Climate change is already affecting communities around the world and the impacts will only get worse, according to scientists, unless we significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  These realities can lead to climate anxiety, not least among youth.  How can teachers educate students about climate change in a constructive way?  This study examines pedagogical reflections from grade school and gymnasium teachers who participated in a professional development workshop entitled “Climate workshop with a bright horizon” organized by The House of Science, the Bolin Center for Climate Research, and Stockholm City.  To address students’ climate anxiety, research says that teaching methods characterized by pluralism, democratic participation, and authenticity can be empowering to students in helping them to engage, act, and cope with unpredictability.  This study identifies opportunities to strengthen these aspects in climate education by, for example, using socio-scientific issue dialogues.

Med sin grund i klimatutmaningen och en utbredd klimatångest, försöker den här uppsatsen förstå hoppfullhet i miljödiskursen genom en socialkonstruktivistisk lins. En diskursanalys har genomförts av tre videokällor med talare som på olika sätt agerar som röster för miljörörelsen. Materialet som har analyserats i det här arbetet är ett TED-talk, ett tal från Climate Innovation Summit 2016 och ett avsnitt av det svenska tv-programmet Idévärlden. Syftet med studien har varit att undersöka hur en medvetenhet av begreppet Planetens hållbara gränser påverkar hoppfullhet och hopplöshet inom miljödiskursen. Resultatet visade att de flesta talarna tog del av en hoppfull diskurs med en viss tilltro till ekologisk modernisering och att en medvetenhet om Planetens hållbara gränser kan påverka hoppfullhet och hopplöshet på olika sätt. Studien är viktig för att en förståelse för miljödiskursen är ett steg mot att öka miljömedvetet beteende och minska klimatångest i en tid då vi behöver agera mot klimatförändringarna. Studien ger en genomgång av tidigare forskning samt en översiktlig historisk presentation av miljödiskursen och avslutar sedan med reflektion av det egna arbetet och förslag för fortsatta studier. / In light of the climate challenge and widespread climate anxiety, this thesis seeks to understand hope in the environmental discourse through a lense of social constructivism. A discourse analysis has been conducted of three video sources, with speakers who in different ways are voices for the environmental movement. The material investigated in this study is a TED talk, a speech from Climate Innovation Summit 2016 and an episode from the swedish tv-show Idévärlden (eng. The Idea World). The purpose of the study has been to investigate how an awareness of the concept of Planetary Boundaries affects hope and hopelessness within the environmental discourse. It was found that most speakers are part of a hopeful discourse with a belief in ecological modernisation and that an awareness of the concept of planetary boundaries can affect hopefulness or hopelessness in different ways. This is of importance because understanding the environmental discourse is a step towards pro-environmental behaviour and decreasing climate anxiety in a time when we need to take action against climate change. The thesis gives a review of previous research in the field as well as a brief historical presentation of the environmental discourse.

Research paper talks about environmentalism, and its representations in the digital age. The study is focused on Instagram and the sample of three selected profiles. The research is conducted through the scope of the Framing Theory, focusing on two specific theories, adapted as the main frames, them being a very recent framework, Climate Optimism, and Climate Doomism. The methodology used was content analysis, with implemented data sampling strategy, codebook development, and coding itself, which resulted in the results of the analysis. The overall aim of the master’s thesis is to investigate the framing and therefore representations of climate change, and therefore provide a better understanding of how climate change is framed within social media and what frameworks can be implemented to take action- either individual, or global. The results of the analysis confirmed that the occurrence of positive narratives around climate change narratives is more and more prominent, and it is argued, that the framework could be expanded to a much larger scale and an audience in future research.

Psykisk ohälsa är ett av de största folkhälsoproblemen i modern tid och statistik från 2017 visar att uppskattningsvis 970 miljoner människor världen över lider utav någon form av psykisk sjukdom eller missbruk. Samtidigt förvärras den globala uppvärmningen, och klimatförändringarna är idag ett av de största hoten mot den mänskliga civilisationen, och därmed även folkhälsan eftersom den påverkar både den fysiska och psykiska hälsan. Syfte: Att undersöka hur psykisk hälsa och välbefinnande hos tonåringar och unga vuxna påverkas av att leva i en tid med klimatförändringarna som ett existentiellt hot. Metod: En strukturerad litteraturstudie som inkluderar tio vetenskapliga artiklar från databasen Pubmed och sökmotorn Google Scholar. De vetenskapliga artiklarna analyserades med en tematisk analys. Resultat: Totalt tre huvudteman fyra subteman kunde utvinnas från den tematiska analysen som ansågs vara klimatförändringarnas effekter på den psykiska hälsan; Oro inför framtiden, ledsamhet/depression, stress, ångest, maktlöshet, hopplöshet och vardaglig funktion. Slutsats: Litteraturstudien visade att tonåringar och unga vuxna känner stor oro inför framtiden och upplever komplexa känslor och psykiska besvär, såsom klimatångest, maktlöshet, hopplöshet och stress som påverkar den psykiska hälsan och välbefinnandet negativt. Resultatet visade även att andra åldersgrupper också upplever klimatångest och känner oro inför framtiden, samt att det finns skillnader mellan kön som vittnar om ojämlika förhållanden i psykisk hälsa i relation till klimatförändringarna. / Mental health issues are one of the biggest threats to public health today, and studies from 2017 shows that approximately 970 million people around the world are suffering from some form of psychological disease or addiction. Teenagers and young adults are especially at risk to suffer from mental health disorders. At the same time, global warming is becoming one of the biggest threats to human civilization, as well as to public health in general in terms of physical and mental health. Aim: To investigate the impacts of climate change on mental health and wellbeing of teenagers and young adults. Method: A structured literature review including ten scientific research articles, retrieved from the database Pubmed, and the search engine Google Scholar. The articles were analyzed using a thematic analysis. Results: The thematic analysis produced seven themes; concern about the future, sadness/depression, stress, anxiety, powerlessness, hopelessness, and everyday function. Conclusion: The literature review reveals that climate change is affecting the mental health and wellbeing of children and young adults in a negative way, and that the target group is dealing with difficult emotions like climate anxiety, powerlessness, hopelessness, and deep concern about the future. The results are also indicating that other age groups are also experiencing the same negative mental health impacts, and that there are existing differences among sexes and inequality concerning mental health impacts from climate change.

Oro för klimatet är något som blir allt vanligare hos både barn och vuxna. Majoriteten av de studier som genomförts inom området klimatoro har undersökt äldre barn och vuxnas mående kopplat till klimatkrisen. Fokus för denna studie ligger därför på de yngre barnen, i årskurs två och tre, för att undersöka vad de känner inför klimatförändringarna. Tidigare forskning har visat att transformativa och deliberativa arbetsmetoder är fördelaktiga att använda vid undervisning om komplexa ämnesområden som klimatförändringar. Därför undersöker denna studie även om lärare använder dessa arbetssätt under sin geografiundervisning. Studien är genomförd med semistrukturerade intervjuer av två lärare och tre elevgrupper med fem elever vardera. Förutom intervjuer genomfördes även mer kreativa inslag som rankningsövningar och teckningsmoment. Resultatet visade att de intervjuade lärarna, till viss del, använde transformativa och deliberativa arbetsmetoder när de hade möjlighet att dela upp klassen i mindre grupper. De intervjuade lärarna ansåg att dagens elever var väl insatta i miljörelaterade frågor, jämfört med tidigare årskullar och gärna deltog i diskussioner inom ämnet. Samma lärare ansåg däremot inte att undervisningen bidragit till att förändra elevernas inställning till klimatet. Det framgår dessutom av resultatet att klimatförändringar är ett komplext ämnesområde som är svårt för ett flertal elever att samtala om. Det kan bero på elevernas unga ålder, då de på grund av detta ännu inte haft så omfattande undervisning inom området samt att eleverna ännu inte nåtts av stora mängder information om klimatförändringar. Resultatet för teckningsmomentet, som genomfördes med eleverna, visade att drygt hälften av eleverna kände oro för klimatförändringar vilket är en lägre andel än vad tidigare forskning visat. Det bedöms bero på att eleverna i denna studie är yngre än de barn och unga vuxna som deltagit i tidigare forskning. På grund av studiens begränsade storlek kan den dock inte anses vara representativ för alla lågstadielärare och unga elevers åsikter. / Concern about the climate is something that is becoming increasingly common among children. Most of the studies that have been done around this subject have investigated older childrens feelings about to the climate crisis. This studie will therefore focus on the younger children, in class two and three, to see how they feel about climate change. Previous research has shown that transformative and deliberative methods are beneficial to use when teaching about complex areas such as climate change. Therefore, our study examines whether the interviewed teachers use these working methods during their geography teaching. The study3 av 52is carried out with semi-structured interviews of two teachers and three student groups with five students each. In addition to the interview, we also used more creative elements such as ranking exercises and a drawing session. The results showed that the interviewed teachers used transformative and deliberative learning when they had the opportunity to divide the class into smaller groups. The teachers also considered that today's students were well versed in environment-related issues compared to previous students and that they are happy to participate in discussions on the subject. Based on the results the teachers did not consider that the teaching contributed to changing the students attitude towards the climate. It also appears from the results that climate change is a complex subject and that it was difficult for several students to answer the questions during the interview. This may be due to the young age of the students, as they have not yet been taught a lot in the field and have not yet been reached by any large amounts of information about climate change. The results for the drawing session, which was carried out with the students, showed that just over half of the students felt concerned about the climate change, which is a lower percentage than previous research has shown. It is judged to be due to the fact that the students in this study are younger than the children and young adults who participated in previous research. However, due to the limited size of the study, the results cannot be considered representative of the views of all primary school teachers and young students. / <p>2024-01-12</p>

During the 20th century, our planet and its population have faced a number of environmental challenges. The climate on earth is changing and it is most likely due to human activity and the destruction of the earth's resources, ecosystems and waterways. More recently a very active environmental movement is taking up more space in people's lives. In many ways, it can be considered that climate change, and the movement that accompanied it, created a generation of people who proclaim a doom as a result of human destruction of the planet. I have conducted qualitative online interviews with nine representatives from the Church of Sweden, mainly church pastors from southern Sweden, to see how they relate to climate change, their views on judgement day and how they respond to people in their office who have anxiety and are concerned about climate change and the possible destruction of the human race. The result shows that all respondents in the survey place a great focus on man's individual and collective responsibility in the care for the earth, that is, according to them, God's creation. Through Berger’s social-constructivist theories of secularization, the study shows that the climate movement itself sometimes lacks Christian values of optimism and Christian concepts, such as God's grace, forgiveness, and hope. It thus gives the impression that the movement in some ways has a secular character. In contrast to this, the representatives of the Swedish Church claim to have a hopeful attitude and mostly believe that climate change is not part of the eschatological prophecies described in the Bible. However, they often reason that one cannot know for certain what the future holds, but as they hope and long for Christ's return, they have no fear but instead put their faith in hope and in God. They believe there is a clearer optimism on their part in the form of forgiveness, grace and hope and are willing to lead by example by caring for people who fear and encourage them to hope and the trust in God.

Climate-anxiety is a growing mental health issue among the public and particularly among students in sustainability-related studies in Higher Education Institutions (HEI). As education on climate change in HEI overly relies on cognitive learning, students are not able to address their emotions and potential worries about climate change adequately. The research field of climate-anxiety has emerged after 2007 and relates to other mental health responses to environmental destruction such as eco-anxiety. This study examines whether climate-anxiety affects students within HEI and what coping strategies are used by them. The aim is to suggest approaches for HEI and educational tourism providers to better address climate-anxiety. Specifically, it investigates whether non-formal actors like ecovillages can help students to cope with climate-anxiety. Ecovillages are increasingly recognising their role in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and helping students with climate-anxiety could balance the shortcomings of HEI. Five case studies of ecovillages were included to determine the potential of educational tourism in reducing climate-anxiety. Even though the study found that short-term study visits were not helpful for students climate-anxiety, it can be assumed that students could gain hands-on coping techniques from more extended stays at ecovillages. Particularly the ecovillages learning environment and pedagogy are beneficial for coping with climate-anxiety. It is suggested that HEI should initiate cooperations with local ecovillages to improve climate-anxiety among students, as it was found that lecturers and Student Mental Health Services (SMHS) in HEI in Sweden do not sufficiently address climate-anxiety.

Med utgångspunkt i en ökning av så kallad klimatångest bland barn, är denna studies syfte är att undersöka och analysera ekologiska frågeställningar inom barnlitteratur och läromedel för mellanstadieelever för att se hur försöken att skapa ekologiskt medvetna medborgare görs, hur ansvaret mellan barn och vuxna behandlas, hur det hållbara samspelet mellan natur och mänsklighet problematiseras och hur hotet om undergång skildras och hanteras. Analysen genomförs med hjälp av en kvalitativ textanalys av de skönlitterära verken Kometen kommer av Tove Jansson och Slutet av Mats Strandberg, samt av fyra läromedel i SO- och NO-ämnen ur serien Utkik.Resultatet visar att texterna tar upp hållbarhetsfrågor mestadels ur ett människocentrerat perspektiv, men där människan samtidigt skuldbeläggs för klimatkrisen och där barnen åläggs ansvaret för att lösa den. Balansgången mellan att aktivera barnen och utbilda dem i hållbarhet utan att orsaka klimatångest visar sig vara svår att hantera. Skönlitteraturen gör det via skildringar om undergång, och läromedlen genom att uttryckligen beskriva hotet. En medvetenhet om vilket material som väljs ut och varför är ett nödvändigt didaktiskt förhållningssätt. / With basis in the increase of so-called climate anxiety among children, the purpose of the study is to investigate and analyse ecological issues in children’s literature and text books meant for pupils in grades 4–6. We examine how pupils are required to become ecologically aware citizens, how the responsibility among children and adults is handled, how the interplay between nature and humanity is problematised and how the threat of destruction is depicted. The qualitative text analysis focuses on the two novels Kometen kommer (Comet in Moominland, by Tove Jansson) and Slutet (The End, by Mats Strandberg), as well as four text books of different subjects in the Utkik (Outlook) series.The result shows that the texts describe issues of sustainability from a human-centered perspective, where man is considered responsible for the climate crisis and the children are enjoined the responsibility of putting an end to it. The balance between activating the children and teaching them about sustainability, without causing even more anxiety, seems difficult to handle. The novels use apocalyptic themes, while the text books expressively focuses on describing the different factors of threat. A conscious selection of teaching material and children’s literature – what? and why? – is a necessary didactical approach.

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