International climate anxiety expert, the University of Bath’s Caroline Hickman, chaired a panel this afternoon taking place on College Green in Bristol following the Bristol Youth Strike 4 Climate rally, at which Greta Thunberg appeared, asking ‘does activism cure eco-anxiety’.
Over the past 12 months, Caroline has become the leading voice on the topic of eco-anxiety and her research into rising levels of eco or climate anxiety among young people has appeared across the world.
Commenting from Bristol, she said: “In many ways this is a week that brings hope to the need to start to take the climate and biodiversity crisis more seriously. In one week we’ve had the vote against the third runway at Heathrow and the decision not to expand Bristol Airport, and now the Royal College of Psychiatrists has declared a climate emergency - health professionals stepping up and taking eco-anxiety and its impact on young people’s mental health seriously.
"Having Greta in Bristol - at an event organised so well by 'Fridays for Future' - has mobilised and motivated huge numbers of young people to believe that their voices might start to be heard: The possibility of radical hope."
Watch & listen:
- Caroline Hickman on eco-anxiety
- What’s under the surface of the attacks on school strikes?
- Caroline on Woman’s Hour: How to talk to children about climate change