{"id":287942,"date":"2025-11-12T22:43:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T22:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/287942\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T22:43:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T22:43:12","slug":"how-to-handle-climate-change-anxiety-during-cop30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/287942\/","title":{"rendered":"How to handle climate change anxiety during COP30"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every autumn, news feeds get flooded with stories about climate change<\/a>. That\u2019s because around this time each year, global leaders gather to discuss collective efforts to limit our emissions of planet-warming gases, released primarily from oil, gas and coal.<\/p>\n

Some of the information coming out of the COP30 conference<\/a> is bleak. But it\u2019s not just COP. Climate stories can be difficult to consume year-round, whether it\u2019s about natural disasters, victims of heat waves or sea level rise or new studies about global warming impacts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you throw a ton of scary facts and information at people, their nervous system shuts down. It\u2019s a coping mechanism,\u201d said Sarah Newman, founder and executive director of the Climate Mental Health Network.<\/p>\n

That sense of dread, doom, fear or hopelessness gets lumped into a single term: climate anxiety<\/a>. Surveys from the American Psychiatric Association<\/a> have repeatedly shown that a significant number of Americans experience climate anxiety.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s such a big part of climate action that COP30 has increased the number of mental health programs offered during the event, including several that focus on boosting mental health, building psychological resilience in the face of climate change and integrating mental health discussions in education. The conference also has an ongoing mental health corner, which hosts art and meditation sessions.<\/p>\n

Dealing with it, just like dealing with climate change, is an ongoing process. Here\u2019s how to get started.<\/p>\n

Climate anxiety different from general anxiety<\/p>\n

Imagine you leave the house in the morning, and realize you left the stove on. There\u2019s a fire hazard at home, and you\u2019re feeling anxious about it. So you turn around and switch it off. The problem is solved, and so is your anxiety.<\/p>\n

Climate change doesn\u2019t work that way.<\/p>\n

It activates different parts of the brain, according to a study<\/a> published by the National Institutes of Health. While Generalized Anxiety Disorder often involves the part of the brain that handles fear, threat and emotion, climate anxiety activates parts of the brain that help with high cognition, willpower and tenacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an ongoing larger problem that I need to attend to over time and that is largely out of my control,\u201d climate psychologist Thomas Doherty said. \u201dI can\u2019t just flip a switch around climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n

The anxiety is more complex than a stove left on, because climate change is a more complex problem. The threat is indefinite, it\u2019s largely out of each person\u2019s control and addressing it requires repeated and variable action.<\/p>\n

Doherty, who wrote a book about coping with climate anxiety, said that it isn\u2019t inherently negative. It\u2019s a natural reaction to a threat, and it\u2019s the first step in a cyclical relationship with climate change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rest of the cycle is ultimately taking some action to resolve the threat as best that we can,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

First, cope and connect<\/p>\n

Newman said that one of the most effective ways to combat climate anxiety is to find other people who are experiencing it too, and to talk about it. <\/p>\n

Every year, New York City hosts something called Climate Week. Folks from all over descend upon Manhattan for hundreds of events and panels on energy, the environment and climate change.<\/p>\n

Between 15 and 20 people showed up to one event about finding connection and hope in the face of climate change. It was intimate, but so is confiding feelings of dread and isolation with a room full of strangers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow many of you wake up in the morning with feelings of despair or hopelessness?\u201d asked the leader at the front of the room.<\/p>\n

Just about every hand sheepishly went up.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot just in the morning!\u201d said a man in the front row. And an awkward chuckle of understanding swept through the room.<\/p>\n

That group was addressing what Doherty said is one of the greatest risks of climate anxiety: isolation.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like working on any problem, any issue, once you have a team around you, then you feel better. You\u2019re not alone. You feel stronger,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Meetups such as Climate Cafes or groups like Climate Psychology Alliance have online and in-person events where people can share experiences and build resilience together.<\/p>\n

Much of Newman\u2019s work with the Climate Mental Health Network is about bringing people together to combat that feeling of isolation. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people start to recognize that, they\u2019re not alone with what they\u2019re feeling,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s an opportunity for people to move from that helpless state to one of empowerment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many general anxiety treatments relate to calming the body and clearing the head, and Doherty said that all of those work with climate anxiety. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s our same body. Our same brain, our same heart rate, blood pressure, our same ways of thinking,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Immediate grounding exercises include the 3-3-3 technique, where you name three things you see, three you hear and three parts of your body that you can move. Another one is the 5-4-3-2-1 technique, where you identify five things you can see, four things you can touch, three things you can hear, two things you can smell and one thing you can taste.<\/p>\n

Doherty also recommends prioritizing rest and exercise, going outside in nature and focusing on the present moment. He calls all of those practices basic mental hygiene.<\/p>\n

Then, find a purpose<\/p>\n

Doherty recommended channeling climate concern into something controllable, such as the impacts of climate change in your neighborhood, or even in your home.<\/p>\n

\u201cTake care of my own garden so to speak, before I try to plant a garden somewhere else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That starts with something Doherty calls ceremonial actions. They don\u2019t meaningfully change the world, but they\u2019re easy, they can be repeated, they align with a person\u2019s values and make them feel better, like picking up litter or bringing reusable bags to the grocery store.<\/p>\n

Those ceremonial actions then fuel the desire and resilience needed for something larger, like getting rid of the gas appliances in the house, which could take years to afford and invest in. The U.N. lists 10 actions<\/a> to reduce a person\u2019s impact on the planet.<\/p>\n

Climate anxiety is cyclical, because the sources of anxiety keep coming, and so does the need for coping mechanisms and actions. Newman said that there isn\u2019t an easy switch between climate anxiety and climate optimism.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still carry those emotions and I still have the worry and I have the anger and I have the sadness, but I\u2019m able to live with them in a different way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every autumn, news feeds get flooded with stories about climate change. That\u2019s because around this time each year,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[941,28,1687,1685,4253,192,793,97,259,79,59692,965],"class_list":{"0":"post-287942","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-brazil","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-climate","11":"tag-climate-and-environment","12":"tag-climate-change","13":"tag-environment","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-health","16":"tag-mental-health","17":"tag-science","18":"tag-thomas-doherty","19":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}