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How do you cope with eco-anxiety as a parent? (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 month ago by Croquette@sh.itjust.works to c/parenting@lemmy.world

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Hello,

I have two young kids and lately, I am having a lot of anxiety and sadness thinking about how the current climate crisis will affect them.

I also have regrets because I decided to have children while knowing about the climate crisis. At the time, I was optimistic, but no so much anymore.

It has been hitting me hard the last few days. How do you cope/deal with this as a parent?

Thanks

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[–] Croquette@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah lots of news lately and my eco-anxiety is part just-anxiety from the news.

It is hard because the choice I make don't seem to make a difference when I look at everyone around me not really giving a shit. I am not perfect by aby means, but I really worked hard to reduce my footprint and still put effort daily to reduce it more.

[–] sbv@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

when I look at everyone around me not really giving a shit. ... I really worked hard to reduce my footprint

For years I did this. Didn't drive. Rarely flew. Mostly vegetarian. Bought mostly second hand stuff. It was a lot of work. It had no appreciable effect on climate change, and made my life harder.

I think the place to concentrate effort is on policy change. Acid rain wasn't solved (in North America) by buying patterns, it was solved through legislation. CFCs were phased out through lobbying.

There's definitely a time and place for personal action, but there are so many people that appreciable changes will only come through changing regulations.