Britt Wray is the author of Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis. She's a writer and broadcaster researching the emotional and psychological impacts of the climate crisis. Born and raised in Toronto, Canada, she is a post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where she investigates the mental health consequences of ecological disruption. She holds a PhD in Science Communication from the University of Copenhagen. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post Guardian, and Globe and Mail, among other publications. She has hosted several podcasts, radio, and TV programs with the BBC and CBC, is a TED Resident, and writes Gan Dread, a newsletter about staying sane in the climate crisis. She is also the author of Rise of the Necrofauna: The Science, Ethics, and Risks of De-Extinction.

"In our study, we're looking at climate anxietyin 10,000 young people around the world, 16 to 25-year-olds in 10 countries across low, middle, high income settings, and 45% of the global respondents of these young people said that their climate anxiety is impairing their daily functioning. So concentrating, eating, going to school, going to work, playing, having fun, that kind of thing. They had very negative thoughts. 75% of the people around the world said that the future is frightening. 56% said that they feel humanity is doomed. And 39% said that they're hesitant to have their own kids. So, because of all that, we know - if we're talking in Nigeria, India, Philippines, Canada, UK, US, Australia, Finland, and some other countries - we're looking across really diverse scenarios in terms of the national income and what that means for their ability to adapt and respond to climate threats and also their exposure already to climate hazards and disasters that are going on.

So for that global aggregate to be that high, it's pretty striking. And then when you really dig into the most affected and underserved countries on this issue, so those with lower level economies and more climate disasters, you see the distress shooting through the roof – more around 74% of the young people saying that it's impairing functioning, for instance. So it's a severe health equity issue thinking about what it means to live with the psychological impacts of the climate crisis. And then also pointing out who's deserving who needs the most attention and support at this time, rather than just kind of foisting all the attention and resources on, in this case, it would be young people in industrialized nations who are suffering as well but not at the rates of lower income nations with more climate disasters."

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