In an era of eco-anxiety, how do we protect young people from the lure of doomerism?

Advice from the trenches

The kids are not alright.

I know how they feel. I was anxious about the state of the planet from a young age and did everything I could to make a difference. I know many people think of activists as attention-seekers, and certainly, some of them have problems with inflated egos, but I was never driven by narcissism. I was driven by fear.

Anxiety, a feeling of helplessness, and fear. 

Now that fear is widespread. In a 2021 survey of 10,000 young people between 16 and 25 years old across ten countries, 59% of respondents were very or extremely worried and 84% were at least moderately worried about climate change. More than 50% reported feeling sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless, and guilty. 56% of respondents felt that ‘humanity is doomed.’

I’ve spent a lifetime in the climate movement in one way or another, from writing a book on green parenting to giving talks on climate change to blocking roads. I still care about poverty, climate change, air pollution, and other environmental and social justice issues. But I have changed my approach.

Out of desperation and fear, eco-anxious individuals are joining mainstream climate activist groups. I understand why: I’ve been there, done that, bought the rhetoric. But after two decades of taking action, it’s become clear that some groups are doing more harm than good. 

I was misled by these organisations, and many young people are being misled now.

I would not have become so involved in these groups if I had been exposed to more rational voices and role models, or received a better education, or received adequate help for my anxiety. These are failings of society rather than a personal failing: I grew up poor and disillusioned in the inner city, and groups like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth reached out to me. I thought I could work with them to make the world a better place. Many people still believe they’re the good guys.

I have already written about my experience as a core member of Extinction Rebellion (XR) and the process of leaving it. Many of you have asked how I was able to leave.

Leaving was difficult. Similar tactics are used to gain and retain members of climate activist organisations as are used in religious cults.

Professor Jayanti Tamm, who escaped a religious cult, writes, “To maintain the unity and cohesion of the cult, there is a clear separation between those 'inside' and 'outside.' Members are holy, special, chosen; outsiders are unholy, ignorant, toxic. We have the truth, and everyone else is being misled.” 

This was one of our slogans: ‘tell the truth.’ 

To step back from a movement that I have in some way been part of (and still am a part of, but am now attempting to lead in a different direction) for twenty years, I had to re-evaluate everything I had believed. About the people I had been around for most of my life, my friends who I thought shared the same values as me, and my actions in the environmental movement. I had been in a state of crisis for years, and this had been used to convince me that my purpose was to ‘wake people up to the climate emergency.’

I had to entertain the very painful idea that I was part of the problem. I had, after all, been protesting some of the key solutions to bringing down global greenhouse gas emissions, like nuclear energy, for years.

In her essay on cult leadership, social psychology lecturer Alexandra Stein writes that “a person might also leave if the leadership makes demands that are simply too extreme.” This summarises the moment of awakening for me. On live television, I had been put in a position where I had to defend a claim that I knew was untrue, and I felt unable to do so.

Ideology is powerful. It is the bond that holds many groups together, religious or activist, and it can be lifesaving as much as it can be dangerous. I had to leave behind my tribe, who took me in when I felt lost in the world, and to whom I had given so much of my time and energy.

On the Sky News program Common Ground, I tried to convince my ex-colleague Clare Farrell, one of the founders of XR, who I had worked with closely, that her organisation is problematic. My words didn’t get through.

 “We’re already in a state of breakdown,” she told the host, Trevor Phillips, “Guys, it’s actually already too late… We’re facing the breakdown of everything.” The idea of being on a special mission to save humanity is one of the things that makes it so difficult to leave. We have a cause to win, only it isn’t winnable in any real sense, which means we are also trapped. Sitting across from Farrell and watching her speak was like looking in a mirror at myself a decade ago.

On the program, I argued in favour of less extreme and polarising protests, engaging in democratic processes, and abandoning XR’s mass arrest strategy and fear campaigns. Farrell heavily disagreed with me on all of these points.

Interestingly, XR recently issued a statement outlining a ‘controversial resolution to temporarily shift away from public disruption as a primary tactic.’

The late statistician Hans Rosling liked to point out that most people around the world incorrectly believe that the world is getting worse, when the contrary is true in many respects. In reality, data shows that extreme poverty is on the decline, access to education is on the rise, and global child mortality is on the decline.

This is crucial information for the young people who will inherit the world’s problems. How can we address important issues if we don’t understand what they are? And how can we reach out to people who have already succumbed to doomerism?

It is difficult, but not impossible.

Start a conversation

In his essay on the danger of the fear narrative, meteorologist Eric Holthaus writes: “Presented with the idea that the planet that gives us life might be dying, parts of our brain shut down. We are unable to think logically.” 

It’s important to recognise this and make space to have conversations with people who feel that all hope is lost. These debates often become polarised, with each side becoming more entrenched in their views. 

People who feel overwhelmed by fear need space to explore their thoughts and beliefs. They need people to talk to away from the dominant groupthink. Fortunately, I have people in my life with whom I can have these debates. They are able to foster dialogue, but without telling me what to think. This helped immensely when I was questioning the organisation I was an active member of.

Offer anxious activists a way out. Engage with them and listen to what they have to say without judgement. Dismissing or ridiculing them, or telling them they’re wrong, will do more harm than good. 

The messenger matters

People are much more likely to accept challenging information when it comes from someone they identify with, i.e. an ‘ingroup’ member, than from someone on the outside. This is more important than what the message is. 

Stein has advice on this based on her experience of escaping a cult: “One way is to find a trusted other to help you take a good, hard look at reality. Time away from the group, where thinking can be reintegrated, is another way out.”

This is why it’s so important to stay neutral and compassionate during conversations about climate change and the future. 

Challenge doomerism

Climate change is a serious issue, but it’s not going to wipe out all life in the next decade, which is what some young people are being led to believe. There are many convincing communicators with significant social media followings who love telling people that the end is nigh, who prey on people’s fears and urge them to take drastic action to save humanity. This creates a further spiral of anxiety and pessimism. 

Senior Researcher and Head of Research at Our World in Data Dr Hannah Richie argues in her essay on impatient optimism that “Pessimism blocks solutions. If we always believe that the worst will happen, then what’s the point in starting? If any action will fail, we should stick with the status quo. Follow the pessimists if you want the world to stagnate or regress.” 

Learn to identify doomerism, and challenge it whenever you come across it. It holds us back from making real progress. 

Shift the focus to solutions

The best way for an individual to address their feelings of fear and hopelessness over climate change is to gain some agency over the issue. This is where young people can take some control, not by sitting on roads, which leads to a never-ending cycle because doing so doesn’t actually address climate change, but by getting involved in fighting for positive solutions in a productive way, with a non-doomer community.

There are many things we can do to make the world a better place. I have never felt as optimistic for the future as I have since I founded Emergency Reactor to fight for solutions. Instead of focusing on everything I am against, as I did for many years, I now have a positive community with shared values based on evidence, not fear, and we are fighting for winnable objectives. For example, every time we help to save a nuclear power plant from being prematurely shut down, we can clearly see the positive outcomes of emissions being saved, clean energy workers retaining their jobs, and so on.

As a mother of two young daughters, I do not wish to see my children, or their friends, experience eco-anxiety because they have been convinced that they don’t have a future. I do not want them to feel that they can’t have children and that their futures have been stolen from them. I do not want to watch them put themselves in danger, as I did so many times, because they are trapped in a vicious cycle of fear and anxiety.

If you have children or young family members, teach them the facts about the world and discuss the solutions needed to address global problems. This can act as a form of prevention when they are exposed to doomerist arguments. 

Activists are often excellent communicators, and strong counter-arguments, based on reality, are needed to challenge attractive doomsday storytelling. Amplify the voices of scientists over activists; they may share less exciting narratives, but they are more reasonable and accurate, and can offer real solutions.

The most powerful preventative method is to tell children positive stories about how much humankind has already achieved. This may not come naturally to you, but if you’re not doing it, you’re only a few steps away from doomerist territory yourself.

For many years I was surrounded by people who believe that humankind is a virus on the planet and that people deserve to be eradicated. This dark ideology is more common than you think, and it is easily reinforced by relentless bad news in the media. We must learn to tell better stories about humanity. Celebrate humankind and all of our achievements, and share this with your children. Because the truth is that the humans are alright.

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Thanks for reading this article. I wrote it after numerous people reached out asking for advice about loved ones whom they fear have been taken in by cult mentality. If you need help, please reach out to relevant support groups and professionals for help. Feel free to post links to organisations in the comments.