When Climate Anxiety Turns Into Apathy and How We Find Our Power Again
- Helen Claire Murphy
- Jul 6
- 5 min read
The current climate crisis is troubling. Climate news is full of headlines warning about
changes in weather, oceans, ecosystems, and the world around us. Given how constant this news can feel, it makes sense that many people are feeling worried, tired, guilty, frustrated, numb, or unsure of what to do next.
Most people are not apathetic. They know something is wrong. They care about the future. They care about animals, forests, oceans, communities, and the Earth.
But when people are exposed to crisis messaging over and over again, it can become difficult to stay connected. The problems can feel too large, too constant, and too far beyond our individual lives. Over time, concern can become exhaustion. Exhaustion can become numbness. And numbness can start to look like apathy.
In this post, we explore climate anxiety, why overwhelm can turn into disconnection, and how we can begin to find our power again.
What Is Climate Anxiety?
In general, anxiety is an evolutionary response to new life experiences or ongoing stressors. We experience anxiety because our brains and bodies are trying to protect us from harm. Climate change is one of those ongoing stressors that many people experience as a real threat to the future, to the planet, and to the world we belong to.
Because of this, people may experience worry, grief, guilt, fear, frustration, numbness, or helplessness in response to climate change and environmental loss. The term climate anxiety was developed to help describe these feelings.
Increased exposure to climate concerns in daily life has made it difficult not to think about the climate crisis. It is no wonder that many people, especially young people, are experiencing rising levels of climate anxiety. These feelings can be overwhelming at times and may impact our ability to stay present, engaged, or hopeful in our everyday lives.
When Overwhelm Starts to Look Like Apathy
However, people do not remain in a highly overwhelmed state for very long. When we are exposed to crisis messaging over and over again, the brain can start to protect itself by tuning out.
We may start to feel disconnected, powerless, numb, or unsure what meaningful action would even look like. From the outside, this can look like apathy toward climate change.
But what looks like apathy is not always a lack of care.
Many people do care about the climate. They want to take action. The problem is not that young people lack care.
The problem is that many young people feel powerless.
The climate crisis can feel too large, too urgent, and too far beyond what one person can change. At the same time, young people are trying to build their own lives in a world that already feels unstable. They are thinking about school, work, money, housing, relationships, purpose, and what kind of future is even possible.
This can create a painful false choice: build a successful life, or help the planet. Focus on your future, or focus on the Earth. Take care of yourself, or take responsibility for the world around you.
That choice is false.
Your life is not separate from the Earth. Your future is not separate from the future of nature. Building a meaningful life and taking responsibility for the world around you are not competing paths. They are connected.
Reclaiming Personal Power Through Collective Action
Reclaiming power begins by rejecting the idea that building your own life and helping the Earth are separate paths.
Power is only often treated as control, status, dominance, or power over others. But power has a bigger meaning than that. It is also the human capacity to create, protect, restore, connect, and contribute. It is the strength we use when we recognize that we matter, that our choices have weight, and that we have a responsibility to the world we are part of.
When you feel powerless, being told that “small actions matter” is not always enough. The crisis can still feel massive, and your individual choices can still feel too small.
Reclaiming your power means moving out of that isolation. It means paying attention, building confidence, learning what is happening around you, joining with others, and becoming someone who can respond with awareness and action.
Power becomes real when you stop seeing yourself as separate from the problem and start recognizing your responsibility within it.
Many people feel worried, tired, frustrated, or unsure of what meaningful action looks like. But when people come together, individual smallness can transform into shared strength.
This is why collective action matters.
Collective action may look like joining a community where climate action feels less isolating, talking with other people who care, joining a nature walk, participating in a cleanup, learning from mentors, or taking part in projects that help protect and restore nature.
These actions do not matter because one person is expected to solve the whole crisis. They matter because they rebuild connection. They help people grow confidence, responsibility, awareness, and the ability to act with others.
Whichever way you begin, reclaiming your power means choosing to stay connected: to yourself, to other people, to nature, and to the world you are part of.
This is Why PowerSeekers Exists
So the question is not how to stop caring about climate change so life feels easier.
The question is how to stay connected without becoming overwhelmed. How to build your own life without disconnecting from the Earth. How to grow your confidence, understand your responsibility, and take action with others instead of carrying the weight of everything alone.
That is where PowerSeekers begins.
PowerSeekers is our community of young people using their power for the world we belong to. Not everyone arrives knowing exactly what they want to do. Some people come because they feel anxious about the future. Some come because they love animals or nature. Some come because they want their life to mean something. Some come because they know they do not want to sleepwalk through a world that is changing around them.
You do not have to choose between building your life and helping the Earth. You do not have to become a perfect activist. You do not have to know the exact role you are meant to play before you begin.
You can begin by paying attention.
You can begin by learning more about the world around you.
You can begin by joining other people who are also trying to stay connected, take responsibility, and use their power in a way that matters.
Finding your place does not mean having everything figured out. It means taking the next step into relationship with nature, with other people, and with the world you are part of.
That is the invitation of PowerSeekers: come as you are, stay connected, and begin using your power for the world we belong to.
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Climate Change is A Lot
No doom, no pressure. Just a real conversation about climate, care, overwhelm, and where to begin.