We are over the moon that Caroline Hickman will be one of our keynote speakers at our Tomorrow’s World Annual Conference in Cardiff, 19 March 2025! Her session will look at:
Climate Breakdown and Child Safeguarding: Understanding the climate crisis as a child’s rights crisis
Children today are growing up in a global climate and ecological crisis, with flooding and wildfires increasing in frequency and intensity. It’s not surprising that anxiety relating to climate change is on the rise: over 75% of primary school children surveyed in 2023 said that they are worried or extremely worried about the climate crisis (YouGov survey for Greenpeace): and a 2021 survey of 10,000 children and young people found that 75% thought the future was frightening (Hickman et al, 2021).
Eco anxiety, grief and despair are all now recognised as understandable and mentally healthy responses to the developing crisis. Conversations about climate change will bring us face to face with feelings of vulnerability and uncertainty but are also essential if we are to develop the emotional resilience that humanity needs to face this uncertain future.
About Dr Hickman
Caroline Hickman has a background in mental health & child protection social work. She is an integrative psychotherapist and lecturer in social work at the University of Bath researching children and young people’s emotional responses to climate change in the UK, Brazil, The Maldives, Nigeria & USA for 10 years examining eco- anxiety & distress, eco-empathy, trauma, moral injury, and the impact of climate anxiety on relationships. She is co- lead author on a 2021 quantitative global study into 10,000 children & young people’s emotions & thoughts about climate change published in The Lancet Planetary Health.
More:
Articles on climate anxiety, children and young people published in The Conversation (2019):
I’m up late at night worrying about global warming – please can you put my mind at rest?
What psychotherapy can do for the climate and biodiversity crises
A psychotherapist explains why some adults are reacting badly to young climate strikers
BBC Ideas Short Film:
How to talk with children about climate change
The End of the World Has Already Happened (Timothy Morton Documentary BBC Radio 4)
Women's Hour: How to talk to children about climate change (BBC Radio 4)
Costing the Earth (BBC Radio 4, Eco Anxiety, May 2019)
Other:
Podcasts (For the Climate Psychology Alliance)
YouTube: Psychological barriers to climate change | Caroline Hickman | TEDxBathUniversity
