Editor’s Note: This article is not written by a mental health professional. If you or a young person in your life is struggling with intense anxiety or eco-anxiety, please consider speaking with a qualified mental health provider.
In the programs Sierra Club BC runs across K–12 classrooms, I’m hearing growing concern from younger and younger students about the climate crisis. One moment I distinctly remember happened during a nature session with a kindergarten class. We were exploring Canadian biomes, pulling out different animal cards to discuss who lives where. When we got to the polar bear, one little girl clutched her own stuffed polar bear and asked, “Will they be okay?”
And I didn’t know what to say.
I wasn’t sure they would be. And it didn’t feel fair to lie. I felt the lump of climate anxiety swell up in my throat. But I steadied myself and said, “Well—we’ll do our best to protect them, won’t we?”
That moment stayed with me. It reminded me of my own early climate worries—and of how urgently we need to equip children with tools not only to understand the world, but to face it with strength, creativity and connection.
What Is Eco-Anxiety?
Eco-anxiety, or climate anxiety, is the emotional toll that repeated environmental crises can have on the mind. This can result in feelings of fear, sadness, powerlessness and grief. For classrooms across Canada, climate concern has been turning into anxiety. Climate anxiety has been rising in young kids since the ’90s and has been documented in youth as young as preschoolers.
These feelings can sometimes lead to paralysis: “What’s the point?” or “Why try?” But even in these conversations, I hear flurries of: “What can I do?” “Is there a way to fix this?”
And I think there is.
Two Strategies: Action & Expression
In our programs, we approach eco-anxiety through two lenses: action and expression. These are tools to counter the isolation and helplessness that often accompany climate concern—and they’re accessible to kids and families alike.
1. Action: Doing Something, Together. One of the most effective antidotes to anxiety is connection. When young people engage in climate-positive action, they begin to see themselves as part of a larger story—one in which change is possible.
Start in your community: Are there ways to make your school, home, or neighbourhood more climate-resilient? How can you go about creating these changes? Who can you talk to and who can you recruit? Challenging youth to re-envision the future allows them to see one with hope.
Get involved: Once this hope is created—foster it through collective change and engagement. Climate protests, cleanup days, and community events are powerful reminders that your child isn’t alone in how they feel. If there’s nothing planned—consider organizing something small and meaningful, maybe organize with community partners!
Connect with nature: Nature walks, forest play or beach combing are grounding practices that reconnect kids with the living world they care so much about. Being outdoors has been shown to reduce stress and support mental health. These moments help children (and adults) return to themselves, breathe deeper and reset.
2. Expression: Making Meaning Through Creativity. While action connects us to the outside world, expression helps us understand our inner one. It is important to feel like part of the collective, but it is equally important to realize how special we are as individuals. Art has always been a way for people to cope with the political, social or emotional reality of the current moment in time. Now is no different. The youth in your life could be that next artist.
Creativity forms community: finding others with passions like yours makes life more full. Having your feelings exhibited in a physical piece of work, gives shape and language to complex emotions. Expressing your feelings through mediums takes them out of your body and gives a name.
Radical Empathy: Turning Anxiety into Strength
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed. And in a world full of big feelings, it can be tempting to shut down. But there’s bravery in caring. Climate anxiety often comes from a deep, radical empathy for the people, animals and ecosystems we’re connected to. That care is not a weakness. It’s a strength.
So, give yourself (and the kids in your life) credit for feeling deeply. Then use that feeling to grow. Find community in others who care. Make something new. Speak up. Create beauty. Dream of a better future out loud.
And remember: “Will they be okay?” isn’t a question we can always answer. But we can say this—we are trying! And trying together is where hope begins.
Kate Sotelo is an education program manager with the Sierra Club BC.
