Hey guys.

Bittersweet moment here.

This is our final episode of Spotlight Earth.

So sorry.

In our journey through the complex and fascinating topics of environmental science, we've encountered a wide range of challenges that our earth is facing.

It's easy to feel overwhelmed, fearful, sad, or even angry about these challenges.

But there's a concept that we're gonna explore that will hopefully make you feel better.

And it's called resilience.

Think of a forest regaining life after a fire, or the gray wolf coming back after near extinction, or even your own ability to ace a test after pulling an all-nighter.

Resilience is a powerful tool.

It is the ability to bounce back or recover quickly from difficult or challenging situations.

And resilience is also the topic of today's episode of Spotlight Earth.

(uplifting music) Resilience is like having a superpower that helps you stay strong when facing tough times.

It doesn't mean we won't feel sad or frustrated sometimes, but it means we have the inner strength and mindset to keep going, learn from our experiences, and grow even stronger.

Ecosystems have differing capacities to adapt to changing conditions, to withstand shocks, and recover from those shocks.

Some ecosystems are more resilient than others.

The more diverse an ecosystem is, the more resilient it is.

Diversity gives the ecosystem the material it needs to adapt to change.

But some biomes, like the Arctic Tundra, have very low diversity and are easily threatened or destroyed by change.

Diversity and resilience have a role to play in our future.

How we respond to problems we face due to climate change, and environmental degradation.

Can we change our behaviors, or come up with new technologies and innovations to help ourselves and our planet?

How can we build our own personal resilience?

In this episode, we'll unpack that concept.

Let's head to Hales in the studio, who's standing by with an expert on the subject.

Thanks, Jarrell.

Yes, it is so important to be resilient, not just to climate change, but also to the way it can make us feel.

If you feel an overwhelming worry about the future of our planet, you're not alone.

Sleepless nights, feelings of hopelessness, resignation.

Joining us today is Dr. Debbie Sturm, a professor of psychology at James Madison University in Harrisonburg.

Dr. Sturm, thank you so much for joining us to discuss this increasingly pertinent issue, eco anxiety.

What is eco anxiety?

Eco anxiety, simply put, is a rational and logical response to a fairly terrifying projection of what our future looks like and what is happening right now.

So many times when we think about anxiety, we think about like, how do I get rid of this?

This is uncomfortable.

I don't like it.

I need it to go away.

But the things that are happening with regard to the climate crisis are actually terrifying, in many ways, and they're threatening communities as we speak.

And so to say like, "I don't wanna have scary feelings about that," is essentially saying, "There's a bear charging at me, but I don't wanna feel bad about it.

So I'd rather like, figure out how to just feel good," and like, and that's not what we wanna do.

We wanna figure out, what do we do with this anxiety?

So again, it's rational, it's logical, and it's what we feel when we really look at the impact of, and the projection of the climate crisis.

What are some of the challenges we face when we're trying to discuss eco anxiety?

Yeah, that's a good question too, because we do have several of them.

So I think one of the challenges that can often be, like confused with something that is diagnosable versus a lived experience.

So I think sometimes in our culture, like anxiety can be minimized, and it also can be like, maximized, and with eco anxiety we're saying like, "Let's kind of sit somewhere in the middle, and listen to our bodies, listen to our responses, and not try to categorize this."

This is important information about how you're encountering your experience learning about or living through the climate crisis.

We know that there are many communities who have always felt uncomfortable or afraid within their environment, and so is eco anxiety something that people who have never felt fear of their environment are now feeling?

Does it have an element of historical or current privilege to it?

So there's something really important about the construct of realizing like, we're gonna encounter information about the degradation of our environment, about the threats we face with climate change, and we do have an entire spectrum of neighbors who have lived with various threats to their wellbeing, both environmentally and socially.

So eco anxiety is a very real lived experience, and it might not be the highest, most pressing experience for a lot of people.

So you've mentioned that there are three ways that clinicians see eco anxiety showing up.

Can you elaborate a little bit more on that?

So there are all these sort of three general directions.

One is, sort of as we talked about with eco anxiety as a whole, of recognizing the threat that we're currently under.

And this could be watching news stories, following things on your social media feed, reading about what's happening, seeing the latest IPCC report, where you're sort of taking the information in and feeling really activated, threatened, concerned, worried, feeling grief, sorrow, any of those things.

This is just by learning about it and knowing about it.

The second one, which I think oftentimes is seen as like the most logical of these, and that is if you've been involved in a climate-related event, and you, as a result of the climate-related event, have a heightened sense of eco anxiety.

"I have now lived through an experience of the threat, and it is now part of my existence.

I have a very personal relationship with it."

So if you're in a community where a hurricane has come through, or wildfire smoke is a normal experience in the summer for you now, your sense of eco anxiety will be heightened.

It's almost like it just sort of sits here, as this knowing that this could come.

So that's a different kind of eco anxiety.

And the final one, this really like, how climate change affects mental health, are people who already have mental health issues of any kind.

Anxiety, depression, PTSD, any kind of trauma history, substance abuse, really anything across the spectrum of mental health issues, and are impacted by a climate-related event or a climate-related threat.

What are some helpful coping strategies for people who are experiencing eco anxiety?

One of the biggest antidotes to eco anxiety is action.

One of the aspects of eco anxiety is, "I can't do anything about this.

This is too big."

And what we really wanna do is help people see like, "No.

Every single chip in the wall matters."

Can we individually turn the corner of climate change?

Not likely.

But can we do things in partnership with our neighbors, with our kids, with our parents, in our community?

When we have the opportunity to work with people, that's our conversation.

What is you?

Where do you feel like you have a role in this?

And typically when people are able to do that, they learn this wonderful term called radical hope.

Radical hope is this idea that, "This is really bad, like really bad.

This is really bad.

And really scary, terrible things, have been on the doorstep before, and people have figured it out."

You might feel overwhelmed or powerless in a moment, and then get involved in something and feel like, "Okay.

You know, my level of overwhelm was 110 on a scale of zero to 100, but now that I've sort of connected with this group, or I've done this thing with my sister, I see hope."

I think one of the counseling theorists, one of the psychological theorists, always talk about anxiety as a catalyst.

And I think that that's a really important consideration here of, and this is really important to note that like, the anxiety that I'm feeling is intended move me, but if it's too much, I'm not gonna be able to move.

So I've gotta tend to myself first, get back within that window, and be able to really make a difference.

Is there any last advice you have specifically for teenagers experiencing eco anxiety?

Those who are young and are experiencing eco anxiety, the first most important thing that anyone else can do is listen.

The research also showed that 60 some percent of them felt that the older generations don't listen to them.

They don't understand their unique perspective.

So I think the most important thing that you can do if you have a young person in your life is to listen to their perspective, and listen to hear, not to respond, and not to solve, but listen to hear.

Their future is gonna be very different than my future was at that age.

And so I think it's important that we honor that and we recognize it, we talk about it openly, with the purpose of listening versus fixing, and that we support in every way that we can.

Alright, Dr. Sturm, thank you so much for sharing your insights with us today.

Thank you.

It's been such a pleasure.

We hope this conversation helps you better navigate your own feelings around eco anxiety.

Let's check in with Ellen to learn more about how to approach environmental issues.

Thanks, Hales.

Great conversation.

Remember, resilience is our ability to bounce back, adjust to change, and persist in the face of difficulties.

Even if you don't think of yourself as naturally resilient, it's all about how you think.

The good news is that we can develop a resilient mindset.

There are three ways to do this.

First, balance optimism with reality.

It's a balance between having hope for the future, and being honest about the challenges we faced.

Next, avoid catastrophizing, like exaggerating our problems or jumping to the worst possible conclusion.

Instead, view adversity as a chance to change direction and create something new.

Don't let potential adversity overwhelm you.

Seek to make meaning out of your situation.

Finally, get into the habit of improvising.

Resilient minds adapt to circumstances and move forward creatively with what's available.

The idea of resiliency isn't unique to individuals.

Many communities, towns, and cities, are putting in place initiatives to combat environmental issues in the present and future.

One such program is Norfolk Vision 2100.

Norfolk is a city that sits at sea level.

Sea level rise is a serious issue facing many Norfolk residents and businesses.

My Spotlight Earth co-host, Jarrell, joins us now from the Norfolk Waterfront with a special guest to learn more about the city's efforts to be resilient from some pretty huge challenges.

Hey, thanks!

I'm joined today by Paula Shea, acting director of city planning here in Norfolk.

So Paula, please explain to us how Norfolk Vision 2100 came to be.

Thanks.

Thanks for asking.

Thanks for having me here today.

Absolutely.

Vision 2100 is an outgrowth of efforts dating back to 2013, when the city became a member of the Rockefeller Foundation, RC 100, the Resilient Cities 100.

And as part of that whole process, they brought together a number of cities that were facing issues of flooding, was really the challenge.

Brought 'em together in a room and got us all to talk to each other about strategies for how are we gonna deal with all this water in the future as a city, as a municipality?

So we were sitting in New York City and had representatives from New York and New Orleans and Norfolk all in a room, and a lot of experts, and Norfolk was playing the "woe is me".

How are we gonna protect 133 miles of shoreline in the city of Norfolk?

How are we gonna keep all this water out?

And somebody in the room from outside of Norfolk said, "I think you're looking at this wrong.

I think the answer is, what are you gonna do with the rest of Norfolk?

What opportunities does this water present to Norfolk?"

And, "Not everywhere in Norfolk's gonna flood.

Your focus is, what is your vision for the future?"

And so we came back to Norfolk and said, you know what?

We need to have a community dialogue and talk about how is Norfolk gonna deal with water?

What is our approach, what is our vision for the year 2100?

So that was the birth of Vision 2100.

Wow.

So what exactly is the goal of Vision 2100?

Vision 2100, the overall goal was to have a community-driven vision for what we wanted Norfolk to be in the future.

How are we going to embrace our, I'll use an old term, "waterness".

Waterness?

Our waterness.

We are a city with the Navy, with the ports and ship building, but also we have parks and homes and businesses that thrive off the water.

And how are we gonna make that an asset?

How are we, you know, as a community, how are we gonna continue that?

What were we gonna do?

What was our vision for Norfolk in the future?

And what was our pathway to get there?

So who all was involved in creating Norfolk Vision 2100?

Well, a number of city departments were involved in that.

We had a Office of Resilience, it was brand new to the city, our first resilience officer, who was funded through the Rockefeller Foundation, but we also have an Office of Communication, Department of Neighborhood Development that is in charge of community outreach, and then planning, who does all things planning and vision.

So we all came together and really tried to figure out how do we best communicate with the community to get their input and thoughts about how Norfolk wants to deal with the water, how we embrace our water, but what steps do we wanna take in the future to deal with increased water in the city of Norfolk?

So part of the plan talks about investing in resilient areas.

What does this mean and how are those identified?

Great.

Good question.

So the resilient areas in Norfolk, we began an exercise where we let the scientists map out the future sea level rise, and I can't get into the science of that, and they can debate.

So we had a baseline of where it was gonna flood, and it was based on where would it flood right now, and where would it flood in the future if we did a flood wall or storm barriers, things like that, what it would look like.

Then we went out to the community and we had a series of meetings called asset mapping, and asked the community, where are the areas in Norfolk that, without them, we would no longer be Norfolk?

They're quintessential Norfolk.

And we got really interesting answers from the community.

So we overlaid the flooding with where people identified the most assets, and we came up with a pattern, and we said, the areas that aren't gonna flood to sea level rise and have a concentration of assets in them, those are areas we wanna strengthen, maintain, continue to invest in.

Maybe if we're trying to choose where a new school should go, we need to look at those areas.

'Cause those are gonna be the future areas in Norfolk that are neighborhoods of the future.

We also have areas that are more appropriate for redevelopment that are still gonna be high and dry in the future.

Military Circle being the number one area.

So we should do some master planning for Military Circle, which we have done since then.

And then the third are, these areas are gonna be protected within the city of Norfolk through significant capital investments.

Okay.

These are red areas.

Downtown, the whole way around to our universities, and things like that.

And these areas, because there's such a significant capital investment on the public side, we wanna see the private side invest in these areas, make improvements, higher density, to take care of the investment we're making in these areas.

How is Norfolk Vision 2100 preparing Norfolk for a better future?

That is the whole point of why we do something like Vision 2100, is to really prepare for a better future.

Right.

Interesting point.

We chose the year 2100 very intentionally.

This was about 10 years ago when we were going through the planning process, and we looked around the room and the people that are participating and other than very, very, very young children, who really weren't participating, nobody else would be there at the realization of this vision, which was a good thing.

We wanted people to remove themselves and really envision that long-term future for the city of Norfolk, without worrying, "How does this personally affect me?"

Right, yeah.

So that's really how you deal with creating a vision and a plan, is to really try to not make it so personal and try to get people to open up and think broadly about the future of an area.

I love it.

So I think that's what we achieved.

And then Vision 2100 specifically really provided us that outline or a pathway to have a safe dialogue about the fact that we see more water and are gonna see more water in Norfolk, and have that dialogue.

It's not always been a safe dialogue to have in communities.

So we're really proud that Norfolk citizens came together to have this conversation.

So what do you think the city of Norfolk will look like in the year 2100?

I was afraid you were gonna ask me that.

It'll be a combination of old and new.

I hope we retain what makes Norfolk, Norfolk.

When we talk to the citizens, things like the botanical gardens.

The park we're standing in, the ability for people to walk down and still enjoy the waterfront.

These are all really key elements that should be around in 2100.

It shouldn't be wall to wall development.

It really has to be planned out development.

But I see us embracing new technologies.

We don't even know what they are today.

Right.

But I hope we can still embrace who we are.

We still have an active navy presence, we still have industry focused on our waterfront properties, but we still maintain quintessential Norfolk.

Yeah.

So if there are any other people in different communities that wanna work towards mitigating the effects of floods in their communities, what could they do?

Good question.

Good question.

So again, Vision 2100 was a springboard for dealing with communities that are currently waterfront communities, but also inland communities that experience day-to-day flooding during high tide events.

And then communities that are even high and dry.

The city now has Retain Your Rain program, where they'll go out and work with community groups on how to do rain barrels, how to, our environmental services division will talk to you about living shorelines on your property, how to develop 'em.

There's even grants available for lots of work like this.

So the city has made a lot of resources available.

And what I would encourage community groups to do is if they want to begin strategic planning and visioning for their own community, that they reach out to, mainly our Department of Neighborhood Development, they will come out and do- Really?

Exercises on asset mapping to just start a healthy conversation on a neighborhood level.

Wow!

Paula, thank you so much for your time.

I really appreciate it.

Good luck with everything and all your vision goals!

And thank you so much for talking with me today.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Great interview, Jarrell, and great episode, guys.

It's been an amazing season as well.

I can't believe this is it for Spotlight Earth.

Yeah, we've learned so much.

And let's face it, our world is changing, whether we like it or not.

Climate change, rising sea levels, shifting weather patterns.

These are realities that we have to face.

That's right.

Will we stick to old ways, or will we innovate, adapt, and evolve?

Our world needs young people with the courage to change, try new things, step outside their comfort zones, and drive the change they want to see in the world.

So we invite you to embrace change.

Change is often viewed as a challenge, something to resist or fear.

But what if we started to view change as an opportunity?

As a chance to learn, grow, and make a real difference?

What if each one of us decided to change one behavior or habit that can help solve an environmental issue of our time?

Maybe that means biking or walking instead of driving, or recycling more, or educating ourselves and others about climate change.

Every tiny change in our behavior or habit creates ripples in our ecosystem.

Use your creativity, your energy, and your passion, to make a difference.

Because in the end, it's about creating a world that is worth inheriting.

A world that we can be proud to pass on to those who come after us.

Let's use our resilience to shape the future, to create a world that is not just sustainable, but thriving.

That's our challenge to you.

We hope you're inspired to make the world a better place.

Thanks for watching Spotlight Earth.

(bright techno music)