The latest IPCC synthesis report has reinforced the perilous position that humanity finds itself in with regards to the climate crisis, both for the present and the future. The report found that human activity is unequivocally responsible for global temperature increase by 1.1 degrees Celsius.
This is already having a devastating impact on vulnerable communities, deaths from drought, floods, and storms were 15 times higher than expected through the 2010s with 3.3-3.6 billion people already living in vulnerable environments.
Perhaps the most ominous warning was that even under low-emission scenarios we are more likely than not to exceed the agreed 1.5 degrees of warming line agreed in Paris in 2015 and under the scheduled higher-emission scenario we are very likely to exceed that. Understandably the differential between the severity of these warnings and the action taken by the government induces high levels of anxiety for many students as they realise the scale of the task of effective climate action.
However, there is another group of students who do not suffer the same level of anxiety and feel apathy more than anything. This article speaks to people on both sides of the coin to find the underlying cause of the reasons for the feelings of both groups. There is undoubtedly a section of students in Sheffield who feel high levels of climate anxiety.
Fourth year Quantity Surveyor, Joe, said: “My biggest fear about climate change is how it will affect my kids if I were to have them, in the future.
“I feel like that generation may really feel the impact of climate change and maybe to such an extent that the generation after may not survive. I fear it’s too late to save the planet, and nobody seems to care.
“Governments aren’t doing enough, this is a global crisis and our planet is dying. I appreciate it’s difficult as sustainable living is very expensive and a lot of people won’t be able to afford to be completely green, but that has to be addressed by the government.
“Policies to make sustainable living more affordable need to be put in place.”
If you are a sufferer of climate anxiety the advice of Dr Jonathan Foley, a researcher and writer of three decades, is to take action – his own antidote – which can take many forms, both big and small. Meanwhile Dr Natalie Jones feels that finding a group of like-minded people has helped ease the burden for her, these are the two main things you can do to combat climate anxiety.
In spite of all these facts, climate anxiety does not seem to have taken a great hold over students. After asking eight Sheffield students what their views are on this, just one said they suffer from heavy climate anxiety, three said they are moderately anxious whilst the majority (four) do not suffer any form of anxiety. Some of the other results from this survey make clear what some of the reasoning behind this apathy and lack of care could be.
Of the respondents asked, one said they had not heard about the latest report from the IPCC, whilst six had heard about the ‘Just Stop Oil’ protest at the Snooker world championships. This has made it clear that the ways in which the climate crisis is communicated via the media is largely ineffective according to Sheffield’s students.
The statistics and figures detailed above do not get communicated via the media or through the politicians we elect with anywhere near enough urgency. In fact, the session of Prime Ministers’ questions which followed this report did not feature any questions regarding the contents of it and the government’s plans to contribute to tackling the climate crisis. Additionally, none of Britain’s leading newspapers the following day led with the story of the IPCC’s report and only four out of the 11 leading papers even dedicated a small section of their front page to the report or the UN’s response. As the survey displays, when students hear about climate related issues it is largely through divisive protest groups which therefore prevents people from calling for climate action in a unified way.
Overall, there is a section of students in Sheffield who feel climate anxiety and are worried about climate change, though that group may not be as large as you’d think. The main cause for this feeling seems to stem from the contrast between the existential threat faced as a result of global warming when contrasted with the disproportionate action by governments across the world and the inordinate coverage from mainstream media in response to the climate crisis. The advice for students who feel this way is to try and contribute in small ways to alleviate anxiety and make it feel as though you are doing your bit. However, there is seemingly a much larger group who do not feel this same feeling of anxiety, or at least to the same level as other students, which seems to be a result of the media’s inability to communicate the scale of the problem to the general population.