"Take action - big or small. It's so easy to feel helpless as just 1 person on a big planet, but we can accomplish a lot as individuals - especially when we work together."
Feeling anxious about the extinction-climate crisis? We are too! This quote by Megan McSherry, advocate of the progress-not-perfection approach to 3P Sustainability, is about managing eco-anxiety with action.
ECO-ANXIETY IS REAL!
😰 The extinction-climate catastrophe is a global and personal concern that makes humans feel anxious (“eco-anxiety”).
🙀 Experts say eco-anxiety is a real condition, and studies show it is common, especially among kids and young adults.
🥺 Eco-anxiety is caused by many things like lived experience with effects of climate change, seeing others in distress, negative news coverage, and regret about your own impact.
WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE?
😿 Hopelessness, depression, despair, panic, grief, or sadness about the Planet’s changes.
😤 Frustration and anger toward crisis deniers and inaction by adults and governments.
🙈 Guilt about your carbon footprint.
😬 Powerlessness to create change, resulting in “disaster paralysis”.
HOW CAN YOU COPE?
👀 Take notice of your feelings because awareness is the key to change and builds emotional resilience.
🗣 Talk about your eco-anxiety, to manage your own distress and inform and empower others.
📚 Get educated with accurate information about the extinction-climate crisis, to help you process this problem and feel prepared.
📈 Be inspired by positive biodiversity-climate developments, like wildlife wins and species back from the brink of extinction.
💪 Take action toward 3P Sustainability, individual and collective, because from action comes hope!
WHAT INDIVIDUAL ACTION CAN YOU TAKE?
🌍 Reconnect your human-nature.
🛒 Embrace “AcTEEvism”, defined by McSherry as “campaigning to bring about social and environmental change through conscious consumerism”. Vote with your dollar!
💲Donate to a trustworthy nonprofit that tackles the extinction-climate crisis, like our official partner Rainforest Trust.