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In 2021, a landmark study published in The Lancet surveyed 10,000 young people aged 16–25 across ten countries. More than half — 56% — said they believed "humanity is doomed." Nearly three-quarters said the future was "frightening." This is not a niche finding. Climate anxiety has become one of the defining psychological realities of growing up in the 2020s.
What Climate Anxiety Is
Climate anxiety — sometimes called eco-anxiety — is not a mental illness. It is a rational response to a real threat. Researchers define it as "chronic fear of environmental doom" — a persistent, often overwhelming sense of distress about the state and future of the planet.
For young people, it is intensified by several factors: the awareness that the decisions being made now will shape the world they inherit, the gap between what science demands and what politics is delivering, and the frequent dismissal of their concerns by older generations. It is made worse by social media, which simultaneously provides community and amplifies despair.
The Risk of Despair
Climate anxiety becomes a problem when it leads to paralysis rather than engagement. When the scale of the crisis feels so overwhelming that action seems pointless. When young people disengage from civic life because they believe nothing will change. When eco-anxiety slides into eco-grief, and grief slides into depression.
Despair is not a moral failing. It is a normal response to a situation that genuinely is frightening. The question is whether we give young people the tools to move through it — toward agency, toward connection, toward action.
What Youth Workers Can Do
The research on what helps is clear: agency and community. Young people who feel they have the capacity to act — even in small ways — and who are embedded in communities of others who share their concerns and values show significantly less climate anxiety than those who feel isolated and powerless.
- Create space for the feelings: do not rush past climate anxiety to problem-solving. Naming and sharing feelings reduces their power.
- Focus on local and immediate action: community gardens, local advocacy, school sustainability projects — things where young people can see the results of their effort
- Connect local to global: show how local action connects to larger movements, without making the global feel overwhelming
- Celebrate what is working: the renewable energy transition, expanding protected areas, growing youth political representation — progress is real and should be visible
- Care for youth workers too: secondary eco-anxiety is real. Workers facilitating this space need their own support structures
From Anxiety to Advocacy
The goal is not to eliminate climate anxiety — some level of concern is appropriate and even motivating. The goal is to help young people develop a relationship with that anxiety that is sustainable: that allows them to remain engaged, effective, and hopeful over the long term. This is one of the most important things youth work can offer in the current moment.