#IFeelClimateGrief
Addressing the emotional strain and climate grief experienced by discouraged youth in the face of climate change
Team Members:
Rebecca Hsiung, Runjie Dai, Yanch Ong
Client:
Youth Impact Challenge
Role:
Conducted user research
Designed climate grief assessment
Hi-Fi Prototypes
Tools Used:
Figma and Qualtrics
Duration:
36 hours
Outcome:
Created a high-fidelity prototype of the climate grief assessment and stories. We also created a pitch video, that we presented to a panel of judges and WE WON!
Problem:
Climate grief is an integral aspect of the climate crisis, as emotions such as fear, anxiety, and grief may lead us to detach from the issue or choose to disengage from and disregard it.
Solution:
To help young individuals build emotional capacity for climate action despite the overwhelming feelings of fear, anxiety, and helplessness caused by environmental change. The project aims to inspire others to support climate activism and normalize conversations about climate grief.
USER RESEARCH
Background Research
Climate grief is "the grief felt in relation to experienced or anticipated ecological losses, including the loss of species, ecosystems, and meaningful landscapes due to acute or chronic environmental change." (Cunsolo & Ellis, 2018)
There are three pathways that the grief can manifest:
1.
Primary Research
To further understand how this problem is impacting the youth we conducted 4 interviews. We uncovered 4 major themes:
None of the participants have discussed their climate grief with others
3 out of 4 participants have said that climate anxiety has made it hard for them to stay motivated in the fight against climate change
None of the participants are familiar with resources/communities working to address climate grief
Half of the participants feel unsure about whether their actions are impactful
“I do what I can for the climate like recycle or use reusable bags but I can’t help but feel like my actions are so small and not impactful.”
2.
Grief associated with physical ecological losses and attendant ways of life and culture;
Grief associated with disruptions to environmental knowledge systems and resulting feelings of loss of identity
3.
Grief associated with anticipated future losses of place, land, species, and culture.
We found that these feelings of grief are common among youth. In a study conducted by the University of Bath on 10,000 young people in ten countries:
59% are extremely worried about the impacts of climate change
45% said their feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily life and functioning
83% said that they think people have failed to take care of the planet.
SOLUTION
Our proposed innovation is the multi-faceted #IFeelClimateGrief platform to address climate grief and empower youth for climate action:
Sharing Stories and Experiences:
Our platform shares stories and experiences of when people feel climate grief in witty and relatable ways to normalize these emotions, while providing context for learning. Users are encouraged to share their own stories to build a growing repository of stories. These four stories shown are inspired by our interview participants.
Connecting to Communities and Resources:
After reading stories, users will be invited to take an assessment to reflect on their own goals, values, and approach to activism. This assessment is designed to help users understand their role in addressing climate grief and match them to a personalized selection of communities. By linking users to one of the many communities working to address climate grief based on their individual values, needs, and personalities, their climate grief can be transformed into other forms like climate optimism or radical imagination.
Encouraging Community Building:
After completing the assessment, users are able to share their results on social media. We’ve designed a set of identities that will encourage users to share and compare their results with friends. Sharing normalizes climate grief and opens up conversations within their social circles, as well as raises awareness about communities working to address climate grief.
NEXT STEPS
To assess impact, we will partner with communities to gather feedback and analyze retention data to improve the matching system.
Usability testing with mental health professionals to enhance the quality of resources, ensuring that the platform offers effective support for individuals dealing with climate grief
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Adapting to Change
In such a fast-paced environment, change is unavoidable. Whether it involved shifts in team dynamics, a change in project direction, or the emergence of new challenges, I learned to adapt and capitalize on the opportunities that these changes brought.
Work with Tight Deadlines
My first hackathon experience showed me the extent of what I can accomplish within a limited timeframe. The intense, fast-paced environment pushed me to think outside the box and work efficiently with my team. I was truly impressed by how much we achieved.