Making Space for Climate Feelings at the WaterShed Climate and Water Education Center
Jenny Wolf
Boise, Idaho, WaterShed Education Center
Climate change is not only an environmental issue. It is also an emotional one, and young people are feeling it deeply. A global survey in The Lancet found that 75% of people aged 16-25 said “the future is frightening,” 56% believed humanity is doomed, and more than half felt sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless, and guilty.¹
That raises a question for those of us who teach about the environment: what is our responsibility when the subject we teach is also a source of distress for our students?
Teaching the causes, consequences, and responses to climate change matters. But if we leave students alone with how it makes them feel, we risk overwhelming them. Our responsibility extends further: to help young people navigate their climate emotions, too.
When The WaterShed opened a year ago as the nation’s first water and climate education center, we wanted visitors to have space to process how they felt about what they were learning. An idea from climate psychologist Caroline Hickman shaped our approach:
“Despair and Fear are not inherently bad. Hope and optimism are not inherently good. There is meaning in every emotion.”
It’s tempting to steer students toward hope as quickly as possible. But fear can signal that something we love is at risk, despair can reflect how much we care, and hope that skips over those feelings can ring hollow. Instead, we can invite students to notice what they feel and consider what it’s telling them.
Research suggests that simply labeling a negative emotion, such as anxiety or fear, can reduce its intensity.² Psychiatrist Daniel Siegel calls this “Name It to Tame It.” At The WaterShed, we used The Climate Emotions Wheel to help visitors identify their emotions, the first step to coping with them effectively.
After reflecting on the wheel, visitors expressed what they felt through art. Each received a blank canvas with prompts like “How do you feel about climate change?” and “When I feel overwhelmed, what brings me joy?” Then we handed them collage supplies and let them create.
The art gave visitors a way to express feelings that are hard to put into words. It also sparked conversations about what they care about and where they can direct those feelings.
What We Learned
Animals and forests were top of mind. Many visitors feared animal deaths and deforestation, specific and tangible losses rather than abstract concepts.
“I imagine a future” was our most generative prompt. Visitors shared the most detail when explaining what they made, as if looking forward opened up conversation.
Many visitors envisioned a hopeful future, and action was part of it. The artwork often featured people taking action to build a better world.
The art mattered more than we expected. People slowed down to make their collages and shared more thoughtful reflections than we anticipated.
Takeaways for Educators
You don’t need a full exhibit to try this:
Offer a shared vocabulary. A tool like the Climate Emotions Wheel helps students name what they feel.
Welcome all emotions. Let fear, sadness, and anger be part of the conversation.
Make it hands-on. Art can slow students down and draw out reflection that discussion alone may not.
Ask forward-looking questions. Prompts like “I imagine a future” connect feelings to possibility and action.
Climate education works best when it engages both head and heart. When we give students room to feel and a way to express it, we help them build the emotional footing to keep engaging with this issue for the long haul.
Looking for resources to teach climate emotions?
If you’d like access to the resources from our Climate Emotion Exhibit, email us at watershed@cityofboise.org
Want to practice these skills with fellow educators?
Check out Earth to Sky Idaho for courses that are designed with climate emotion pedagogy in mind.
1. Hickman, C., et al. (2021). Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: A global survey. The Lancet Planetary Health, 5(12), e863–e873.
2. Lieberman MD, Eisenberger NI, Crockett MJ, Tom SM, Pfeifer JH, Way BM. Putting feelings into words: affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli. Psychol Sci. 2007 May;18(5):421-8.
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