Fear.
Anxiety.
Impending doom.
College students at Pepperdine University said they feel these things when they think of the words natural disaster and climate change — leading to a condition scientists call climate anxiety.
Climate anxiety is a heightened emotional distress or worry in response to changes in the climate, according to the National Library of Medicine. For some young people, climate anxiety guides their day-to-day life, and they said they experience this anxiety based on past weather events and natural disasters they have experienced.
“You just have to live through the storm,” senior Raymund Avenido said. “I can’t really change that and I think it’s pretty terrifying — nature is pretty scary.”
In Malibu, residents have faced a variety of events that could lead to climate anxiety. In 2018, the Woolsey fire swept through Malibu, burning nearly 100,000 acres and 1,500 structures, and evacuating 3,000 people, according to previous Graphic reporting.
More recently, Malibu has experienced severe levels of rain, closing lanes of PCH and Malibu Canyon, and canceling schools in the area.
Youth outlook
Young people are facing a climate unlike anything their generation, their parents or their grandparents’ generations have seen before.
In a Cleveland Clinic survey of students ages 16 to 25, 84% of young people said they were worried about climate change, and 75% said they were frightened for the future because of climate change, according to a 2021 survey by Cleveland Clinic.
“Climate change is a huge source of stress and anxiety in my life,” college senior Mary Roggleman said.
Especially when considering the future, students said climate change is a significant factor in where to move to and start their careers.
“There’s no safe cities anywhere in the world,” Avenido said. “So I gotta figure out where to live for the rest of my life.”
High school sophomore Aidan Colburn said he used to believe climate change was something that might affect him, but he thought it probably wouldn’t. He has grown up living on Pepperdine’s campus in Malibu in a faculty housing neighborhood with his siblings and mom, Cindy Colburn, professor of Art History.
“Before, it was a prospect, now it’s becoming more of a reality,” Colburn said.
Colburn experienced the Woolsey Fire in November 2018.
As the fire started approaching Malibu on the windy November night, he said he and his family packed up their belongings and drove about two hours south to San Clemente — just in time.
Safely staying with family further south, Colburn said he received updates from his neighbors about the status of the fire and the status of his home.
“I just felt really bad about it because it [the fire] was so close to my house,” Colburn said. “I felt like ‘Oh, it could have been me at any given moment.’”
Colburn said the fire stopped 10 to 20 feet short of his house. It was a “twist of fate” that saved his house from burning.
“It [Woolsey] makes it feel like this climate is volatile,” Colburn said.
More recently, Malibu experienced Hurricane Hilary — a tropical storm that arrived the day before Seaver’s first day of classes, according to previous Graphic reporting.
Students who thought they were attending school in sunny Southern California said the storm came out of nowhere. For first-year Nick Gerding, the storm came as a shock and added extra worry to his move-in process.
In addition, Gerding’s brother was on campus for Woolsey, so he said even before he arrived, natural disasters outside of his control shaped his college experience.
“Every time a Gerding has been on campus, there’s been a natural disaster,” college first-year Nick Gerding said. “I don’t know what our luck is, but it’s not great. That’s always daunting.”
Not only was staying safe a concern for Gerding, but he said he also worried about the roads, buildings and power.
“I worry the infrastructure of California is not built for heavy rains,” Gerding said. “They’ve [Malibu] had heavy rain all year and had severe flash floods. I’m just worried about that.”
Trends in anxiety
Shuli Lotan, the mental health counseling coordinator for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, said anxiety levels have been on the rise for youth in recent years.
“Climate anxiety is one piece of a bigger anxiety uptick that we’ve seen in students over the past decade or so,” Lotan said. “Both the rates of anxiety and depression have really increased a lot in our youth.”
A 2021 survey of 16 to 25-year-olds found that over half of individuals felt sad, hopeless or anxious when thinking about climate change, according to an article by Nature.
In the early adolescent years, Lotan said most youth show signs of anxiety when it comes to interpersonal relationships. Lotan believes climate anxiety is an underlying issue that youth do not vocalize.
In the post-Woolsey Fire world in Malibu, Lotan said youth are grappling with the idea of an “impending doom.” Some youth said they are also feeling helpless.
“There can be kind of a passive acceptance or like a fatalistic view of like, ‘Oh, the world is f*****. I have no power. There’s nothing we can do about it,’” Lotan said.
Activism
While some youth are settling with the idea of an “impending doom,” Lotan said other youth turn to activism to reduce their anxieties. Lotan said the turn toward activism typically occurs in late high school years and into college.
“I’ve seen kids get really interested in bigger social issues and want to affect change, which can be really positive for your mental health,” Lotan said.
Staying involved and educated on climate justice can aid in reducing climate anxiety, Lotan said. Climate justice can help reduce the helplessness some youth are feeling.
“There’s a lot of power that can come from activism,” Lotan said. “So that’s definitely something that I would explore as an option for them to better their mental health. Just feel like they have some say and some voice and changing what’s happening.”
