Our motivation to work in environmental advocacy
How can we encourage the next generation of advocates?
A research paper based on a survey to staff; a culminative internship project at Washington Conservation Action (WCA), Fall 2024.
Introduction
As a WCA Fall 2024 intern, I conducted a pre-election survey about climate distress.
I became interested in the psychology behind apathy in community college. My own a-ha moment of climate reckoning happened during my political science 101 class when I learned that scientists warned the government about the dangers of fossil fuels and carbon emissions decades ago. Al Gore’s easy-to-digest book: “An Inconvenient Truth: Truth to Power” brought science into perspective. I began to study apathy as a fear-based inhibitor for climate activism. My goal with this survey was to identify respondents’ climate anxiety motivations for careers in advocacy. I cope with my own climate distress by participating in online Climate Circles.
Washington Conservation Action staff and interns were given the opportunity to respond to the survey: “Our Stories about Climate Concern.” With gratitude and respect for the respondents’ time and vulnerability, this paper will uncover the shared responses, beginning with one hundred percent of participants reported feeling “climate distress" in the past year. 29% said they “regularly” feel distress, and 41% “occasionally” experience climate distress. I wonder if it’s universal– like at WCA, are about a third of advocates at risk of burning out? The survey revealed that there are various layers of distress; plus the sudden experiences and gradual realizations. This paper will also uncover how people cope.
Being a climate advocate myself since 2019, I have often wondered about others’ private internal responses to the worsening climate crisis. This survey shows that some advocates are at risk of mental health strain. As role models and leaders in this movement, should we put a safety net under the ladder of engagement by offering support to address the emotions that are always in the background of this work?
About distress
Not a clinical term, climate distress can be described as being either a moment in time, or an ongoing dread. In comparison, mental health is also a description of well-being. In context, both terms represent states of productivity, engagement, and resilience that one may experience day-to-day and/or acutely. Witnessing and/or experiencing climate harms may substantially challenge an individuals’ mind/mental health (Lewandowski, 2024). In softer terms, another way to describe it is ‘climate unease’ as opposed to the clinical term, ‘climate anxiety.’
Rebecca Weston, co-president of Climate Psychology Alliance and scores of other experts suggest that by not taking the time to examine emotions about climate threats, the act of suppressing these emotions could lead to burnout. Weston,, explained (2019), “If [you move] too fast from those feelings to action, it’s not actually processed feelings — it’s push them away, push them away — and invariably that model burns out.” (Andrews, 2024).
Is there a benefit to environmental organizations acknowledging the climate emotions of its staff, volunteers, and audience? This paper will consider that question, which leads to another one. The further research question to be explored: “Is there potential for using these types of reckoning stories as tools for engaging with new volunteers?”
Read the complete paper here.
