To Whom It May Concern In the Year 2100...

by Sindhu Vemulapalli

art by Kristen Chun & Kai Yara

Dear Future Generations, 

When I think about the world you will inherit, I worry. The rising sea levels, increasing temperatures, and thickening air pollution are just some of the known environmental consequences of climate change. Often overlooked, however, are climate change’s negative implications on brain health. Specifically, climate change has led to a disorder known as climate anxiety—a term referring to persistent worry about the future of the planet, especially among youth. Unlike earlier generations who faced existential fears stemming largely from geopolitical conflict, such as the widespread violence of the World Wars or the Cold War’s threat of nuclear annihilation, today’s adolescents grapple with an anxiety that is more insidious and persistent [1].Climate anxiety arises not from global politics but from the erosion of the physical environment and the psychological stress of witnessing it. 

The emotional and neural imprints of climate anxiety may even pass between generations. In fact, research has shown that the emotional volatility created by climate anxiety could be generationally inherited as it correlates with long-term biological changes in the brain [2]. Cognitive neuroscientist Yoko Nomura’s study of mothers pregnant during Hurricane Sandy found that children who were in utero during this natural disaster displayed drastically higher rates of psychiatric conditions later in life. This included a 20-fold increase in anxiety and a 60-fold increase in ADHD [3]. The idea that environmental stress can lead to generational psychological distress provides evidence that stress responses can be encoded into the next generation’s brains. 

Considering that climate anxiety shapes brains across generations, it’s important to understand how it operates within a singular person. A crucial brain region affected by climate anxiety is the medialcingulate cortex. The medial cingulate cortex (MCC) is associated with emotional regulation, aversive anticipation (expecting or worrying about negative outcomes), and uncertain threat processing. Neuroimaging shows that those affected by climate anxiety display decreased volume of grey matter (the brain tissue containing neurons that process information and regulate behavior) within the MCC [4]. This can   cause  increased anxiety and decreased decision-making capabilities. This may help explain why many teens describe climate change as “a constant background worry they can’t shake” and describe feeling anxious even when they are not actively thinking about it [5]. Despite the reported decrease in MCC volume, studies have  shown that climate anxiety is linked to heightened connectivity between the MCC and the right anterior insula. The insula is a region known for its role in emotional processing, social cognition, risky decision-making, and attention. In individuals with climate anxiety, the insula showed stronger functional connectivity with the MCC. [6], Increased connectivity between the MCC and insula may cause the insula to overcompensate by  heightening awareness of climate threats and amplifying worry.

Researchers also suspect that the amygdala, an area of the brain responsible for handling fear and stress responses, plays a role in climate anxiety. The amygdala is a critical structure in the limbic system, functioning as the brain’s “alarm center,” which processes potential threats and triggers physiological stress responses while communicating with the hypothalamus [7]. When an individual perceives environmental threats, such as news about climate disasters, the amygdala activates the body’s fight-or-flight system, releasing stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. Although not backed by empirical evidence, it is thought that people with chronic climate anxiety have a hyperactive amygdala circuit, causing persistent physiological arousal even in the absence of immediate danger. It is therefore possible that the amygdala operates differently in cases of those with climate anxiety as compared to those without.

This neurological perspective offers important context for how climate anxiety manifests, especially when its emotional symptoms begin to resemble those observed in other clinical anxiety disorders, such as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and stress-related disorders. Both of these disorders are characterized by excessive worry about everyday concerns, difficulty controlling anxious thoughts, irritability, restlessness, difficulty concentrating, and sleep disturbances [8]. Climate anxiety overlaps with these conditions in several symptoms, including persistent worry, physiological arousal, and restlessness; however, it differs in both its source and scope. Rather than stemming from personal or situational uncertainty, climate anxiety arises from an awareness of tangible, scientifically validated environmental risks and a perceived collective danger to the self, community, and future generations. Those affected often experience existential fear and anticipatory grief over the planet’s future. Importantly, climate anxiety does not affect all individuals equally; it is disproportionately experienced by those with higher exposure to and engagement with media emphasizing climate change as an urgent, distressing crisis [9]. This indicates that the anxiety is not only rooted in environmental awareness but also shaped by informational and sociocultural factors that heighten perceived threat. 

Beyond its emotional symptoms, climate anxiety has also induced cognitive ramifications, most prominently in the form of impaired decision-making processes. When fear circuits such as the amygdala chronically activate, rational decision-making shifts toward short-term, survival-driven choices rather than long-term, sustainable planning. This altered ability in decision-making is particularly apparent during adolescence, a stage of life marked by increasing independence and a growing need to make self-guided choices in the face of risk and uncertainty. The adolescent brain undergoes significant neurodevelopmental changes, particularly in the prefrontal cortex, striatum, and salience-processing systems [10]. These systems jointly regulate processes such as how people respond to rewards, delay gratification, and engage in risk evaluation. When climate anxiety is layered on top of this already strenuous neurodevelopmental period, adolescents may become especially prone to emotion-driven decision-making, rather than strategic decision-making [11]. This can explain why young people report both more concern about climate change and, paradoxically, feelings of paralysis or disengagement. Indeed, recent studies into teenagers' thoughts about climate change reveals that many view the phenomenon with feelings of grief, guilt, and helplessness [12]. Many adolescents report an almost existential awareness that they are inheriting a damaged planet, express anger toward previous generations, and possess guilt over their own carbon footprint. Although all individuals have their own coping mechanisms, many teenagers were found to demonstrate anxiety, paralysis, emotional withdrawal or denial when faced with a psychologically unmanageable crisis like climate change. Yet, some resilient teens responded to their anxiety by channeling their worries into activism, including sustainability initiatives or peer organizing. The overall response of adolescents may differ, but from a neurodevelopmental perspective, there are commonalities in heightened reactivity of their limbic systems and their still-maturing brain regions governing cognitive processing.

While these cognitive and developmental consequences are substantial, climate anxiety also gives rise to a more niche, place-related symptom known as solastalgia. Solastalgia is the feeling of loss people experience when their environment has become unrecognizable due to drastic changes [13]. Left unchecked, solastalgia can lead to serious mental health issues, including anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Recent studies report that Low Income Countries (LICs) are particularly vulnerable to solastalgia due to historical and economic inequalities. Many areas in LICs already face inequities that create poverty, weak social safety nets, and dependency on natural resources, making them less resilient to environmental change. These conditions make environmental degradation and climate disasters hit harder, both materially and emotionally. For example, a recent study in Kilifi, Kenya, has adapted existing tools to quantify the prevalence of solastalgia in Kenya, as they are facing widespread environmental change, such as deforestation [14]. This tool is called the Environmental Distress Scale, a psychological index cataloging participants’ perception of hazards, appraisal of threats, and felt impact of negative environmental changes. 

Various communities in Kenya, such as the Mijikenda people, have long-standing relationships with these deforested sites, such as the Kaya forests. These sites are not just biologically or ecologically important; they are sacred, cultural heritage sites. Furthermore, because many residents’ livelihoods like small-scale farming, fishing, and forestry depend directly on the land, and because the Mijikenda people have faced generations of socio-political marginalization and land dispossession, the loss of these environments threatens both economic survival and cultural identity. Cultural concepts integral to the Mijikenda people, such as Mudzini (a worldview grounded in human–nature harmony), soyosoyo (equilibrium), umwenga (solidarity), and kushirikiana (collectiveness), structure how people relate to nature. When landscapes and natural features degrade, these relationships are disrupted, which may explain why some people in LICs experience a much more exacerbated emotional response to climate change and exhibit heightened solastalgia. 

In recent years, researchers have begun exploring potential treatments for solastalgia and other climate-related mental health challenges [15]. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has emerged as a particularly promising approach, helping individuals identify and reframe catastrophic thought patterns, regulate overwhelming emotions, and find practical steps forward. Core CBT techniques such as cognitive restructuring (challenging unhelpful or extreme beliefs and replacing them with more balanced, realistic thoughts), and behavioral activation (engaging in value-driven actions to counteract avoidance or paralysis), provide concrete tools for managing climate anxiety. These approaches not only support emotional regulation but also help individuals regain a sense of agency in the face of overwhelming environmental threats.

The personal journey of cognitive behavioral psychotherapist Claire Willsher illustrates these principles. When she first became aware of the full scale of the climate crisis, Willsher recalls, “The more I read, the more anxious I felt...I had to learn to live with it, but also do all I can to fight it” [16]. Her initial response was intense: researching climate science, changing her lifestyle to reduce her carbon footprint, and participating in activism. Yet she quickly realized that personal action alone could not resolve her distress. Through self-reflection, therapy, and engagement with supportive peers in the climate-aware community, Willsher gradually found balance, describing this metamorphosis as cultivating “active hope.” Her experience as both a professional and a practitioner shows how CBT can turn climate-related anxiety from an immobilizing force into action-based steps that address the overarching problem of climate anxiety. Following this model, it is possible to create a world where individuals can process grief, acknowledge their fears, and channel them into engagement with the world around them.

Beyond CBT, mindfulness and trauma-informed practices can help individuals regulate overwhelming emotions and process grief related to ecological loss [15]. Nature-based interventions, such as eco-therapy or community restoration projects, also provide ways to reconnect with damaged environments in healing and empowering ways. Community-based support systems, like climate cafés or collective workshops, allow people to process distress together rather than in isolation. Climate cafés, a relatively recent therapeutic outlet, are structured gatherings that provide a safe and empathetic space for participants to express emotions related to the climate crisis [17]. Their purpose is to create an environment that engages in dialogue about activism and reflection regarding climate change to ultimately combat eco-anxiety, stress, and grief. Participants of these cafés include youth, students, and professionals, allowing for a broad range of people to meet and share their diverse experiences. Experts emphasize that while these individual and collective interventions are valuable, they must also be supported by larger policy and public health frameworks, as personal coping alone cannot counteract the structural inequalities that exacerbate climate impacts. By combining therapeutic tools, community connection, and systemic change, these emerging approaches offer a more holistic way to address the emotional toll of living in an increasingly connected world.

On a larger scale, climate change can be addressed head-on through several far-reaching strategies, such as electing pro-climate leaders, policy reform, professionalizing state legislatures, and empowering well-equipped agencies to design and enforce effective climate policies [18]. Essential for ensuring states move beyond abstract commitments toward enforceable progress is expanding and standardizing policy tools such as comprehensive climate action, greenhouse gas reduction targets, low-carbon fuel standards, and cap-and-trade systems. Cap-and-trade refers to the policy in which a set amount of carbon credits are bought and sold in a market regulated by a third party. The purpose of this policy is to set a limit, or “cap,” on the total greenhouse gas emissions, while allowing companies to buy and sell emission allowances within that cap. Under this system, the state government sets a maximum amount of carbon dioxide that can be emitted by major sectors, —such as electricity generation, manufacturing, and fuel distribution. Some states, such as California, have implemented cap-and-trade systems and have seen a measurable reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The power sector emissions of the state of California decreased by 6% per year after their cap-and-trade policies were implemented. Although the industrial sector emissions increased very slightly, California’s policy was successful in reducing emissions in the electricity generation sector. Beyond such outcomes, these policies may influence individual psychology and neural responses to climate threats. Knowing that one’s state has enforceable emission caps can reduce climate anxiety by restoring a sense of collective efficacy, the belief that a coordinated group can effectively mitigate global risks, thereby calming hyperactivity in the brain.

Ultimately, although climate change is usually thought of as an out-of-reach planetary crisis, it greatly affects people on an individual scale, both in their minds and hearts. From the neurobiological shifts in the adolescent brain to the sense of loss experienced by communities facing environmental destruction, climate anxiety and solastalgia reveal how intimately our wellbeing is tied to the health of the planet. Yet, as Claire Willsher’s story shows, anxiety need not be paralyzing. Through cognitive behavioral strategies, mindfulness, community engagement, and individual action, people can transform fear into “active hope”—a motivation to act and connect despite the uncertainty of the planet’s future. Still, personal resilience alone cannot shoulder the weight of global change. Progress demands collective solutions that address inequities, protect vulnerable environments, and integrate mental health into climate policy. By pairing emotional support with systemic action, we can equip ourselves and future generations with the necessary courage, camaraderie, and sense of solidarity to survive the climate crisis. So to the future generations reading this—–if you are grieving or frightened, you are not alone. And if you inherit a world still ravaged by climate change, know that you will also inherit and develop the tools and scientific insight necessary to make recovery possible. Future generations, there may be hope for you yet.

REFERENCES:

1. Guyer, A. E., Silk, J. S., & Nelson, E. E. (2016). The neurobiology of the emotional adolescent: From the inside out. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 70, 74–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.07.037

2. Hickman, C., Marks, E., Pihkala, P., Clayton, S., Lewandowski, R. E., Mayall, E. E., … Van Susteren, L. (2021). Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey. The Lancet Planetary Health, 5(12), e863–e873. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00278-3

3. Mishra, A. K., & Varma, A. R. (2023). A Comprehensive Review of the Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Cureus. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.46115

4. Baudon, P., & Jachens, L. (2021). A Scoping Review of Interventions for the Treatment of Eco-Anxiety. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(18), 9636. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18189636

5. Xie, S., Zhang, X., Cheng, W., & Yang, Z. (2021). Adolescent anxiety disorders and the developing brain: comparing neuroimaging findings in adolescents and adults. General Psychiatry, 34(4), e100411. https://doi.org/10.1136/gpsych-2020-100411

6. Molnar-Szakacs, I., & Uddin, L. Q. (2022). Anterior insula as a gatekeeper of executive control. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 139, 104736. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104736

7. Ogunbode, C. A., Doran, R., Hanss, D., Ojala, M., Salmela-Aro, K., Van Den Broek, K. L., … Karasu, M. (2022). Climate anxiety, wellbeing and pro-environmental action: correlates of negative emotional responses to climate change in 32 countries. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 84, 101887. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101887

8. De Jong, A., Harris, S., Costanian, C., & Skinner, H. (2025). Climate cafés as a space for navigating climate emotions: A scoping review. The Journal of Climate Change and Health, 24, 100466. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joclim.2025.100466

9. Carlson, J. M., Foley, J., & Fang, L. (2024). Climate change on the brain: Neural correlates of climate anxiety. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 103, 102848. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2024.102848

10. Basseches, J. A., Bromley-Trujillo, R., Boykoff, M. T., Culhane, T., Hall, G., Healy, N., … Stephens, J. C. (2022). Climate policy conflict in the U.S. states: a critical review and way forward. Climatic Change, 170(3–4), 32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-022-03319-w

11. Lee, W., Moon, M., Kim, H. G., Lee, T. H., & Oh, M. S. (2015). Heat stress-induced memory impairment is associated with neuroinflammation in mice. Journal of Neuroinflammation, 12(1), 102. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12974-015-0324-6

12. Clayton, S., & Karazsia, B. T. (2020). Development and validation of a measure of climate change anxiety. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 69, 101434. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2020.101434

13. Willsher, C., & Freeston, M. (2024). My climate journey: one cognitive behavioural psychotherapist’s account, and a commentary linking to the scientific and practice literature. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 17, e28. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1754470X24000199

14. Nomura, Y., Newcorn, J. H., Ginalis, C., Heitz, C., Zaki, J., Khan, F., … Hurd, Y. L. (2023). Prenatal exposure to a natural disaster and early development of psychiatric disorders during the preschool years: stress in pregnancy study. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 64(7), 1080–1091. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13698

15. Bie, F., Yan, X., Xing, J., Wang, L., Xu, Y., Wang, G., … Rao, Z. (2024). Rising global burden of anxiety disorders among adolescents and young adults: trends, risk factors, and the impact of socioeconomic disparities and COVID-19 from 1990 to 2021. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15, 1489427. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1489427

16. Albrecht, G., Sartore, G.-M., Connor, L., Higginbotham, N., Freeman, S., Kelly, B., … Pollard, G. (2007). Solastalgia: The Distress Caused by Environmental Change. Australasian Psychiatry, 15(1_suppl), S95–S98. https://doi.org/10.1080/10398560701701288

17. Baker, A. E., Galván, A., & Fuligni, A. J. (2025). The connecting brain in context: How adolescent plasticity supports learning and development. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 71, 101486. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101486

18. Ebhuoma, O. O., Gebreslasie, M., Ebhuoma, E. E., & Leonard, L. (2022). ‘The future looks empty’: embodied experiences of distress triggered by environmental and climatic changes in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. GeoJournal, 87(4), 3169–3185. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-021-10426-1