Last summer when the International Union for Conservation of Nature placed the migratory monarch butterfly on their Red List as endangered, I cried. I’ve learned the way to fight climate anxiety is to get involved with fighting climate change, but I still have sad days.

Without green energy and a shift to respecting nature and the interdependency of life, we will only cause damage to wildlife, wild landscapes, and everything else including ourselves. There are countless things to be done, but the bigger picture always returns to fighting climate change. When I began to take action to engage with these problems instead of avoiding them, I tried to find ways to use my talents in the areas of conserving wildlife and natural landscapes. For decades I tried to ignore these scary issues, but I was sad and worried about what humans were doing to the planet.

There was talk at home about water and air pollution, pesticides, and the hole in the ozone layer. My parents are scientists, and engaged with environmental issues. As a young person in the 1970’s, I developed climate anxiety, something that didn’t even have a name until recently.

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