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'It kills me inside': Activists sound alarm on climate anxiety
As thousands of delegates converged at the COP26 summit in Glasgow, three youth activists around the world spoke candidly of their experience of climate anxiety.
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Climate activists including Dominique Palmer (R) gather at a demonstration demanding that 'big finance' defunds fossil fuels, outside the headquarters of Standard Chartered bank in the City of London on October 29, 2021, ahead of the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference to be held in Glasgow, Scotland from October 31. (AFP/Tolga Akmen)
F
rom Bangladesh to Britain to Nigeria, many young campaigners on the frontlines of the global fight for climate justice now face a new problem: the impact the crisis is having on their mental health.
As thousands of delegates converged at the COP26 summit in Glasgow to discuss ways to tackle the environmental emergency, AFP interviewed three youth activists around the world who spoke candidly of their experience of climate anxiety.
In Bangladesh, ranked seventh for countries most affected by extreme weather, activist Sohanur Rahman said he feels overwhelmed with concern over what he sees as a lack of political will to stop the destruction.
"(The) climate crisis is to me a mental stress, trauma and nightmare," says the 24-year-old, who now lives in the town of Barisal and who remembers a 2007 super cyclone that killed thousands of people in the South Asian nation.
"It kills me inside," he says softly, adding that he fears for his parents who live in the village of Nathullabad that was levelled by the cyclone.
'Environmental doom'
The American Psychological Association has described climate or eco-anxiety as a "chronic fear of environmental doom".
