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Climate change can affect mental health. Now these Californians are doing something about it 

by Shreya Agrawal

October 10, 2023 

     The facts of climate change can lead to feelings of hopelessness and despair. Some California activists are creating communities for people to talk about those feelings.

      Maksim Batuyev's college studies on the climate crisis left him feeling depressed.

     “I was questioning the sheer gravity of it all and how all of it is systemic. None of it has an easy solution," he said. “That really started to bring me into some dark places."

    During his senior year at Michigan State University, in 2020, he started talking online to people from around the world about their emotions related to climate change, which ranged from feeling overwhelmed and scared about the future to grieving the parts of nature that have already been lost.

    “They sounded just like me,” he said. “And it sounded like too much for one person to take on.”

   He decided to do something about it. In 2022, he and climate activist Cindy Pace started informal gatherings in Los Angeles to talk about climate emotions. These groups, commonly known as climate cafés, encourage various kinds of people to come together and talk about their climate feelings in moderated discussions.

    Those meetups represent one of the small ways young Californians are beginning to address the global climate crisis as a mental health crisis. Popular organizations and nonprofits are offering community-based therapy solutions, such as climate cafés, urban gardens, and other events where people can come together and talk. Some are turning to nature-based therapy, also known as ecotherapy, which involves spending time in nature to enable growth and healing.

    But mental health advocates say the largely people-driven efforts are not nearly enough to meet the needs of younger generations. They say more resources and funding are needed to build stronger community-based systems and to provide a good alternative to therapy, which can often be expensive and less accessible.

   “It's clear young people are focused on climate change  and for good reason. A lot of past policies, actions, and inactions have created a situation that has folks very worried about the future, and I share that worry," said State Senator Ben Allen, the Redondo Beach Democrat who sponsored the 2017 budget item that funded the school program. “I hope that elected officials, industry leaders, and others in positions of power listen to what they're asking for and respond with the urgency it demands.”

    But the ultimate cure to eco-anxiety, Batuyev said, is to solve the climate problem.

(Adapted from https:llcalmatters.org/health/mental-health/2023/10climate-change-califormia-youth-mental-health!)