Is Climate Grief Real?

Although research on climate grief is in its infancy, researchers have begun to substantiate the impact of climate change on young people and their mental health. The U.S. government’s National Climate Assessment cited mental health concerns as a side effect of climate change, and the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement warning that climate change poses threats to “children’s mental and physical health (Pautz 2020).”

Thanatologist Kriss Kevorkian has defined environmental grief as “the grief reaction stemming from the environmental loss of ecosystems by natural and man-made events (Rosenfield, 2016).” Cunsolo and Ellis define it as “the grief felt in relation to experienced or anticipated ecological losses, including the loss of species, ecosystems, and meaningful landscapes due to acute or chronic environmental change (2019).”

Climate Grievers Often Isolated

Thanantologist Ken Doka’s work on “disenfranchised grief” resonates with the grief felt with climate change. This type of grief is often unacknowledged or invalidated, creating a secondary loss of isolation and helplessness that so many of our kids are experiencing. Yet it does not seem to be acknowledged as life threatening or worthy of great sadness by older generations.

These findings underscore the emerging paradigm that more and more young people are experiencing grief, loss, anxiety, and depression because of changes in the environment, and this is impacting their mental health.

Climate Activists Share Grief as Protest

One young person striking on September 20, 2019, illustrated her deep feelings by lying on the ground and pretending to be dead. She held a poster saying, “You will die of old age. We will die of climate change.” This “die-in” was an event of over 200 young people staging death in front of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment in Thailand. It is symbolic of the impact climate change is having on youth.

Another young person held up the poster “There is no Planet B.” This phrase had become a mantra for youth activists, and steadfast reminder we all live in the only planet we have, Earth, and humanity needs to take care of her in the interests of everyone and everything.

Professionals in the field of grief and loss have recognized the anxiety young people feel about climate change and their safety in the future is a form of anticipatory grief. Anticipatory grief is the apprehension about a future that is unsafe, and the hopelessness many feel to make real change. Anticipating negative outcomes may serve as an explanation for the sadness, hopelessness, and frustration we find so prevalent in our children.

‘Collective Grief’

David Kessler, author and specialist reserve for traumatic events, shares his lifelong observations on the importance of acknowledging the grief and expressing these feelings in order to move forward and find meaning in the present. Kessler maintains there exists a “collective grief in the air” which might stem from 9-11, COVID19, and climate change. Kessler explains anticipatory grief is “a feeling we get about what the future holds when we are uncertain (Berinato, 2020).”

This can lead to a disturbing image of what will come that shakes our sense of safety. We need to help our youth balance the anxiety of what the future will bring with a positive image of creating an equally empowering image of a thriving planet as well, often through action.

Beware Climate Depression

Is climate grief real? The constant bombardment on the psyches of young people, the savviest users of social media, have sparked the rise of a new phenomenon labeled climate depression. Instantaneously seeing and hearing through news reporting about the devastation caused to people, animals, plants, and mother earth herself through floods, wildfires, melting ice caps, fuel emissions, and rising sea levels undoubtedly creates depression and anxiety on our young people.

All too often kids are feeling a burden and over reasonability to save the planet and themselves. The American Psychological Association (APA) reported in 2017, “There is a growing concern about the mental health impacts of climate change, even for those who are simply observing events unfold (McDonald, 2019).”

Linda Goldman

Linda Goldman has a Fellow in Thanatology: Death, Dying, and Bereavement (FT) with a Master of Science in counseling and Master's equivalency in early childhood education. Linda is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and a National Certified Counselor. She worked as a teacher and counselor in the school system for almost 20 years. Currently, she has a private grief therapy practice in Chevy Chase, Maryland. She works with children, teenagers, families with prenatal loss and grieving adults. Linda shares workshops, courses and trainings on children's grief and trauma and teaches as adjunct faculty in the Graduate Program of Counseling at Johns Hopkins University and King’s University College in Ontario, Canada. She has also taught on the faculty at the University of Maryland School of Social Work/Advanced Certification Program for Children and Adolescents and lectured at many other universities including Pennsylvania State University, Buffalo School of Social Work, University of North Carolina, the National Transportation Safety Board, the University of Hong Kong, and the National Changhua University of Education in Taiwan as well as numerous schools systems throughout the country. She has taught on working with LGBT youth and working with children's grief and trauma at Johns Hopkins Graduate School, the University of Maryland School of Social Work and the Child Welfare Administration. Linda is the author of “Life and Loss: A Guide to Help Grieving Children” and “Breaking the Silence: a Guide to Help Children with Complicated Grief”. Her other books include “Bart Speaks Out: An Interactive Storybook for Young Children On Suicide”, “Helping the Grieving Child in the School”, and a Chinese Edition of “Breaking the Silence: A Guide to Help Children With Complicated Grief”, the Japanese Edition of “Life and Loss: A Guide to Help Grieving Children”, and "Raising Our Children to Be Resilient: A Guide for Helping Children Cope with Trauma in Today’s World" and a children’s book “Children Also Grieve”, Chinese translation of “Children Also Grieve” and “Coming Out, Coming In: Nurturing the Well Being and Inclusion of Gay Youth in Mainstream Society”. She has also authored contributing chapters in resources including Loss of the Assumptive World (2002), Annual Death, Dying, and Bereavement (2001-2007), Family Counseling and Therapy Techniques (1998), and The School Services Sourcebook: A Guide for School-Based Professionals (2006). She has written many articles, including Healing Magazine’s “Helping the Grieving Child in the Schools” (2012), “The Bullying Epidemic, Creating Safe Havens for Gay Youth in Schools” (2006), “Parenting Gay Youth” (2008), “Talking to Kids About Suicide” (2014), “Helping Kids Cope with Grief of Losing a Pet” (2014) and “What Complicates Grief for Children: A Case Study” (2015). Some of her articles on Children's Grief and trauma have been translated into Chinese for the Suicide Prevention Program of Beijing. She appeared on the radio show Helping Gay Youth: Parents Perspective (2008) and has testified at a hearing before the MD Joint House and Senate Priorities Hearing for Marriage Equality (2007) and the MD Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee for the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Protection Act (2008).