How to really fight climate anxiety: active hope

Eco-anxiety - mental distress and the not so unrealistic fear of environmental apocalypse - is everywhere. Time Magazine reported that worldwide online searches related to eco-anxiety rose by 4590% between 2018 and 2023. The American Psychological Association reports that 68% of Americans experience some form of eco-anxiety, with numbers higher among younger people. Logically. The people who'll inherit the mess are the ones most stressed about it.

This anxiety is fueled by constant exposure to alarming climate predictions, visible ecological degradation, and the sense that global leaders are failing to act. Because, let's be honest: they're treating climate goals like your average New Year's resolution: big promises, zero follow-through. Anxiety is worsened by a feeling of powerlessness, thinking it's impossible to make a difference in such a vast problem.

But there is a way.

This way starts with active hope.

Passive hope means expecting things will turn out fine, active hope is about being part of the solution by taking action, despite uncertainty. Joanna Macy, environmental activist and all-around wise human, explains it best: active hope isn't about wishful thinking. It's about acknowledging the gravity of the situation and choosing to act. Refusing to give up and fighting against the odds.

Eco-thinker Kees Klomp takes it a step further: hope isn't fantasy, it's realism. It's looking at the mess and saying, "Challenge accepted." Looking the ecological beast in the eye and doing your best to change it. Hope comes into being when we do-think rather than doom-think.

With this active hope in your pocket, you start a plant-based diet, thrift instead of buying new things, bike to work, start a small edible garden and join a local environmental group. These actions may seem small, but their impact is real. Suddenly, you're no longer a passive extra in the climate crisis blockbuster, you're a main character, home-grown courgette in hand.

And here's the epiphany: as you take action, you begin to see change. You inspire a friend to quit meat too, more bees and butterflies visit your garden, and you convince your local government to implement a recycling program. These successes – no matter how small – give you hope and confidence that change is possible.

Congrats! You've just entered the upward spiral of active hope, where action leads to more hope (or optimism about our influence), which leads to more action, which leads to more hope, which leads to more action, et cetera. You're now not only healing the planet, you're healing your own climate anxiety. Action is the antidote to despair, because it gives you a sense of control and counteracts feelings of powerlessness.

Macy: "The mess we're in not only becomes easier to face, our lives also become more meaningful and satisfying." Action breaks the cycle of anxiety and replaces it with purpose and hope.

Sure, the big picture is daunting. But let's not forget that incremental change is still change. And a hundred people making incremental changes, together are a movement in the right direction. For the planet and for a sense of control over the future.

Just look at Greta Thunberg. She started with a one-person climate strike, that over time inspired millions.

So, don't worry about saving the world all at once. Just start where you can, with what you have. But do it now. For yourself. Because active hope isn't just medicine for eco-anxiety, it's a prescription for change.