A Leaving Certificate student who has “eco-anxiety” has already planned not to have kids in the future as she doesn’t want to “bring them into this overpopulated world.”
Sofia Keogh, 17, has said that she has suffered from eco-anxiety for years, an anxiety where people feel overwhelmed by future environmental challenges.
At just eight years old, Sofia became aware of climate change and started researching fossil fuels when she should’ve been embracing her childhood.
She told Dublin Live exclusively: “It affected me since I was about eight or nine. When I was in primary school I was worried about global warming, ice caps melting and flooding.
“I did projects on that stuff and I did a lot of research on fossil fuels when I was about eight.”
The fifth year student from Ballsbridge explained that her mind can be overwhelmed with thoughts about climate change.
She said: “Eco-anxiety is a huge part of my life, even brushing my teeth with a plastic toothbrush, now I’m bamboo but before, I was thinking about how it was going to go in the landfill and it’s going to be there for thousands of years and it would just be in my head constantly.
“Eco-anxiety has caused me to overthink the little things. It’s overpowering, I couldn’t get to sleep at night because of it sometimes, it’s tough.
“Overthinking what I was going to eat as well, I don’t eat meat anymore. Even getting water bottles from the shop, I’d prefer to go thirsty instead.
“I don’t want to have kids when I’m older because I don’t want to bring them into this world and I don’t want to have more people in this overpopulated world. That’s a big part of it for me.
“I’m definitely learning to get through it, I can only do so much but it can be so overwhelming. It's a fear that everything is going to be terrible and there’s nothing I can do about it.”
Sofia claims that ECO-UNESCO has helped her throughout the years. She said she became involved with Ireland's Environmental Education and Youth Organisation when she was only 12 years old.
“ECO-UNESCO has helped me so much, I had no idea where to go, I was kind of lost and then I met them, and I felt that I was finally making a change.
“I’m focused on educating people about climate change and climate justice.
“We need more youth groups definitely for teenagers to know exactly where they can go to get help.
“I think schools should definitely be doing more. I think we can always do more."
Sofia said she never even heard about climate justice until she went to ECO-UNESCO, and because of this is she is calling on the Minister for Children, Roderic O’Gorman to do more about educating children on climate change.
She said: “He really needs to do more, I don’t think a lot of people in my school have even heard of ECO-UNESCO, so society needs to let more people know that there’s a place for them.
“It’s about supporting and funding youth groups because that’s what has made the biggest change in my life.
“Websites like Spun Out and Jigsaw are doing a lot for mental health, so supporting people who are helping young people is really important.
“The younger people are, the more they’re panicking about ‘this is going to our future.’”
Sofia isn't the only person who is concerned about the planet. In total, 77% of young people are very concerned about climate change with over a third of young people experiencing eco-anxiety.
55% of young people said they feel nobody listens to them about climate issues and 36% said they need better engagement with politicians and key decision-makers.
This survey was completed by ECO-UNESCO and Spun Out. They interviewed over 1,000 people aged 15-24 on the issues around taking climate action.
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