By Mark Mackey, SJ | Loyola University Chicago – School of Environmental Sustainability, USA Midwest Province
[From “Jesuits 2024 - The Society of Jesus in the world”]

Accompanying youth through eco-anxiety: a part of the work of a Jesuit Brother, professor at the School of Environmental Sustainability, in Chicago (USA).

“Mom, I told you, I’m not going to have kids! [pause, listening]. How can I do that? How can I bring children into this world? There’s not even going to be any green left. It’s too late. That would be cruel.”

This was a snippet of conversation I unintentionally overheard. A visibly and audibly upset student was talking on her phone on the campus of Loyola University Chicago. It was October 2018, and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had just released its latest report. The report covered the global impacts of an increase of 1.5 °C above the pre-industrial period and how to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Some news agencies ran headlines such as “Planet has only until 2030 to stem catastrophic climate change, experts warn”. People were beginning to take notice of these reports on climate change, and often the framing and conclusions were despairing.

How can we better accompany this student? How can we help her navigate media headlines? How can we help her learn about the mechanisms and serious consequences of climate change while also moving into a hope-filled future? These were some of the questions that fueled my MA thesis in Christian Spirituality titled In Pursuit of an Ecologically-Based Spirituality Which Leads to Spiritual Accompaniment and Environmental Action. I finished it in 2020. Around the time I returned to Loyola in August of 2021 to teach full time as a lecturer of environmental science, The Lancet Planetary Health journal published the results of a survey of 10,000 young adults ages 16-25 from 10 countries (six from the Global North and four from the Global South). Of the 10,000 respondents, 75% indicated “The future is frightening”; 56% indicated “humanity is doomed”; 39% indicated they were “Hesitant to have children”. Apparently, the American student I had overheard three years prior was not alone.

In spring of 2022, I taught Eco-Spirituality for Action, a class that has students explore the interconnectedness of creation over time (cosmology) and space (ecology) through a spiritual lens. After the semester, I asked five promising students from this class whether they would be interested in helping start an eco-anxiety support group both for themselves and for other Loyola students. All five students readily agreed, and thus began our group. We have now met once a week for a whole school year, and at least five clear benefits of this group have become apparent: community, solidarity, a place to vent, spirituality, and hope.

We start each hour-long meeting with ten minutes of making tea and catching up informally, and this building of community is as important as any aspect. Madeline Palmquist, a third year Conservation and Restoration Ecology student, says, “Studying environmental science comes with a weight that is unlike other majors, and building a community to talk about that unique pressure and stress has been incredible.” From this community comes solidarity. “When I begin to feel overwhelmed by the state of our environment, this group has been a safety net to remind me that I am not alone in my fears”, adds biology student Sidney Ryans.

Our group also provides a healthy place to vent. Environmental Policy student Lori Cornelius reflects, “Oftentimes when we are sitting in our environmental classes, we have to put up an emotionless front and just take the doom and gloom. With this group, I feel that I can express my frustrations and grief about the world’s situation and feel heard, understood, and supported.” Carly Fournier, an Environmental Science MS student states, “This group has been helpful by providing an outlet for me to pause and contemplate on what I can and cannot control in life, in a spiritual sense. There is a dire need for students in environmental fields of study to have access to a space similar to this and I hope that other schools can replicate an eco-anxiety group of their own.” Finally, this group is about hope. “I leave each meeting with a renewed sense of hope that I carry into the rest of my week”, says sophomore Environmental Policy student Scotty Monteith.

During our first meeting, something unplanned happened. Someone had written the word “Eco-worriers” on the whiteboard at the beginning of our meeting, serving as a possible name. At the conclusion of our meeting, with spirits lifted, a student went up and changed a few letters to read “Eco-warriors”. This ritual of changing eco-worriers to eco-warriors has become the opening and closing practice of every meeting.