It hit me one morning while I was swimming at Bondi Icebergs. There’s something magic about that particular Sydney pool. The way the surf breaks over the sea wall, white water spilling onto the lanes. It’s got a very literal connection to the tides and the sea.
As the mother of a teenager, I’d felt this rising anxiety about climate change for a while. I think that’s something that happens when we become parents: the future gets a lot less abstract. You realise your kids are going to have to inherit this mess.
That morning, looking out towards the dawn light beyond Ben Buckler Point, feeling the cold Pacific breeze on my skin, the mental pressure finally popped: I realised I had to be part of the climate solution. I just had to. And the only way I could think to do that was to use the skills I’d honed over a 25-year filmmaking career.
I decided to commit my time, attention and resources to make a climate action series, aimed specifically at teenagers. And so, I spent the next three and a half years working with researchers, mental health experts, production teams and a Teen Advisory Board to create a 28-episode series, Stay Tuned To Our Planet (STTOP), on YouTube and TikTok.
When I first had the idea for STTOP, I began looking for climate-solutions content that was aimed at young people and found that nothing quite like it had ever been done before. No-one had ever made a dedicated climate series for teens and younger generations, which is alarming when you hear stats like one in three young Australians are dealing with climate anxiety on a daily basis. Every single day.
And it’s not just young people. It’s teachers and parents and clinicians too. As part of our research for STTOP, we did extensive consultation with psychologists, teenagers and carers of young people, and we kept hearing the same stories over and over. Everyone was feeling the mental burden of climate change. We’re seeing it in our classrooms, in our homes, in our workplaces. It’s like this looming existential freight train, and we’re all strapped to the tracks, just watching it thunder down.
Along the journey, I felt my own bouts of climate anxiety. Deep in researching the problem, I was confronted with so much doom and gloom messaging and couldn’t help but keep burrowing down the digital rabbit hole. The more I learned, the more I kept thinking about my own child and his friends, an entire generation of young people, and how I’d unwittingly contributed to climate change. Anxiety was then compounded by guilt. The parent’s constant companion.
But in the middle of all these fears and worries, there’s another stat that bears remembering. The Orygen Institute found that 72% of young people say that hearing positive stories online helps alleviate the effects of climate anxiety. And it’s a funny thing, but making those stories had the same effect for me. Through STTOP, I met so many talented, clever, conscientious people who are out there right now contributing to effective climate solutions. And simply by hearing those stories, being inspired by what others were doing, my own anxiety started to recede.
We explored all kinds of topics. There’s an episode on green banking and financed emissions with the wonderful Emerson Brophy. Another on pollinators and bee hotels with prominent Meliponist, Sarah Hamilton. 2023 Young Australian of the Year, Lottie Dalziel, joined us for an episode on zero waste living. And I was blown away by Dr. Peter Ralph addressing the invisible CO2 on the internet – it turns out that deleting photos and emails on our devices actually reduces our carbon footprint.
This is the stuff they should be teaching in schools! That’s my hope for STTOP. The series is now endorsed by the Orygen Institute, headspace, the University of Melbourne, Planet Ark, Environmental Education NSW, Parents for Climate, Conservation Volunteers Australia and Surfers for Climate. We have also been fortunate to be supported by Documentary Australia through their Environmental Accelerator Impact program.
Now, with the help of philanthropy and grant funding, we’re developing the series into a free educational program for schools and community groups across Australia. I’m ambitious to scale it into part of the school curriculum so that we can begin having an intergenerational impact – from the teachers, to the students, to the parents and carers at home, feeling the same climate anxiety that I did.
Making this thing has been tough, eye-opening and confronting in the best possible way, because it’s shown me there is an answer to climate anxiety: action. Specifically, collective action.
In my experience, this antidote comes in two parts. The first is knowledge. We need to educate ourselves on the scale of the problem and possible solutions. Sticking our heads in the sand doesn’t help anyone.
The second part is action and to focus on what is within our control rather than what isn’t.
There are some fantastic organisations out there fighting for systemic change but it takes many actions and efforts at all levels and this is how I feel I can play a part. Working together with likeminded people to make a difference in our own lives, and the lives of others.
Being informed, doing something and – as a result of that action – feeling a sense of hope has helped me turn my climate anxiety into momentum for change. It makes climate change less paralysing, less all-consuming, less abstract. Not a fate to accept, but a problem to solve. And hopefully, one we can solve together.
Feature image: Lizzy Nash. Credit: Cynthia Sciberras.