Last August 31st, SIGHT hosted the second SIGHT Talk out of three at Norrsken Foundation. Experts on climate change and mental health gathered to discuss the urgency of climate anxiety among youth.
The event started with a short welcome from the SIGHT secretariat and continued with two background presentations from Diarmid Campbell-Lendrum, head of the unit on Climate Change and Health at the WHO, and Kata Nylén, a psychologist specialised in climate psychology and organisational psychology.
A roundtable discussion followed with a great variety of stakeholders including researchers working in academia, healthcare professionals, private sector organizations, representatives of international agencies and NGOs, representatives from the government, and students. The talk focused on how multidisciplinary and intergenerational perspectives were needed so that we can together explore one of the biggest impacts of the existing climate crisis, mental health.
As a follow-up tool, the SIGHT student coordinators are working on a survey on climate anxiety that will be distributed among students studying in Swedish universities. The goal of this project is to gather thoughts and opinions from youth about the lack of political action regarding climate change.
