Environment – Mike Hynes

Climate Anxiety Among Higher Education Students at the University of Galway

As evidence of climate change becomes more apparent and the need to act becomes more urgent (IPCC, 2023), a sense of helplessness and powerlessness now filters through many sectors of society. Daily, the news brings new images and headlines about climate-related disasters — devastating storms and floods, disappearing lakes and rising sea levels, melting glaciers, and disappearing biodiversity. With the paralysis and procrastination of world leaders (and worse, outright denial) to act in the face of such urgency, it is no surprise that many are growing increasingly alarmed about the threat to humanity and the perilous state of our planet. Climate anxiety, also known as eco-anxiety, is the distress and fear related to the impacts of climate change on the environment and on future generations. Climate change is a real threat, so it’s normal to feel worried and concerned about its consequences. But worry is not the same thing as anxiety. Many people are worried about climate change, and that’s a good and healthy thing because worry as an emotion is a motivator. If you worry about something, you are motivated to better understand and act to mitigate that worry. Where worry becomes a problem is when it becomes overwhelming and debilitating, when it keeps you from living your life to its full potential. Climate anxiety can have some significant impacts in terms of a person’s mental well-being (Majeed and Lee, 2017; Charlson et al., 2022), and it can also lead to symptoms such as panic attacks, loss of appetite, irritability, weakness and sleeplessness (Swim et al., 2010).

Social scientists have contributed to a crucial body of work on how people cope with and psychologically adapt to climate change. Research findings show that climate change anxiety has two distinct effects on individuals: it directly encourages pro-environmental behaviours in some and, indirectly, may have detrimental effects on such action, such as eco-paralysis (Innocenti et al., 2023). A review of 94 studies focused on climate anxiety, involving 170,000 people across 27 countries, explored who it is most likely to affect and what its possible consequences could be (Kühner, 2025). It found that those who are more likely to experience climate anxiety include women, young adults, people with left-wing views, and those expressing concerns about nature or their future. Climate anxiety is increasing among students in higher education and among young people more broadly (Ramadan, 2023). In a study mapping higher education students’ climate anxiety across sustainability-related study fields, results place climate anxiety within a range of emotions, from sadness to hope (Khalaim and Budziszewska, 2024). Most respondents reported a mixture of empowering and paralysing emotional states, but also advised academia to rethink its time economies, prioritise transformative climate action, acknowledge students’ emotional work around sustainability issues, make climate education more humanistic, and include more-than-human-nature in educational spaces.

To better recognise and understand the local specificities of climate anxiety and its current levels in higher education, this research sought to capture how students, undertaking two sustainability-related modules at the University of Galway, feel about climate change, when their worry or anxiety spikes and what coping mechanisms they use when they experience such concerns. Although not extensive in nature and using a convenience sampling method, responses from 109 first-year and final-year undergraduate students were recieved and analysed. The student responses to these three questions are presented here in graphical form:

When asked whether they felt anxious about climate change, over 96% reported some level of anxiety, with the majority (70.6%) feeling anxious some of the time (Figure 1). Less than 4% reported no anxiety about climate change. When asked to indicate when such anxiety spiked, a wide range of triggers were suggested (Figure 2). The highest response (21.1%) was when students thought about their future, followed by extreme weather events and hearing about species extinction. In terms of what helps them alleviate worry and anxiety about climate change, the biggest response was ‘being more sustainable in their own lives’ (44%), followed by ‘distracting themselves with humour or entertainment’ (Figure 3).

Researchers are increasingly trying to better understand both the emotions we experience in response to ecological crises such as climate change and how these emotions may be harmful or beneficial to our overall well-being. As indicated earlier and found in this study, climate activism and personal pro-environmental behavioural change can be positive outcomes of genuine apprehension and anxiety over climate change. But the role of educators is crucial in providing the space and time to discuss students’ concerns and real fears, while also equipping them with the tools and know-how to develop tangible, transformative climate action strategies in their personal lives and in the wider community. There is also an urgent need to communicate effective coping strategies for climate anxiety to environmental practitioners, university students, and educators (Daeninck et al., 2023). Greta Thunberg’s climate activism, which was borne out of her depression and urge to make a difference in the world, is an example of the positive outcomes climate anxiety can have (Borter, 2019).

References

American Psychological Association (APA). (2010). Psychology and Global Climate Change: Addressing a Multi-faceted Phenomenon and Set of Challenges. APA, [available at https://www.apa.org/science/about/publications/climate-change.pdf].
Borter, G. (2019). Rising seas and stress levels spawn climate anxiety support groups. Reuters. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-eco-anxiety-idUSKBN1X21P2.
Charlson, F., Ali, S., Augustinavicius, J., Benmarhnia, T., Birch, S., Clayton, S., Fielding, K., Jones, L., Juma, D., Snider, L. and Ugo, V. (2022). Global priorities for climate change and mental health research. Environment International, 158, p.106984.
Daeninck, C., Kioupi, V. and Vercammen, A. (2023). Climate anxiety, coping strategies and planning for the future in environmental degree students in the UK. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, p.1126031.
Khalaim, O. and Budziszewska, M. (2024). “It should not only be technical education.” Students’ climate anxiety experiences and expectations toward university education in three European universities. The Journal of Environmental Education, 55(4), pp.308-323.
Kühner, C., Gemmecke, C., Hüffmeier, J. and Zacher, H. (2025). Climate change anxiety: A meta-analysis. Global Environmental Change, 93, p.103015.
IPCC. (2023). Climate Change 2023: Synthesis Report, Summary for Policymakers. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland
Innocenti, M., Santarelli, G., Lombardi, G.S., Ciabini, L., Zjalic, D., Di Russo, M. and Cadeddu, C. (2023). How can climate change anxiety induce both pro-environmental behaviours and eco-paralysis? The mediating role of general self-efficacy. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(4), p.3085 https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/4/3085
Majeed, H. and Lee, J. (2017). The impact of climate change on youth depression and mental health. The Lancet Planetary Health, 1(3), pp.e94-e95.
Ramadan, R., Randell, A., Lavoie, S., Gao, C.X., Manrique, P.C., Anderson, R., McDowell, C. and Zbukvic, I. (2023). Empirical evidence for climate concerns, negative emotions and climate‐related mental ill‐health in young people: A scoping review. Early Intervention in Psychiatry, 17(6), pp. 537-563.
Swim, J., Clayton, S., Doherty, T., Gifford, R., Howard, G., Reser, J., Stern, P. and Weber, E. (2010). Psychology and global climate change: Addressing a multi-faceted phenomenon and set of challenges. A report by the American Psychological Association’s task force on the interface between psychology and global climate change. American Psychological Association, Washington, 66, pp.241-250.

GovERN Research Community Workshop

Dr Mike Hynes of the Governance and Sustainable Development Research Cluster in the School of Political Science & Sociology at the University of Galway led a hybrid workshop of the GovERN research community at the L’institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement (INRAE) in Nouvelle-Aquitaine Bordeaux, France on Wednesday 18^th October 2023. This workshop preceded a public conference organised by the GovERN the previous day titled The Natured-based Solutions We Want: Shifting Perspectives on Rural and Peri-urban Nature-based Solutions attended by academics, practitioners, government agencies, and civic organisations from across Europe and Canada. GovERN is an international research community that seeks to advance collaborative research on social challenges and emancipatory opportunities when governing rural and peri-urban Nature-based Solutions. Members of the collective represent academic, government, and civic organisations and institutions in France, the UK, Finland, Spain, Italy, Canada and Ireland and are actively engaged in collaborative research and writing, teaching, and research funding applications and opportunities.

*Dr Mike Hynes leading the workshop and discussions on the application and implementation of Nature-based Solutions for the GovERN Research Community*

Society and the Environment: Another Snapshot of the Student Perspective | 2017

As part of the Joint-Honours Bachelor of Arts Degree from the College of Arts at the National University of Ireland Galway, students in the first year undertake a series of lectures on Society and the Environment, part of the module SP159 taught by the School of Political Science and Sociology. Similar to last year, at the first of nine lectures this semester covering broad aspects of the topic including climate change, (over)consumption, environmental harm, policy initiatives and responses, and environmentalism, a brief unscientific experiment was carried out in class. At the beginning of the lecture, students were asked to reflect on the theme of Society and the Environment and to come up with a word that echoes their current thoughts on the issues. These were then correlated and a Wordle was produced, which is provided below:

After the series of nine lectures, students were again asked to reflect carefully on the nature of Society and the Environment and, once again, verbalise their thoughts on the subject with fellow students and record these as concisely as possible in a single word or phrase. These were again processed and a Wordle was produced, which is provided below. Although not scientific in nature, this was an interesting ‘snapshot’ of how students thought about the subject before and after the series of lectures.

Society and the Environment: A Snapshot of the Student Perspective | 2016

As part of the Joint-Honours Bachelor of Arts Degree from the College of Arts at the National University of Ireland Galway, students in the first year undertake a stream of lectures on Society and the Environment, part of the module SP159 from the School of Political Science and Sociology. At the first of nine lectures this semester covering broad aspects of the topic including (over)consumption, policy initiatives and responses, and environmentalism, a brief unscientific experiment was carried out in class. At the beginning of the lecture, students were asked to reflect on the theme of Society and the Environment and to come up with a word that echoes their current thoughts on the issues. These were then correlated and a Wordle was produced, which is provided below:

Retracing (some) of the steps from ‘The View from Errisbeg’

As part of the completion process for the module on Environment and Society (SP420) for final year Arts students at the National University of Ireland Galway, a fieldtrip to Roundstone – at the foot of Errisbeg in Connemara – and its surrounds was undertaken by the class on Saturday 20th February 2016. Eleven students made the trip on what was a typical wet February morning but, nevertheless, an enjoyable day out was had by all to a location many students had not visited in the past.

The class smiling through the wet conditions at Gurteen Bay outside Roundstone Village

The location was chosen after we had covered in class Tim Robinson’s 1987 piece ‘The View from Errisbeg’ in the Frank Mitchell edited The Book of the Irish Countryside. We had chosen this particular article as an attempt to better understand the many interactions between landscape/nature and human inhabitants of such sites as geological history can provide certain clues about its potential appeal to human inhabitants. In Robinson’s writing he provides a detailed description of the landscape around Errisbeg in North-West Connemara using many place names as reference points and aids to understanding interactive patterns of land use:

As elsewhere, it is human activity that determines the texture of what appears at first glance to be untouched wilderness, a fact that complicates the conservationist case somewhat. However, the core of this area, which is becoming known as Roundstone bog, having been spared by forestry and turf-cutting so far, most certainly should be preserved as it is; apart from it ecological uniqueness, it harbours one of the rarest of resources, solitude (Robinson, 1987: 42).

The hill is Errisbeg, which shelters the little fishing village of Roundstone from the west wind, in Connemara; the portion of the world’s surface visible from its summit comprises the suite of landscapes grouped around Galway Bay which it has been my wonderful and wearying privilege to explore in detail over the last fifteen years, the Burren uplands in County Clare, the Aran Islands, and Connemara itself (Robinson, 1987: 42)

The ‘Reception Committee’ just outside Roundstone Village

After a really pleasant (although wet) ramble from Roundstone village to the beaches some twenty minutes walk away, we returned to a somewhat deserted village deep in the slumber of ‘off season’. So we made our way to Ballynahinch Castle for some well-deserved warm soup and tea/coffee. Set in a private 450-acre estate of woodland, rivers and walks in Connemara, this Castle Hotel stands overlooking its famous salmon fishery, with a backdrop of the Twelve Bens Mountain range. The Castle was built in the 17th century for the Martyn family, one of whose better-known members was ‘Humanity Dick’ founder of the RSPCA, and was also home at one time to the Maharajah Ranjitsinhji. In 1924, the cricket legend Prince Ranjitsinhji, Maharajah of Nawanager, made a trip to Ireland and forged a link between India and Ireland that survives today.

An ‘inviting’ Ballinhinch Castle and stop for weary explorers

Student Reflection…

“Once you look past the beauty of the landscape you start to notice the effects humans have had on it. There was a noticeable amount of trash as well as coastal erosion on the dunes nearby. The encroach of holiday homes was clear as the trailers seemed to settle as close as they could. In people’s efforts to experience and appreciate the landscape, they often end up causing some damage along the way” (Rachele Carbutt)

“It was clear how big of an impact tourism has on the Roundstone area. I was surprised to see how dead the town was, it made me wonder how far the local residents have to travel for work and shopping/other needs when it isn’t tourist season” (Katherine Anderson)

“The field trip to Roundstone was an enlightening trip to see how the town and the two bays were affected by tourism” (Ashley Westbee)

“I found the fieldtrip very enjoyable. I found looking at man’s impact on the natural landscape particularly interesting. It was fascinating to see the construction of famine walls and cottages, and to observe how the area has transitioned from a small fishing community to one based on the income from tourism” (Kyle Moore)

“One thing I noticed during the visit to Roundstone was that there was a lot of trash around the town and the beaches. Almost as though the tourists don’t care about their surroundings” (Sarah Bryson)

“The fieldtrip was a great experience. It very much highlighted what we had been studying in class, the question of sustainable tourism and household planning. Is this a landscape worth preserving? Or does the household landscape ruin it or improve it? In terms of Dog’s Bay, I found the holiday homes could’ve used more planning and thought as to where the houses were built and what type of houses they could’ve used” (Bob Groome)

Some wild red berries struggle to survive the winter

Reference

Robinson, T. (1987) ‘The View from Errisbeg’, in Frank Mitchell (editor) The Book of the Irish Countryside. Belfast: Blackstaff, pp.42–52.

Ecosia, The Green Search Engine

Ecosia is a social business dedicated to environmental sustainability via the donation of revenue to the world’s most effective rainforest protection programs. Their best-known service, the search engine mask at Ecosia.org, is powered by Bing and Yahoo. It lets an essential and routine task like searching the web double as an ecological contribution: not only are Ecosia search emissions offset, but every click on a sponsored ad within Ecosia translates into either cents for the environment, or cents for generating more cents for the environment. Cents may not sound like much, but they certainly add up. From its inception until December 2010, Ecosia was able to generate just under 125,000 Euros (164,000 USD) for its rainforest protection program with the WWF, and that in just the first year!

Check out more about this great and interesting idea by visiting them HERE and see the Ecosia search engine HERE.

Our cities are full of cars when they should be full of people

Travel and mobility must be a fundamental consideration in the promotion of sustainable development, production and consumption in Ireland. Governmental policy over the past number of decades has focussed almost exclusively on road building and the infrastructure required to accommodate the automobile and other road-based travel (see Transport 21), often neglecting the social and spatial consequences of these decisions. This has exacerbated issues of congestion, pollution, and social exclusion in our towns and cities, and indeed rural areas. Furthermore, private cars currently use vast amounts of fossil fuel for propulsion and recent green initiatives simply seek to change this to a viable alternative such as electricity or biofuel options. I would argue that without some essential reconsideration of car usage itself what we’re effectively doing is changing one source of energy consumption (one that is causing serious environmental damage such as greenhouse gas emissions and pollution) to a possibly cleaner alternative but we’re still consuming energy at an unacceptable and unsustainable level and turning over our cities and town to traffic. Rather than merely changing the energy source what we should be doing is encouraging people to use the car less and adopt healthier and sustainable modes of transportation such as walking or cycling, where this is possible, and utilising public transport more often. This will help strengthen our communities and bring life and vigour back to our streets rather than traffic, congestion, pollution and danger.

There is no doubt that this view will meet some hostility and such a transformation will not happen overnight. Much of our current urban design philosophy is car-centric and this is reinforced by political decision-making that favour automobile transport. What do I mean by this? Well, try taking Public Transport to any out-of-town shopping centre or Retail Park. Try cycling to any of these facilities and if you do make it there see if you can find a sheltered safe bike shed. In my experience, you are not encouraged to take Public Transport, cycle, or indeed walk to these centres and the additional rationale of free car parking appears to strengthen this observation. While car travel can be very rewarding in terms of mobility freedom, car dependency is often the opposite of such independence. It can be temporally and economically negative in terms of the personal time and money wasted. It can also be damaging in terms of personal health, in addition to its environmental impacts and consequences. So before you drive your car through the computer screen in rage, let me make this final point. I’m not anti-car. I own and drive one myself and would be lost at times without such mobility freedom. What does worry me, however, is how the automobile shapes so much of our lives, both seen and unseen. We build roads through Historic sites to facilitate cars (the M3 through the ancient Hall of Tara), we demonise Public Transport for the money it receives but seldom question how much we spend on road construction and maintenance, and we exclude people from activities who don’t have access to a private car. I’m simply trying to broaden the debate, a debate that should not be exclusively determined by the (over)use of the private automobile.

David Engwicht in Galway

David Engwicht is an Australian social innovator and a significant international leader in efforts to reduce the negative impacts of private cars on our cities and towns. He is considered the father of traffic calming and is the inventor of the walking bus, Street reclamation, and the Universal Anchoring Device. He is the author of several books including three broadly available ones; Reclaiming Our Cities and Towns: Better living through less traffic (1993), Street Reclaiming: Creating liveable streets and vibrant communities (1999), and Mental Speed Bumps: The smarter way to tame traffic (2005).

On Monday 24th May 2010, on a gloriously sunny day in Galway, David gave a very interesting and thought-provoking presentation at the City Museum, as a guest of the Galway Transportation Unit and as part of the county’s Smarter Travel Area bid. He challenged the audience to question their own personal travel behaviours and to view our traffic problems not merely as issues for engineers to fix but as a general social concern of design and how we envision our shared futures. Designing for the car does not have to be the centre of our mobilities universe and if we visualise urban movement without the automobile what would this be like? Walking and cycling may be slower but also more rewarding in terms of stimulation and social interactions. So, what do we want our cities to be, he inquired, a space for cars to get from A to B travelling at speed or a centre for fulfilling our shared human experience? The uncomfortable answer may very well be in our urban design and development and our current preoccupation with building more roads in, around, and through cities may not bode well for the future of alternatives to car travel.

A podcast of his talk is available by clicking HERE thanks to the free source website Internet Archive, a non-profit organisation set up to build an Internet library.