Climate Change Causes Anxiety And Despair In Teens, Youth: New Report

PORTLAND, OR — For Oregon teen Te Maia Wiki, it is simple.

"The health and well-being of the land is intrinsically linked to the health and well-being of the people," she said Tuesday by Zoom from her home in Ashland. "Because of that, we see ourselves as stewards of the land."

Climate change is causing stress, anxiety and depression in Oregon youth and teens, according to a report Thursday by the Oregon Health Authority, "Climate Change and Youth Mental Health."

Adding to that depression, teens and youth are increasingly feeling dismissed by adults when they raise the issue of climate control, according to the report.

Wiki's beliefs and experiences helped inform the report, which was ordered by Gov. Kate Brown in 2020 as part of an executive order requiring state agencies to take steps to reduce and regulate greenhouse emissions.

"This isn't just a stressful conversation when you talk about the climate crisis," Wiki said. "It's a full spiritual, emotional and physical embodiment in how it impacts me."

Wiki said she learned stewardship from her parents. Her mother is a descendant of the Yurok and Tolowa peoples off Southern Oregon and Northern California, while her father is descended from two Maori tribes of New Zealand.

"Although those are significantly different cultures, being on different sides of the Pacific Ocean and in different hemispheres, they have the same core values," Wiki said. "That's the way that I have grown up."

Teens and youth "recognize the vulnerability to climate change is closely linked with systemic racism and structural oppression, and that both need to be simultaneously addressed," the Oregon Health Authority said in a news release accompanying its report.

As young people see more results of climate change — in Oregon, that means rising temperatures and more wildfires each year — the more they become "very worried about their future and the future of their younger siblings," said Julie Early Sifuentes, who manages the authority's Climate and Health Program and was the report's lead author.

Wiki said that the worry becomes worse just by experiencing day-to-day life.

"I have seen the environment around me change significantly just in my lifetime," Wiki said. "I've grown up knowing that, in August, I don't want to be outside because of how smoky it is because of the forest fires surrounding me."

Wiki said she also sees the effects of climate change in the difficulties her people face to catch salmon in the numbers they used to and being around places where she grew up.

"At the beach just below my grandmother's house, I used to spend the day walking along the coastline," she said. "From the time I went into middle school until now, a significant portion of that beach has been swallowed by the ocean. You can no longer walk that beach because it's no longer there."

The report concluded with a plea to "decision-makers, educators, mental health professionals and environmental professionals” to take more steps to include young people in climate change discussions.

It suggested several concrete steps adults can take:

• Share power with youth in decision-making about climate and mental health policy, and solutions to increase youth’s sense of hope, belonging and agency.
• Educate themselves about the connection between climate change and youth mental health, including healing-centered approaches to engage with youth.
• Increase investments in school and community mental health services. These investments are needed to meet increasing demands to support youth, family, and community well-being.

"I hope this report gets more conversations going in communities across the state, about how we can join with youth in confronting these crises," Sifuentes said.

"Youth need to feel a sense of control and empowerment when it comes to climate change," she said. "Addressing these needs will build their confidence and resilience as they help society develop meaningful solutions to take on these environmental effects into the future."

Wiki is not new to climate activism.

Last year, she traveled with a group that brought a 25-foot totem pole carved by the Tears Carvers of the Lummi Nation to the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. As the totem pole made its way to Washington, D.C., from the Pacific Northwest, those traveling with it tried to build unity, understanding and community.

Things have to change now, she said.

"When you hear adults say things like you are a future leader or they are leaving the planet to us, it's so frustrating," she said. "I don't magically get the Earth as soon as older generations pass away. I'm getting it now. I had it five years ago. When I was born, I was born into this crisis."

"Healing ourselves is healing the planet."