Many of us can relate to the feeling of doomscrolling through our social media feeds, reading countless posts on the increasing climate emergency and headlines about another catastrophic extreme weather event. The feelings of dread, helplessness and guilt are often referred to as climate anxiety.
ACF Brisbane South & Logan activist and retired psychologist, Di Tucker, has a unique insight into climate anxiety and burnout in the activism space.
Di spent many years donating to conservation movements, but unable to ignore the escalating urgency of climate change, she decided to leap into activism in 2019, becoming a formidable force in the movement. She’s attended rallies, organised actions, and was one of 14 activists who in 2022, dropped coal and gas banners over the public gallery during question time in Queensland parliament.
Being so embedded in the movement means Di sees firsthand how prevalent climate anxiety is.
“I’ve seen the impact of climate anxiety on people. Everyone who is stepping up is doing it because they are seriously concerned,” Di said.
“Anxiety is a future-focused emotion – so you can see how when people come to understand how the whole climatic system of the Earth is changing, it evokes a lot of anxiety.”
“Anxiety is a future-focused emotion – so you can see how when people come to understand how the whole climatic system of the Earth is changing, it evokes a lot of anxiety.”
If you can relate to this feeling, you’re not alone.
“People take action because they’re worried, and the people we meet in the climate space are generally people who feel a lot of concern and emotion for the world and the future and feel compelled to do something”.
"The reason we're fearful is because we care."
Another feeling that often accompanies climate anxiety is burnout. Burnout can occur when, prompted to action by our climate anxiety, we throw ourselves into activism and do too much.
“I see a lot of burnout. For young people coming into climate action, they haven’t yet learnt how to keep balance and how far to extend themselves. They put their all into it and a lot of people do burn out,” Di said.
"This is a long haul. This isn’t a short story. So, people work really hard and they feel overwhelmed, tired, work life balance becomes difficult and sometimes the things we achieve aren’t really visible.”
So how do we grapple with these feelings and still have impact as activists? Here are some of Di’s top tips:
- Talk about climate anxiety and burnout in your spaces. Understand how it manifests and what the symptoms are. If people are feeling irritable, short-tempered, critical, doubtful – these are all signs they’re feeling overwhelmed.
- Take breaks. You don’t have to leave; you can come back!
- Have social meetings. Have catch ups with fellow activists and friends that are purely social.
- Build check-ins into group activities. Leaders in groups can make sure people feel safe by welcoming new group members and building check-ins into meetings.
- Seek out mentors and learn. We can learn how to cope and how to deal with these emotions when we start to feel overwhelmed. Seeking help is strength.
- Take small actions. Taking a small action like signing a petition gives you a sense of agency and can be a pathway to bigger actions if you choose.
For Di, much of our strength can be found in vulnerability.
“In our climate action groups, our language is often focused on building people power, being strong, we can do this, having power in numbers. Actually, sometimes we struggle with doubts and sometimes we think we can’t do this, and being able to share that with other people brings a lot of strength. It also bonds us to others, and we can help each other get through it.”
At ACF we understand too well the complex emotions that can come from fighting for our beautiful big backyard. We encourage you to take Di’s tips on board and reach out to your fellow activists for support.
