What They’re Thinking: How to treat climate anxiety with nature

The Midwest is emerging from one of its warmest meteorological winters on record.

Did that fact send your heartbeat racing? If so, you may be experiencing climate anxiety, or stress associated with climate change, its causes and its impacts. And you’re not alone: A 2020 American Psychiatric Association poll found that more than two-thirds of Americans were somewhat or extremely anxious about climate change impacts.

Treating climate anxiety is the focus of Earthmind, an initiative from Iowa City-based nonprofit Backyard Abundance. The effort recently received $10,000 from the University of Iowa John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center’s inaugural Climate Change and Health Solutions Challenge to expand the programming to students.

The Gazette spoke with Fred Meyer, the founder and director of Backyard Abundance and UI adjunct instructor, about climate anxiety and coping mechanisms. His answers are edited for brevity and clarity.

Q: What is climate anxiety, and what are its symptoms?

A: It’s this low-level angst that people feel about climate change. The further we go without reversing the climate change crisis, the more anxious we feel about it. It generates feelings of helplessness and smallness. This is more prevalent among young people because they know they have to deal with it more than older folks.

It’s like going down a steep hill in the dark with no headlights, knowing that our brakes are going to fail us and there’s a big cliff at the bottom. We know we’re headed down that — we’re trying to pump the brakes — but they’re not doing any good. It just creates a lot of anxiety in us, and it’s looking more and more like we won’t be able to reverse the effects in time to really make a difference.

We want to feel like we’re here for a purpose. We want to have meaning in our lives. When we’re faced with this existential doom, it’s difficult to know what to do. In some people, this manifests as depression and not wanting to get out of bed. Because what’s the point?

Q: How can you cope with climate anxiety?

A: Activities throughout our daily life really drain our mental battery. We need ways to recharge that battery.

Fascination is a key ingredient to this restoration. We all love watching clouds, looking at the stars, watching beautiful sunsets, even watching birds. And that’s because there’s really nothing to figure out. It’s just intriguing, awe-inspiring sometimes. It gives us this moment of peace.

As an example, we can teach people how to find fascination while establishing a plant. We don’t just say, “Pull the plant out of the pot and put it in the ground.” Instead, we help them practice using all their senses. Feel that plant. Smell its aroma. Feel the soil. Be in awe of all these sensory experiences that we’re having. That is what creates that restorative moment of peace.

Q: What is Earthmind, and when did it start?

A: Earthmind is a program that’s offered through Backyard Abundance. It focuses on researched techniques that effectively and efficiently recharge our mental batteries. Nature is our co-teacher.

The thing that’s always on people’s minds is the climate. We can’t get away from it. Backyard Abundance started doing Earthmind activities about four or five years ago. We found the more we talked about the actions people take in their gardens and landscapes — and how those actions actually helped with climate change — the better they felt. And more importantly, the more actions people took.

Our programming helps people improve their overall well-being — mentally and physically — and it helps positively improve climate change problems. It also teaches people hands-on activities and skills, whether that’s growing food or creating wildlife habitat, for creating resiliency in the environment.

We are taking Earthmind from just mental health centers into the student realm. This Climate Change and Health Solutions Challenge is helping us customize classes specifically for students.

From the catalog: Examples of Earthmind classes

• Wild Edible Foraging: Unveiling Nature’s Pantry. Through mindful activities, students learn to confidently identify and prepare common wild edibles. As they expand their knowledge of the local abundance nature offers, they enrich their diets with diverse and nutritious foods that increase their overall health.

• Animal Observation: A Glimpse into the Wild World. Through simple techniques, students learn to move silently and mindfully through natural areas, helping them observe more wildlife and gain insights into nature’s rhythms.

• Potting Emotions: Self-Awareness with Houseplants. Students mindfully propagate houseplants and symbolize their emotions by drawing art on the pots, fostering self-awareness and emotional balance. At home, rotating the pot so it aligns with current emotions promotes emotional awareness and equilibrium.

• Greening the Community: Nurturing Patches of Resilience. Students mindfully establish edible, sensory and pollinator-friendly perennial plants into existing garden beds in their communities

Source: Earthmind

Q: When will Earthmind classes be available to students?

A: We’re going to have a pilot class this fall at the University of Iowa. We’ll use that pilot to inform an expansion into next year, which will probably be three series of classes: one in the spring, one in the fall and another in winter.

Younger generations are losing touch with the environment because of all the gadgets and technology that we have. We stay inside, whether it’s in a car or in a building, most of the time. We still have this yearning to be connected with nature, and it manifests in all of us in different ways.

Students just love the idea of Earthmind because they can get outside and get their hands in the soil. That’s why we call nature our co-teacher, because nature honestly does most of the work for us. All we’re doing is taking these things that have been proven to improve our well-being and saying, “Look, this is proven with research. Let’s find a really effective way to do it in the short time that we have.” We just envision this will teach students habits that give them a little mental boost.

Our hope is to start small with this pilot, laying the groundwork to do some really rigorous research next year about how to hone the Earthmind classes. If we can go to other universities and say, “Look at all this valid data that we’ve collected about the benefits students experience through these classes …” That’s key. That’s what’s going to get the attention of other universities. We’re hoping to expand after 2025 with that data under our belt.

Brittney J. Miller is the Energy & Environment Reporter for The Gazette and a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.

Comments: (319) 398-8370; brittney.miller@thegazette.com