Climate change is harming people's mental wellbeing and the impact will only get worse, warned psychologist Garret Barnwell, who authored a report on the subject.

Barnwell has for years worked with communities struggling with environmental problems, said people in poorer countries like South Africa where inequalities are vast are even more vulnerable to climate anxiety.

His report, "The Psychological Mental Health Consequences of Climate Change in South Africa" was released in September.

AFP sat down with Barnwell in the Wilds Nature Reserve in the middle of an upmarket Johannesburg suburb to speak about climate anxiety.

His answers have been condensed and edited for clarity.

- What is climate anxiety? -

Climate anxiety came to prominence in the last couple of years. This term has been very useful especially to gain attention for anger, anxiety, a sense of grief, fear or worry.

However, it's a lot more complicated in the Global South... we live in places where there are multiple social injustices, it's not only climate change that is experienced.

(It can be) an amplifier of a lot of other social injustices, so in that sense, we do need to think about how it's being framed.

- What are the psychological impacts of climate change? -

First the direct impacts, like natural disasters, the second (is) witnessing someone else suffering.

The anticipation of something happening, this is where climate anxiety comes in.

These things aren't separate, so they actually accumulate across the lifespan.

Most people will experience several different things; they'll witness other people suffering, they might go through their own kind of troubles and anticipate a future that may not be viable to some.

- How do young people experience climate change? -

(They) are experiencing multiple adverse events, they're not only psychological, but they're actually material events that have dramatic impacts on daily living.

For instance, the floods in Beira in Mozambique, we've also had historical droughts in South Africa, Cape Town was one of the first cities in the world to have been threatened to go completely dry.

These events in the Global South, they're not novel and have dramatic impacts on everyone.

Whether it be a natural disaster or storm surges, you have kids' schools being interrupted, anxieties of routine being broken.

They may feel anxious, hopeless or despairing, some may not know what's going on but live in a life with relative deprivation, compared to before.

(Climate change could exacerbate) already existing wounds in society, especially in a country like South Africa has a higher level of inequality.

It's going to create major insecurity in daily living.

- How is this anxiety is related to government inaction? -

It's knowing that the adult world isn't doing what is necessary to avert the crisis.

Young people are really reliant on the adult world for care, for making the right decisions, (so) when you see the adult world not doing something, that creates a sense of institutional betrayal.

- How do you counsel youth with such anxieties?

We need to be careful of framing it as a mental illness, (but take the) anxiety as a warning bell.

Some people do experience significant distress, which can result in destructive behaviour, excessive alcohol use or self-harm, and suicide.

The solution isn't necessarily therapy, although therapy can be supportive to the process, we need political action.

I think often there is a 'paternalisation' that takes place, where we think kids can't handle the information, but in fact, they're very aware of it.

If we mirror the kind of actions that can take place, connecting to various things in one city or town or village, that is kind of pro-environmental, not only validating people's feelings in what we say but also in what we do.

Thunberg labels COP26 'failure' as youth demand action
Glasgow (AFP) Nov 5, 2021 - Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg on Friday branded the UN climate summit in Glasgow a "failure" during a mass protest in the Scottish city demanding swifter action from leaders to address the emergency.

Thunberg said pledges from some nations made during COP26 to accelerate their emissions cuts amounted to little more than "a two-week long celebration of business as usual and blah, blah, blah".

"It is not a secret that COP26 is a failure," she told the thousands of people at the protest.

"This is no longer a climate conference. This is now a global greenwashing festival."

Delegates from nearly 200 countries are in Glasgow to hammer out how to meet the Paris Agreement goals of limiting temperature rises to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius.

The first week of talks saw countries announce plans to phase out coal use and to end foreign fossil fuel funding, but there were few details on how they plan the mass decarbonisation scientists say is needed.

The promises followed a major assessment that showed global CO2 emissions are set to rebound in 2021 to pre-pandemic levels.

"They cannot ignore the scientific consensus and they cannot ignore us," said Thunberg.

"Our leaders are not leading. This is what leadership looks like," she said gesturing to the crowd.

Two days of demonstrations are planned by activist groups to highlight the disconnect between the glacial pace of emissions reductions and the climate emergency already swamping countries across the world.

- Some progress -

Onlookers to Friday's march lined the streets and hung out of windows to watch the stream of protesters, who held banners reading "No Planet B" and "Climate Action Now".

"I'm here because the world leaders are deciding the fate of our future and the present of people that have already been impacted by climate crisis," said 18-year-old Valentina Ruas.

"We won't accept anything that isn't real climate policy centred on climate justice."

Students were out in force, with some schools allowing pupils to skip lessons to see the march and one young green warrior holding a placard that read: "Climate change is worse than homework".

Experts say a commitment made during the high-level leaders' summit at the start of COP26 by more than 100 nations to cut methane emissions by at least 30 percent this decade will have a real short-term impact on global heating.

But environmental groups pointed out that governments, particularly wealthy polluters, have a habit of failing to live up to their promises.

Vanessa Nakate told the crowd that people in her native Uganda were "being erased" by climate change.

"People are dying, children are dropping out of school, farms are being destroyed," she said.

"Another world is necessary. Another world is possible."

- 'Take responsibility' -

Countries came into COP26 with national climate plans that, when brought together, put Earth on course to warm 2.7C this century, according to the UN.

With just 1.1C of warming so far, communities across the world are already facing ever more intense fire and drought, displacement and economic ruin wrought by the Earth's heating climate.

"Scientists have done what they need to do, they've told us about the problem. Young people have done what they need to do by calling attention to this issue," said Natalie Tariro Chido Mangondo, a Zimbabwean climate and gender advocate.

"And it's just up to our leaders to get their act together."

Campaigners say they expect up to 50,000 demonstrators in the Scottish city on Saturday as part of a global round of climate protests.

A spokesman from Police Scotland said there were "fewer than 20 arrests made" as of Friday night, mainly for public disorder offences.

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