Experts Warn of a Growing Number of Children Experiencing Climate Anxiety
Medical experts are sounding the alarm about the rise of "climate anxiety" in children and teens around the globe.
"We see that a lot of young people are saying, 'I think my life will be worse than my parents' lives,'" a psychology professor at Suffolk University in Boston told CBS News.
Data from a study published in The Lancet Planetary Health in December 2021 found that young people are extremely concerned about the state of the climate crisis.
"Climate anxiety and dissatisfaction with government responses are widespread in children and young people in countries across the world and impact their daily functioning," the report stated. "A perceived failure by governments to respond to the climate crisis is associated with increased distress."
A large number of young people in the study reported that they feel a sense of hopelessness and worry that the human race will go extinct. Most also agreed that governments are not doing enough to address the issue and even noted feeling betrayed by them.
"Children are now turning to legal action based on government failure to protect ecosystems, young citizens and their futures. Failure of governments to protect them from harm from climate change could be argued to be a failure of human rights and a failure of ethical responsibility to care, leading to moral injury," according to the journal.
The non-profit Child Mind Institute suggests that parents allow children to express their concerns and fear of climate change but to also encourage them to be brave. The organization also advises that parents helping them manage their feelings and adopting ways to change their own habits can help mitigate the worry.
A new study shows that Americans feel record levels of stress amid inflation and global uncertainty about the war in Ukraine. Cheddar News speaks with Lynn Bufka of the American Psychological Association about how to best put your worries aside.
Colgate-Palmolive is shedding light on the little-known fact that oral health is integral to overall health. The consumer products company will commit $100 million over five years to transform the way the world thinks about and addresses oral health. Maria Ryan, Chief Clinical Officer at Colgate-Palmolive, discusses why oral health is so vital to our physical and mental well-being.
Scientists say they have found the sunken wreck of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance, more than a century after it was lost to the Antarctic ice.
Researchers say a large spider native to East Asia that proliferated in Georgia last year could spread to much of the East Coast. The Joro spider’s golden web took over yards all over north Georgia in 2021, unnerving some residents.
News of Russian forces taking control of a Ukrainian after artillery bombardment of a nuclear power plant raised concerns this week. Nuclear policy expert and Quincy Institute Distinguished Fellow Joe Cirincione joined Cheddar News to discuss the implications for a potential disaster. “I’m with the director general of the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency. He says that he is extremely concerned, and that this Russian attack is a severe risk and that Russia clearly violated the fundamental principle of preserving the integrity of nuclear power plants," Cirincione said.
Adam Battle, research assistant at University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, joins Cheddar News to discuss space junk heading to the moon and if more should be done to prevent space junk in the future.
UN and Ukrainian officials say no radiation was released from a Russian attack at Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant in Ukraine and firefighters have extinguished a blaze at the facility..
Under the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), corn-based ethanol has been mixed into gasoline sold at pumps in the U.S. since 2005, when a policy was enacted aimed at reducing emissions. Corn-based ethanol had been thought to be a relatively greener energy source compared to other biofuels, but now, a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports it may be actually worse for the climate than straight gasoline. Tyler Lark, an assistant scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Center for Sustainability, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell and discussed the pushback against the study. "Essentially when you need to produce more corn to meet the demand for use as ethanol as fuel, farmers respond and they switch more crops like soybeans and wheat into corn," Lark said. "They also bring more land into production, so things that used to be pasture grassland, and both those activities are associated with increased greenhouse gas emissions."
Caroline Hickman, lecturer at University of Bath and psychosocial researcher on climate change, joins Cheddar News to discuss climate change's impact on mental health.
