Tackling Eco-anxiety Through Environmental History

Context

How can we support young people who are experiencing eco-apathy or eco-anxiety?

We tell a story of the twentieth and twenty-first century which focusses on environmental degradation through expanding outputs of greenhouse gasses, the use of toxic chemicals, and so on. While the consequences of these things are real and significant, our accounts have tended to marginalise the ways in which environmental harms have been reduced or managed in the past.

Aims and Objectives

This project will explore the value of looking at examples of successful environmental interventions such as the 1956 Clean Air Act. It will partner with York Explore and other groups in the city to explore ways of using local archives to produce new histories of environmental change.

Project Outputs

We commissioned a detailed report on the steps needed to make key environmental action archives at York Explore Library and Archives accessible to researchers and the public.  This included an expert assessment of the time, skills, and costs involved.

We also conducted a pilot session exploring the potential of environmental history to address eco-anxiety.  A group of participants engaged with archival materials, and we evaluated their reactions to this material and how it impacted their sense of wellbeing

In addition, we held productive meetings with potential project partners.  These activities have directly informed a forthcoming grant application.  The support from the YESI Knowledge Exchange Fellows scheme has been instrumental in developing our proposal.

Project Partner