Coping with climate anxiety as a geoscientist 

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The world is facing a climate and ecological crisis. This is now fairly common knowledge with many governments declaring a “climate emergency” over the last 4 years. We are passing key “tipping points”, critical thresholds that when crossed lead to irreversible changes to our planet. This situation is not just impacting our planet; this knowledge, the feeling of powerlessness it creates, is impacting our mental well-being. A 2021 global study of 10,000 16-25 year olds found that respondents across 10 countries have climate anxiety, with almost 60% extremely worried about the climate crisis and more than 45% saying these emotions impacted their daily lives. 

I have intense climate anxiety. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns us that we have a ‘rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all’. I find this statement so scary, so stressful, so urgent. The sentence has caused panic attacks. When I think about the future, I struggle to imagine what it looks like. How will my partner, my family and my friends survive? 

I have come to the conclusion that hope is the only way forward. In this blog, I explain how my career as a geoscientist has helped me. 

Refocusing my research

When I first started out, I neglected the true scale of the climate crisis itself- I chose geology and physical geography because I loved being outside in the mountains and I wanted to understand the physical landforms around me. I completed a BSc in Geology with Physical Geography where I focused on geological mapping, fieldwork and sedimentology leading me to a Masters degree in Structural Geology with Geophysics – a course that was quite focussed on securing a career in the fossil fuel industry. I wanted to continue with academic research and began a doctoral degree focussed on sedimentology, studying Cretaceous-aged sediments in the Barmer Basin, India. I loved it! I loved the research, the opportunity to travel and collect data from field sites in India and the ability to bring many separate datasets together. My PhD was funded by oil industry sponsors, but I didn’t see or appreciate the connection of my research to the development of an oil field until I was writing my final thesis. Towards the end of my doctoral studies I started a geoscience* teaching fellowship. I noticed a shift in focus away from the hydrocarbon industry towards renewable energies, cleaning up the environment and geoscience solutions to tackling the climate crisis. I started reading journal articles about how Earth’s sedimentary systems – our rivers, oceans, lakes – are being affected by the climate crisis, and about how microplastics are entering these systems and being transported to our oceans. Some articles predicted that by 2050 the amount of plastic in the ocean will outweigh the amount of fish.

It was then that I decided to disconnect my work from hydrocarbon applications. I began to re-focus my research: rather than study sedimentary processes to understand hydrocarbon systems, I began to study sedimentary processes to understand how river systems store and transport microplastics.

Being the change I want to see

In 2018 I became a Senior Lecturer at the University of the West of England in Bristol. Here, I was able to edit and change elements of an undergraduate geology degree to include new geoscience developments. I coordinated a new module focusing on the impacts of mining and renewable energies. I changed sedimentology teaching to include how the climate crisis is influencing sedimentary environments and supervised dissertations studying microplastic transportation. Like many others, this geology degree has sadly been discontinued as a result of falling geology student recruitment across the UK; many do not realise the vital importance of modern geoscience careers in our future.

My partner and I have made numerous personal life changes to limit our impact on the environment. While these changes help us feel better about ourselves but they are a micro-droplet in the ocean. This led me to research different climate crisis charities and movements to help me manage my growing anxiety around the climate and sense of frustration. There are many groups of people doing incredible and important things to support positive change. By joining Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion (XR) I have met people that care deeply about our planet and our future, and who are courageous in challenging society to change. For example, this very weekend (April 21st-24th) over 70 organisations are coming together to urge the government to do more; it’s nicknamed The Big One. Between my activism and my job, I have found a group of people that allow me to worry about the future and be myself. I am able to use the knowledge I’ve built up over the years from research and teaching in geoscience to talk to people about the climate crisis and this is where my hope lies. 

I am still very anxious about the future. It is impossible not to worry about such an important and urgent issue. I am in therapy and now talk to people honestly about how I feel; I often find that they understand the issues and worries I have. Whilst my climate anxiety, the insomnia it creates, has not gone away, I manage it by being active in teaching the next generation, active in talking to the public about the climate crisis, and active in reducing my personal environmental footprint. Being active and honest in this way gives me hope for the future because at the end of the day we can only hope if we are willing to act.

*I use the term geoscience here to include geology, physical geography and environmental science