understanding, by mental health practitioners, of eco-anxiety as an emerging form of mental distress. Finally, educators themselves need to have the appropriate tools to pre-empt and deal with these outcomes. Educators should be made aware that, although there will be surface-approach learners who might not be affected by the gravity of the crisis, there will also be students who engage deeply with climate-health concepts and who might experience these negative mental health effects as a result. It should not be the case that educators are only awakened to this fact when the mental health of their students has already been affected. Some educators, who have witnessed student anxiety after engagement with the climate literature, have offered guidance to minimise these outcomes when designing and enacting instruction.6Duffy MA Hammond JW Cheng SJ Preaching to the choir or composing new verses? Toward a writerly climate literacy in introductory undergraduate biology.Ecol Evol. 2019; 9: 12360-12373Crossref PubMed Scopus (3) Google Scholar However, comprehensive training should be provided by institutions to equip educators and practitioners of mental health support for students. This training should include necessary tools, which have generally yet to be developed, to care for students experiencing eco-anxiety and other climate-related conditions. Only when these effects are addressed and managed will we get the balance right and so be able to inspire many more students to act in the face of this crisis. I declare no competing interests.