Ten years to 1.5°C: how climate anxiety is affecting young people around the world

We speak to a climate scientist who just updated a clock he created that counts down the seconds until the world reaches 1.5°C of global warming. And we hear from experts about the latest research evidence on climate anxiety – what it is, how common it is around the world and what to do about it.

Featuring Damon Matthews, professor and Concordia University research chair in climate science and sustainability at Concordia University in Canada, Caroline Hickman, lecturer in the department of social and policy sciences at the University of Bath in England, Charles Ogunbode, assistant professor in applied psychology at the University of Nottingham in England and Teaghan Hogg, PhD candidate in clinical psychology at the University of Canberra in Australia.

And Fabrice Rousselot, editor at The Conversation in Paris, gives us some recommended reading from the team in France.

The Conversation Weekly is produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. You can sign up to The Conversation’s free daily email here. Full credits for this episode available here.

Further reading

• Climate clock reset shows the world is one year closer to 1.5 C warming threshold, by H. Damon Matthews, Concordia University and Glen Peters, Center for International Climate and Environment Research - Oslo
• Feel alone in your eco-anxiety? Don’t – it’s remarkably common to feel dread about environmental decline, by Teaghan Hogg and Léan O'Brien, University of Canberra and Samantha Stanley, Australian National University
• ‘The notion of death is very present’: what we can learn about eco-anxiety from memes, by Leila Elgaaied-Gambier, TBS Business School and Timo Mandler, TBS Business School 
• Why does Eric Zemmour embarrass the right so much? by Emilien Houard-Vial, PhD candidate in political science, Center for European Studies, Sciences Po (in French)
• Vaccination of children against Covid-19: the unprecedented ethical issues, by Emmanuel Hirsch, Professor of medical ethics, Paris-Saclay University (in French)