Nurturing Positivity in the Face of Eco-Anxiety

When you're out on the open water and you see the tail of a beautiful whale breach the surface, you should feel a sense of awe, peace, and connection. However, when you are someone who cares deeply about the environment or spends a lot of time and energy in and around nature, those moments are often accompanied with the knowledge of what's really going on. You think about the warming Arctic waters, the amount of pollution in the sea, and the oil spills and other contaminants that impact marine life.

In today's world, news headlines and social media posts tend to emphasize environmental loss and destruction. While it is important to spread awareness of environmental issues and alarming events, the emphasis on these problems and disasters can often lead to feelings of despair and hopelessness. Some may call it eco-anxiety, and those who work in the environmental field are no strangers to those feelings.

It is crucial, however, to remember that even in the face of adversity, there is always room for hope and positive action. And sometimes that starts with sharing your story.

We’ve invited a few of our staff to share their stories and strategies around staying positive amidst environmental doom and gloom. Together, let’s explore how we can focus on the good, rather than dwell on the bad.

Cy Cho

How do I deal with the weight of eco-anxiety and the hopelessness of being surrounded by constant loss while working in this field? I always come back to one answer: my watermark. We live in such a busy world, where people are constantly on the move, and stressors seem to be lurking in every corner. But as I sat on a canoe in the summer of 2017, floating down Widgeon Slough, with my legs dangling off the side, feeling the cool water with my feet, and basking in the gentle sun, time seemed to stop. I was able to forget about my worries and live in the moment, simply enjoying the natural world around me. I felt truly at peace.

Moments like this remind me that nature is healing and therapeutic, and we take it for granted far too often. We care so strongly about protecting nature from destruction that we get lost in the emotionally draining responsibilities and truths. It is crucial to take a moment and pause, to enjoy the air that you breathe and the grass beneath your feet, to care for your own well-being, and to stay resilient. In order to take care of the environment, you first have to take care of yourself. So share how you make time to immerse yourself in nature and inspire others to do the same. These moments can serve as reminders of why we work so hard to protect the environment.

Megan Coad

Eco-anxiety is a feeling I have been experiencing and managing my whole life. I can remember being as young as eight learning about climate change for the first time and feeling real fear that I might not have a stable future when it comes to environmental resources. I spent my fair share of time in the doom and gloom stage where it felt quite hopeless. What can one person do against large corporations who are polluting so much and seem to care so little, and politicians who pull back environmental policy and barely enforce it? Although these feelings are valid and important at times I came to quickly understand that they did very little in motivating myself or others to care or act towards building a more sustainable future.

To combat this feeling of dread I decided to pursue an education career in environmental science and ecosystem restoration. This newfound knowledge equipped me with the tools I needed to make positive change in my own life and to educate others around me of the actions we can take to build and advocate for a better future. This also led me to a career in restoration, where I am making a tangible impact on the environment around me. Through this career, I have also connected with a community of people who share many of the same feelings and passions I do about our natural world. They provide support and encouragement that has really become a source of hope and inspiration for myself. My best recommendation for combating eco-anxiety is to find a support system of people who understand and empathize with you and find something you can do that feels like you are contributing to the solution no matter what that is!

Shaugn Coggins

I have found that my experiences with eco-anxiety and ecological grief have intensified the more I’ve learned about the complexities of environmental issues through my studies and work in this field. Practicing photography while connecting to nature and spending time outdoors is one thing that has helped me manage ecological anxiety and ecological grief. Noticing how the light reflects on the water or how it illuminates flower petals when I’m out on a walk helps me be present and appreciate all of the life around me while taking time to be creative outside.

In my experience, eco-anxiety can also be accompanied by thoughts such as, “what impact can I really have as just one person?”, especially when facing ‘wicked problems’ that can feel large and overwhelming, such as climate change, pollution, and environmental degradation. However, I think this question can be empowering when it is considered in a way that takes into account every person’s unique opportunity to be a source of positive change around them. For one person, this could be within their own household, as they reduce their consumption of single-use plastics. This could also be a teacher educating their classroom or a politician working to improve local environmental policy—It all really does add up and contribute to positive shifts and solutions. Reminding myself of this can help to shift those feelings of eco-anxiety to feelings of empowerment to take action.

Madeleine Ankenman

Often with massive, global issues such as climate change, the degradation of our waterways, and plastics pollution, it is easy to focus on the doom and gloom. Our news cycle picks up the worst stories and instead tends to leave out many of the positive ones. The problem this creates is that often people seem to think that things have gotten so bad, why try? Or what impact can one person possibly make? For my own eco-anxiety, and to appease those of others, I often focus on the positive stories. We need to maintain hope that we are doing enough to clean up our planet. Take climate change. In the most recent United Nations Biodiversity Conference, signatory countries agreed to protect 30% of lands and waters by 2030. Protecting ecosystems that pull carbon from the atmosphere is a great step toward combating climate change, and it protects biodiversity at the same time! Next, take the degradation of our waterways. In my hometown, Vancouver, our city has just pledged to separate our sewers from our storm drains by 2030. This is a massive win for our city and will prevent huge amounts of raw sewage from being dumped in our oceans. Finally, take plastic pollution. The Ocean Cleanup is projecting they will clean up 90% of floating ocean plastics by 2040. Another big win for the planet! When thinking about your own actions, think about how you may take small steps to contribute to these wins for the planet. You, too, can be part of the solution.

Or Denemark

Thinking about big things, big issues, or concepts might feel overwhelming. Whenever I think of one of these topics, I dial it down to ‘my size.’ You’ve probably heard about the compounding effect in the past and how small actions lead to big changes. I don’t necessarily focus on the big change as well. I focus on the obtainable small decisions and actions I can take. Because I can take them. I remember making a decision to stop buying dish-cleaning sponges because they degrade and add microplastics to sewage water. Using dried Luffa pisces instead. It has been five years now. I am not saying it made a big difference on a global scale. But it made me feel good. It was a ‘my-size’ decision.

Madison Scott

I grew up on the east coast of Canada, swimming in the Atlantic Ocean. My childhood was spent snorkeling with my cousins, finding sea stars, urchins, and all the other wealth of life that existed in the coastal waters. However, as I grew older, I watched as the biodiversity dwindled and life disappeared. I felt helpless, seeing the changes but knowing I couldn’t fix it. Instead of giving into that despair, I was motivated to learn what I could do and to try and make as much of an impact as I could. At first, it still felt helpless, but I began to see more and more people who also cared. Knowing that I wasn’t alone helped comfort me.

So many people struggle with the state of the world, feeling helpless in the face of the climate crisis. We are fed news article after news article on the devastating changes occurring. Many people with political power are either complicit in allowing the status quo to continue or outright denying that anything needs to change at all. It can feel overwhelming. What can one person do alone? The answer is: not much. However, we aren’t alone. None of us are alone. The more people learn about what they can do to help, the more they see others pushing for changes, the more people come together to make that change, the more people realize that together we are strong enough to overcome any challenge. Humans are a fundamentally kind and altruistic species, and we can come together to protect what truly matters.

So, how do you cope with eco-anxiety?

Coping with all the environmental doom and gloom can be challenging, but it's crucial to maintain a positive mindset to effect meaningful change. By sharing our strategies and stories and focusing on the good, we can inspire each other and work towards a more sustainable future. Whether it's by building a support network, celebrating the small victories, connecting with nature, or changing your media consumption habits, together, let's nurture hope and optimism in the face of crisis and adversity for the sake of our planet and for future generations.