World Mental Health Day & Green Libraries Week- tackling climate anxiety
Category: #CILIPSGoGreen, Blog, News
By Leah Higgins, CILIPS Digital Assistant
Supporting good mental health and wellbeing is crucial to the remit of both libraries, and also lies at the heart of climate change and justice too. So it seems kismet given that #WorldMentalHealthDay falls during #GreenLibrariesWeek this year.
Climate anxiety is something which is crucial to acknowledge, it’s the recognition that a sense of helplessness and doom when it comes to the lasting impacts of climate change is a very authentic one, it’s something that a lot of people fear. Climate anxiety and worries about the future can have a massive impact on mental wellbeing. In 2021 a first of its kind study titled, ‘Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey,’ shared that, “Climate anxiety can be connected to many emotions, including worry, fear, anger, grief, despair, guilt, and shame, as well as hope.” It also states that when it comes to young people, “Previous studies have shown that psychological distress about climate change exists, with affective, cognitive, and behavioural dimensions. The direct impacts of climate change disproportionately burden children and young people, at the same time as they are developing psychologically, physically, socially, and neurologically.” All this is to say that, there are many complex layers to take into consideration when we are trying to ease and tackle climate anxiety. One of the best things we can do to alleviate our own burden, and support our mental wellbeing is to share and talk. This week, I undertook National Library of Scotland’s Carbon Literacy for Libraries training, and at the end of our two days discussing what practical solutions exist in libraries, we had a discussion about how to approach colleagues, family and friends about this topic. They shared a great video, which you can click here to see.
Despite the relatively negative start to this blog, there is a bright side which comes from the beacon of hope that libraries signify in this discussion. They are that one sprout that remains breaking through the ground after a drought or storm. Libraries are a place for connection, support, and conversation amongst communities. We touch on this idea in our Green Libraries Week podcast special ‘Taking Root,’ sharing that libraries are a place where people who may not encounter this conversation elsewhere can band together and share what they feel about it. Equally, as we say in the episode,
“they provide access to quality information, and librarians are there to help promote critical thinking and analysis of the information you find. In order to grow the best and most robust collection of information about the climate crisis and make informed and conscious decisions about how your movements impact the planet.”
A 2023 paper in Open Access Alberta titled, ‘Climate Change Considerations in Public Library Collection Development‘ takes a deep dive into the context and challenges around curating climate collections saying,
“Climate change is a universal problem for us all to confront. Libraries play an integral role in balancing the often overtly academic literature that results from these studies by presenting their communities with materials that can be consumed by the general public of broad age ranges, educational backgrounds and social demographic categories…Libraries have the opportunity to be the bridge between difficult, data-heavy information and information that allows people to feel moved to action without frightening them into a state of passiveness.”
One of our podcast Guests for Taking Root, Christina Riley founder of The Nature Library in Irvine, shared a lovely sentiment in our conversations about the place of the library. She connected the fact that libraries are home to stories, and one of the most powerful ways to enact change and to tackle issues like Climate Change is to share these stories. As both the paper and Christina touch on, it’s important to strike a balance when it comes to literature around the climate in your library. Sometimes when people fall in love with the natural world through literature, it can empower and embolden them to make changes and be inspired. After all, as Christina says, this is how The Nature Library began as a seedling! However, sometimes people need to be enraged by the facts, once they’ve understood the jargon, and this has just as valid a place in the library. The same paper from Open Access Alberta shares the view of the World Health Organisation saying that,
“Understanding and valuing the concept of eco-anxiety should be an important consideration when making selections for library collections. Title selection of resources on the mental health repercussions of eco-anxiety would be an incredibly useful addition to a well-rounded climate change collection.”
Showing that all aspects of climate impact, including the impact on mental health should be considered, as a repercussion of climate change. However, a balance is crucial to protect yourself from climate anxiety but also burnout!
Being exposed to the natural world and spending time with nature is also crucial to good mental health. One of this year’s Green Libraries Scotland grant fund projects Rambling Readers: Nurturing Natural Connections, from North Lanarkshire facilitates this connection with the natural world, and creates space and time for participants to spend time outside. The 2019 Space to Thrive Report from the Heritage Fund states that the benefits of being in green spaces are that, “Parks and green spaces can support mental health recovery, providing a sense of harmony or equilibrium.” Also stating, “Nature connections are associated with personal quality of life and a sense of belonging.” The catchment for each library will be different, however those who may not think to explore nature will finally be exposed to opportunities through their local community, and emboldened to take part with the support of their local librarian. This sort of concept can come just as easily from a library garden too, which has another benefit of tackling food insecurity and waste. One more of our projects from this year is The Drying Green Herbarium from Inverclyde Libraries, which has held, and is still to hold more workshops utilising the surrounding flora and fauna. For instance, they used natural foliage to create pigment to be used in paintings. You can read more on the blog here.
Through and with nature, libraries have become spaces for connection to grow and anxieties to fade. Nature can be the way. They have become a place of hope, surrounded by fast fashion and consumerist culture, they exist as an oasis of free resources which can be recycled for others. Every time you pick up a book at your local library, think of the lives it has had before that point, and every time you are lowering the carbon footprint of that very item. We don’t claim the title of inaugural recyclers for nothing!
On that note, visit your local library and take care of yourself this #WorldMentalHealthDay!