Eco-distress—the anxiety and despair students feel when confronted with climate change—remains a pressing issue. Evidence shows that fear-based messaging can overwhelm young people, limiting their engagement with solutions.
In an article in The Conversation, ECI’s Associate Professor Tina Fawcett and former ECI DPhil students William Finnegan and Anya Gleizer discuss how they explored ways to counter this through creative, participatory approaches in a project called The Museum of Climate Hope. Working with students in Oxford, they used storytelling, hands-on projects, and local environmental connections to build hope, resilience, and agency—showing that inspiring the next generation is as vital as tackling climate change itself.
The article is part of The Conversation’s feature Climate Storytelling, a series on how arts and science can spark understanding, hope, and action.
Read the full article in The Conversation: How we created a climate change museum to inspire hope among eco-distressed students