001: The 

Problem Statement

How might we help discouraged youth build emotional capacity for climate action?

002: 

Secondary Research

What is climate grief? Why do we care?

Climate grief is "the grief felt in relation to experienced or anticipated ecological losses, including the loss of species, ecosystems, and meaningful landscapes due to acute or chronic environmental change."

Source

These feelings are incredibly common amongst youth. In a study of 10,000 youth in 10 countries by the University of Bath:

45%

said their feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily life and functioning.

76%

think that the future is frightening.

83%

think people have failed to take care of the planet.
Source

Not only does this threaten the mental health and wellbeing of youth, but also could lead to them distancing themselves from the problem, disengaging from, or dismissing it.

003: 

Primary Research

What are youth saying about climate grief?

To further understand how this problem is impacting youth, our team conducted 4 interviews. We uncovered 4 major themes.

  • None of the participants have discussed their climate grief with others.
  • 3 out of 4 participants said that climate anxiety has made it hard for them to stay motivated in the fight against climate change.
  • None of the participants are familiar with resources or communities working to address climate grief.
  • Half of the participants feel unsure about whether their actions are impactful.

A participant said:

“I do what I can for the climate like recycle or use reusable bags, but I can’t help but feel like my actions are so small and not impactful.”

004: The 

Final Idea

A platform to share stories and experiences

Our platform shares stories and experiences of when people feel climate grief in witty and relatable ways to normalize these emotions, while providing additional context for learning. Users are encouraged to share their own stories to build a growing repository of stories. These four stories shown are from our interview participants.

Mockup of a screen: When do you feel grief about the climate? When numbers are rising far faster than our little human minds can conceive. 39,763,355,044 Tons of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere, this year. 14.9740745718 World average temperature (°C), now. 25,806,817.47 Hectares of forests cut down or burned, this year.
Mockup of a screen: When a relatable, carbon-emitting queen complains about her awful flight. “And my flight was awful, thanks for asking.” — Snow on the Beach, Taylor Swift Was it though, Ms. Taylor “Private Jet” Swift? (hey blondie, you could have at least let Lana sing that part) T.S.’s plane racked up 8,293 tonnes of carbon from 170 trips in the first half of 2022 alone. That’s more than 165 times what the average American household emits in a year.
Mockup of a screen: When the media delegitimizes climate activism by equating it to throwing soup on paintings. Regardless, the soup has a meaning. The act was not to grab attention, but to activate our love of art. What is worth more, art or life? If you can mourn the prospect of losing these cultural artifacts, you will perhaps mourn after learning that on average, overall animal populations have declined by two-thirds over the last half-century, a warning sign of ecosystems in peril.
Mockup of a screen: When green and clean companies tell consumers to fix the climate crisis that they caused. Tweet by bp (The first step to reducing your emissions is to know where you stand. Find out your #carbonfootprint with our new calculator & share your pledge today!) Reply tweet (i pledge not to spill 4.9 million barrels of oil into the gulf of mexico) BP wants you to accept responsibility for the globally disrupted climate. BP unveiled its “carbon footprint calculator” in 2004, and ran a successful but deceptive PR campaign to shift blame to consumers. Yes, lower your footprint, but it includes recognising how to actually curb the planet’s warming, which involves collective action.

A platform to find communities and resources addressing climate grief

After viewing stories, users are invited to take an assessment to reflect on their own goals, values, and approach to activism. This assessment is designed to help users understand their role in addressing climate grief and to match them to a personalized selection of communities. By linking users to one of the many communities working to address climate grief based on their individual values, needs, and personalities, their climate grief can be transformed into other forms like climate optimism or radical imagination.

Six screens showing the matched result. First screen: You’re an Innovator! Look at you innovating! You love learning and researching new ideas and concepts. You are confident and open to new experiences. You have internal motivation to contribute to change and can overcome barriers you may face. You are very resilient in the face of adversity and are always striving to stand up and find a better way to improve.

A platform to encourage community building

After completing the assessment, users are able to share their results on social media. Sharing normalises climate grief and opens up conversations within their social circles, as well as raises awareness about communities working to address climate grief.

Three screens showing shareable personalities. First screen: I mourn a changing planet. but as an Innovator I can transform my emotions into new ideas, solutions, and hope to inspire others. I’m Curious. I’m a Visionary. I can Invent and Inspire. Your grief doesn’t have to be buried. Let’s face it and transform it into collective action. Find your community at #IFeelClimateGrief. I found my community with: Climate and Mind The Resource Innovation Group

005: 

The Future

Where do we go from here?

We have a series of ideas for further development of #IFeelClimateGrief in future. Beyond that, while you're reading this, I would like to emphasise that our future is being decided right now. People feeling grief for the planet means that they care and that they are paying attention. Let's support each other. As soon as we're not alone in these feelings, we can transform them into energised, passionate, collective change. Every collective action makes a difference for millions of people, communities, and ecosystems. The difference between the best future and the worst future is vast.

A tote bag that says The Innovator with a statue with a succulent growing out of its head. A baseball cap that says #IFeelClimateGrief.

Kickstarting platform

We should build the website and encourage first users to share on social media. We have set up an #IFeelClimateGrief channel in the Climate Change Makers with over 250 members sharing stories and reflections of how the climate crisis has affected them. The channel can be a good starting base.

Community collaborations

We could partner with communities to understand their needs and acquire retention data to see which users are continuing to contribute to these communities so that we can improve the effectiveness of our matching system.

Merchandising opportunities

#IFeelClimateGrief merchandise has two-fold benefits. First, starting conversations in-person and further normalising climate grief through real life visibility. Second, to fund the upkeep costs of the platform.

006: My Takeaways and 

Reflections

There is a string of pink balls. Other pink balls are getting strung along as well, while yellow balls are left floating around.

Adaptability Under Pressure

In the short timeline for this project, we changed our project idea and focus multiple times. I had good practice adapting to these complete shifts and to take advantage of the new opportunities that arose instead of lamenting abandoned work. To work efficiently, I learned to take on many different roles and work within changing team dynamics.

A group of pink balls are travelling together down a track.

Moments to Breathe

As identified from our research, the topic was emotionally taxing. While reading countless stories of climate grief, I felt overwhelmed at times. These feelings were compounded by the short timeframe and pressure to complete the project. I learned to take necessary breaks to refresh my perspective, which allowed me to produce better work.