New website helps people process and act on their climate emotions

Helping people process their feelings about the environment

"We need to support young people with the tools to process difficult emotions and use them as a force for agency and purpose." Caroline Macfarland Common Vision

The project forms part of a wider NERC initiative to engage, involve and inform the public about the environment and environmental science. This includes a community-led project in 2021 that gathered diverse public perspectives to inform NERC’s healthy environments research programme.

Hannah Lacey, Public Engagement Manager at the Natural Environment Research Council, said: “The challenges caused by climate change are substantial and so it is understandable that many young people feel anxious. But this new tool will demonstrate how our environmental scientists and many others are doing incredible work in helping to understand, tackle and adapt to climate change.”

Caroline Macfarland, Director of Common Vision, a public dialogue think tank, said: “The growing phenomenon of ‘eco-anxiety’ amongst young people is recognised by child and adolescent psychiatrists, by teachers and by health providers. However, this is not a ‘condition’ that needs to be ‘treated’ – instead we need to support young people with the tools to process difficult emotions and use them as a force for agency and purpose.

“Hold This Space encourages young people to use their emotions to create new visions for the future and take action to get there."

Visit the Hold This Space website.

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