Chapter 5. Dealing with Climate Anxiety

It can be heart-wrenching as a parent to see your child anxious about the planet’s future. Perhaps your eight-year-old asks at bedtime, “Will all the polar bears die?” with fear in their eyes, or your teenager seems overwhelmed after watching wildfire coverage on the news. These emotional responses – sadness, worry, even anger – about climate change are becoming increasingly common in young people. In fact, over half of Canadian youth (ages 16–25) report feeling afraid, sad, anxious and powerless about climate change (1). The first step in helping your child deal with climate anxiety is understanding that these feelings are real and valid. Psychologists emphasize that eco-anxiety is not a mental illness, but a natural response to genuine environmental threats (2). In other words, your child isn’t “overreacting” or “broken” for caring deeply – their worry shows a healthy concern for the world around them (3). As one Canadian resource puts it, climate change is complicated, and so are the feelings it evokes – and that’s OK (4). Your support can help turn that anxiety into resilience and positive action.

Recognizing and Validating Climate Emotions

Climate anxiety (sometimes called eco-anxiety) is the distress caused by awareness of climate change and its impacts. Children might show it in different ways: a young child could have nightmares about floods after a heavy storm, while a teen might express hopelessness or anger about government inaction. By now, you’ve learned to recognize some of these signs in earlier chapters. Equally important is validating what your child is feeling. Validation means letting them know it’s okay to feel what they feel, and that you take their concerns seriously. Start by creating a safe space for them to share: listen actively and honour their emotions without jumping to dismiss or “fix” them (5). You might say, “I can see that thinking about climate change is really upsetting you. I understand – it scares me sometimes too. It’s normal to feel this way.” This kind of response shows your child that you hear them and that their feelings make sense.

Validating also involves empathy. Try to see the situation through your child’s eyes. If they’re distressed about sick animals or extreme weather events, acknowledge those realities rather than minimizing them. Avoid offhand phrases like “Don’t worry, it’s not a big deal” – children can interpret that as their feelings being “not a big deal.” Research suggests that when youth feel their emotions are respected and understood, they cope better (5). Let your child know they’re not alone in feeling this way, and even praise their empathy: “Your concern for the polar bears shows how big your heart is. It means you care.” Knowing that climate anxiety is a “healthy, important, and valuable” reaction to a real problem can itself be comforting (3). It signals to your child: you are not strange or wrong for feeling like this. Many families across Canada are having similar tough conversations at dinner tables, and many young people are working through the same worries.

Coping Strategies: From Feelings to Action and Meaning

Once a child’s climate-related feelings are recognized and validated, how can we help them cope and regain a sense of balance? Coping strategies for climate anxiety generally fall into a few broad categories. In everyday terms, these involve helping kids deal with their feelings, engaging in constructive actions, and finding meaning or hope in the situation. Psychologists refer to these as emotion-focused coping, problem-focused coping, and meaning-making coping, respectively (3). Below, we introduce each approach in a practical way, with tips on how you can support your child at home:

• Managing Feelings (Emotion-Focused Coping): This approach centers on helping children understand and handle the emotions that climate anxiety stirs up. For some kids, strong feelings like fear or anger can be overwhelming. Encourage healthy outlets for these emotions. Younger children often express themselves through play or art – drawing pictures of what worries them or acting out stories with toys can provide relief. Older kids might prefer journaling about their feelings, listening to music, or talking with someone they trust. Simple relaxation techniques can be very useful across all ages: try deep-breathing exercises together, stretching, or mindfulness activities (for example, a short family walk focusing on nature’s sights and sounds). As a parent, model calming techniques: show them it’s okay to take a break from distressing news and do something enjoyable or soothing (5). You might establish “worry time-outs” – periods when you deliberately shift focus to a fun family activity, like cooking a meal or playing a game, to give emotional stress a chance to lower. The goal isn’t to ignore the climate issue, but to prevent constant anxiety from overwhelming your child. Reassure them that it’s okay to seek comfort – whether that means hugs, hearing a favourite bedtime story, or just quietly acknowledging “this is hard.” By guiding your child in coping with their feelings, you help build their emotional resilience. Over time, they learn that while the worry may not disappear entirely, it can soften and become manageable with the right self-care habits.

• Taking Action (Problem-Focused Coping): One of the most effective antidotes to climate anxiety is empowerment through action. Young people often feel helpless in the face of a global problem; doing something tangible can replace that helplessness with a sense of agency. Even small actions matter. Work with your child to identify problem-solving steps or projects that fit their age and interests. For a younger child, this might be planting pollinator-friendly flowers in the garden, starting a backyard compost, or writing a thank-you card to local firefighters who battled a wildfire. For a preteen or teen, it could involve joining a community clean-up event, organizing a recycling drive at school, or participating in youth climate campaigns (many teens find inspiration in movements like Fridays for Future). The key is that the action is meaningful to them. Let your child take the lead in choosing what to do about their concern – you might be amazed at their creativity. Your role is to facilitate and cheer them on: provide materials, help make a plan, or connect with other parents if needed to support group efforts. Research shows that action can be a powerful balm for eco-anxiety, giving young people a concrete sense of contribution and control (6) (5). In other words, turning anxious energy into doing something – however small – often transforms fear into determination. It’s important to keep expectations realistic: no single child (or adult) can solve climate change alone. Emphasize that collective actions add up, and celebrate the wins along the way. Did your child convince your family to start biking to the library instead of driving? Praise that! Did they help plant ten trees with their Scout troop? Wonderful – those trees will absorb carbon and provide homes for birds. These concrete achievements, however modest, show a child that they can make a difference, which instills hope and reduces anxiety (7). Many Canadian families find that involving kids in solutions – from energy-saving chores at home to citizen science projects – empowers the whole household with a more positive, proactive mindset (7).

• Finding Purpose and Hope (Meaning-Focused Coping): The third coping approach is more abstract but just as important: it involves helping your child derive meaning from their concern and find hopeful perspectives. Climate change can make kids question the future (“What’s my place in a world with these problems?”). Meaning-focused coping encourages them to see themselves as part of a larger story of caring and resilience. One way to do this is by connecting to values. Talk with your child about why we care for the Earth – perhaps because we value compassion for other living beings, justice for communities affected by disasters, or our spiritual/cultural duty to be stewards of the land. These conversations can be very grounding. For example, if your family is religious or spiritual, you might draw on faith teachings about caring for creation. If not, you might share personal values: “In our family, we help others when things get tough. That’s why doing something for the environment is important to us.” Highlighting values gives children a framework to understand their anxiety not as a random fear, but as part of loving something bigger than themselves. From here, guide your child toward hopeful re-framing. Importantly, hope in this context doesn’t mean denying the reality of climate change or telling kids “it’ll all be fine.” Instead, it means pointing out reasons to believe problems can be solved. Share age-appropriate success stories and solutions: for instance, how a species was brought back from endangerment through conservation, or how a community switched to renewable energy and cleaned up their air. Show them that many people are fighting for a healthier world, and that your child can be one of those people. This can spark a sense of purpose: maybe your child decides their “mission” is helping protect a local park or simply being kind and resourceful in a crisis. Encourage these budding sources of meaning. Research in youth mental health finds that meaning-making coping – acknowledging the hard truth while also finding the positives (like a sense of connection, energy, or inspiration to act) – leads to more lasting resilience (3). In practice, this might involve family traditions that reinforce hope: some families light a candle or say a wish for the Earth each Earth Day; others volunteer together which reinforces a shared purpose. Even simple family discussions that frame the climate challenge as a call to work together, rather than a doomful end, can build a child’s sense of meaning and optimism (2). Your child can come to feel, “Yes, this is a serious issue, but it’s bringing out the caring and teamwork in people – and I am part of that.” This outlook transforms anxiety into what experts call “eco-hope” or constructive hope, which buffers against despair. Over time, cultivating meaning helps your child see that their climate anxiety isn’t just fear – it’s also a sign of how deeply they care, which can motivate them to live by their values.

The Importance of Family and Social Support

No coping strategy happens in a vacuum. Social support is like a protective shield around a young person facing climate anxiety. Studies show that strong support networks improve children’s resilience and can actually buffer the negative mental health impacts of stress (6) (6). What does this mean for your family? In short: facing climate fears is easier when we do it together. As a parent or caregiver, you are your child’s first line of support. Simply being there – listening to their worries, holding them when they cry, brainstorming solutions side by side – gives them a sense of safety. Make it a family norm that emotions are shared and supported, not borne alone. For example, some families set aside a weekly “check-in” time where everyone (parents included) can share something that’s troubling them about the world and something they’re grateful for. These rituals reassure kids that it’s not all on them – the whole family is sharing the load of concern and hope.

Encourage support beyond the immediate family as well. Peer support is incredibly powerful, especially for adolescents. Friends who share similar worries can validate each other’s feelings and spur each other into positive action. You might help your child organize a little climate club with their classmates or connect with existing youth environmental groups in your community. Even a casual weekend hike with another family can spark helpful conversations as the kids chat about what they’ve noticed in nature. Social support can also come from extended family (maybe a grandparent who remembers overcoming big challenges, offering perspective and a comforting presence) or from community mentors like teachers, coaches, or Elders. During times when climate news is especially intense – say, after a local flood or during a summer of heavy wildfire smoke – be proactive in maintaining your child’s social connections (6). This might mean arranging virtual get-togethers if air quality keeps everyone indoors, or encouraging letter-writing to stay in touch with a friend who had to evacuate. Such efforts help children feel anchored in a caring community despite the chaos of climate events.

Finally, don’t underestimate the power of family togetherness in buffering anxiety. Doing positive activities as a family can be incredibly reassuring for a child. It sends the message: we’re facing this as a team. Maybe you start a family garden, or decide that every Saturday you’ll do some climate action (one week planting trees, another week donating clothes to a flood-relief drive, and so on). Family projects not only achieve real-world good but also strengthen your child’s support system by building happy memories and a sense of unity. Psychologists refer to this as fostering collective efficacy – the feeling that “we can do this, together” – which is linked to lower anxiety in the face of stress (5). Even sharing joy together is important: laughing, playing, appreciating life. It reminds children that good things still exist in the world worth fighting for. In summary, when a child knows they have their family and community standing beside them, the climate crisis feels a little less scary. Love, trust, and solidarity become an emotional lifeline they can hold onto when waves of worry arise.