'It kills me inside': Activists sound alarm on climate anxiety

Researchers have warned children and young people are particularly vulnerable to climate anxiety

From Bangladesh to Britain to Nigeria, many young campaigners on the frontlines of the global fight for climate justice now face a new problem: the impact the crisis is having on their mental health.

As thousands of delegates converged at the COP26 summit in Glasgow to discuss ways to tackle the environmental emergency, AFP interviewed three youth activists around the world who spoke candidly of their experience of climate anxiety.

"(The) climate crisis is to me a mental stress, trauma and nightmare," says the 24-year-old, who now lives in the town of Barisal and who remembers a 2007 super cyclone that killed thousands of people in the South Asian nation.

- 'Environmental doom' -

As with other forms of anxiety, living with it long-term can impair people's daily ability to function, while exacerbating underlying mental health issues.

A recent report led by researchers at the University of Bath in Britain, surveying 10,000 young people in 10 countries, found that 77 percent viewed the future as frightening because of climate change.

- Fear, anxiety, anger -

"Young people, myself included, feel betrayed by world leaders," the 22-year-old said at a climate protest ahead of the COP26 summit.

"Sometimes it can feel quite hopeless until I am back and organising with my community," she said.

"It's a reality that children are facing this changing world. They're experiencing fear, anger, hopelessness, helplessness," Barnwell said.

Yet despite this, when young people articulate their fears to adults such as teachers, often they find their feels are "invalidated", Barnwell added.

- 'We bear the burden' -

At the COP26 summit, dozens of countries this week joined a United States and European Union pledge to cut methane emissions.

But a simmering diplomatic spat between the United States, China and Russia over their climate action ambitions showed the fragile nature of the talks.

She said she believed climate anxiety was especially an issue for younger people growing up in nations disproportionately affected by climate change.

Uchendu said that rather than bury her fears, she tries to accept them as valid.

"It's OK to be afraid, scared and even anxious in the face of something so big and so overwhelming."

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