"WHAT TO DO ABOUT OUR KIDS AND "ECO-ANXIETY" - John Stonestreet and Roberto Rivera, Breakpoint.org, 03/5/20;https://breakpoint.org/what-to-do-about-our-kids-and-eco-anxiety
The article quoted an 18-year-old from Alabama who said that “in my peer group, you just go right from talking about polar bears dying to ‘Did you see what Maya posted on Snapchat?’ Nobody has a filter to adjust . . . It’s like, the ice caps are melting, and my hypothetical children will never see them, but also I have a calculus test tomorrow.”
As the article makes clear, our rhetoric about climate change is particularly damaging to younger Americans who have “fragile psyches.” I’m not using that description in any disparaging way. According to the NIH, one-third of all kids between the ages 13 and 18 experience an anxiety disorder. Twenty-seven percent of those in “Generation Z” rate their own mental health as “fair or poor,” and thirty-seven percent have seen a mental health professional.
When asked which current events stress them out most, climate change ranks third behind school shootings and suicides. As the head of the American Psychological Association put it, “Current events are clearly stressful for everyone in the country, but young people are really feeling the impact of issues in the news, particularly those issues that may feel beyond their control.”
One obvious way for us to respond is by talking about current events more responsibly. While alarmists such as Greta Thunberg fill our screens and social media feeds, plenty of people who are concerned about climate change, including scientists, agree that the kind of apocalyptic rhetoric used to advance the issue is misleading and harmful. Kate Marvel, a NASA and Columbia University climate scientist, told the Post that the ‘We’re all going to die” message is “just not supported by the science.” While Marvel is concerned about climate change and its impact, “one can have a sense of optimism by working towards a solution.”
Unfortunately, Marvel’s kind of voice fails to get the most attention in the news or in social media, which is dominated by people telling us that we have a dozen years before the Earth reaches a tipping point and we are all doomed to possible extinction (a position, by the way, that no real climate scientist espouses).
We should also help our kids become more resilient. In the book “The Coddling of the American Mind,” Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff describe how parents’ attempts to promote their kids’ emotional well-being often instead makes them more emotionally fragile.
Demands for “trigger warnings” and “safe spaces” on college campuses are obvious examples of their fragility, but these are only the tip of a large iceberg. As Haidt and Lukianoff write, “the combination of helicopter parenting, fears for children’s safety, and the allure of screens” has created a generation of fragile kids who are convinced that “what doesn’t kill you makes you weaker.” Our preoccupation with “safety” and removing all obstacles from their path has led to “a national wave of adolescent anxiety and depression unlike anything seen in modern times.”
And the “allure of screens,” that is, social media, reinforces this fragility by isolating them from other people in ways that previous generations, even Millennials, were not. And, of course, social media is also the perfect vehicle for widely spreading distortion and misinformation, such as “we’re all going to die from climate change!”
So, while the arguments about climate change will continue, we can do something about climate change-induced emotional issues. Namely, let’s be better parents. Let’s protect our kids from harm but not insist on removing every obstacle from their path. Let’s limit their screen time and expose them to rational voices. Most importantly, let’s teach them that “all things work together for good” and that “nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.”
[italics and colored emphasis mine]
RESOURCES:
"Climate-Change Millerites" - John Stonestreet | BreakPoint | June 24, 2019; https://www.breakpoint.org/breakpoint-climate-change-millerites/
"Gen Z more likely to report mental health concerns" - Sophie Bethune | American Psychological Association | January 2019; https://www.breakpoint.org/breakpoint-climate-change-millerites/
"Video: The Coddling of the American Mind" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi499A4VsN8&feature=youtu.be
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PRAYER MATTERS:
"To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against
the disorder of the world. - Karl Barth
the disorder of the world. - Karl Barth
"Prayer is inviting God into a seemingly impossible situation and trusting/resting in His love and grace to accomplish His perfect will in His perfect time and for His greatest glory. Intercession is one of the great privileges AND responsibilities for EVERY believer."- Stan
World-Wide Prayer Requests:
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Praying Through the Open Doors World Watch List for persecuted believers:https://www.opendoorsusa.org/take-action/pray/monthly-prayer-calendar/
Doubly vulnerable in Africa - Christian women and young girls living in dangerous areas often tragically face a “double persecution,” meaning they suffer not only because they choose to follow Jesus but also for their gender. As a result, they are doubly vulnerable to persecution and may be threatened, abandoned and even attacked.
March 6 - Continue praying for the over 100 Chibok girls who have not yet returned home. Pray their hearts will remain steadfast in Christ and that they will be united with their families.
*Representative name or photo used to protect identity.
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