May is Mental Health Awareness Month. If you’ve ever felt worried, anxious, or even hopeless about climate change, you’re not alone. A recent study of parents in the US found that a striking majority—nearly four out of five—expressed worry about climate change and the impact it might have on their children.
Painful emotions about climate change can be difficult to hold, but the good news is that there are plenty of ways we can use our emotions as fuel for action.
This week, dozens of Moms from across the country are speaking out at an EPA hearing about tailpipe pollution standards for cars. You can join us right now by taking 20 seconds to sign our petition for the strongest possible Clean Car Standards.
Back in 2018, when my twins were just two years old, an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report was published with the shocking finding that the world had 12 years left to avert future climate catastrophe.
That same year, Hurricane Florence battered the coast of my home state of North Carolina, where we lived at the time. Climate change is fueling ever-more extreme weather events. I remember feeling stricken by grief as images of familiar places in Wilmington made the national news in the aftermath of the hurricane.
My own experience of climate anxiety and distress is far from rare. Research suggests that the number of people psychologically affected by disasters like Hurricane Florence can surpass those physically injured by 40 to 1. And the mental health impacts of climate change are particularly harsh for communities of color, who are hit first and worst by climate stressors.
These impacts are among the many reasons we need to act on climate change as if the quality of our future depends on it—because it does.
Pollution from the tailpipes of cars contributes significantly to climate change and all its harmful consequences, from extreme weather to anxiety. Stronger pollution standards for cars are one of the most important tools we can leverage today to fight the climate crisis.
I know I sleep a little better at night when I’m taking action with others. I bet you do too.
Join me and Moms across the country in asking EPA to finalize strong tailpipe pollution standards for cars. Together, our actions can make a difference.
Learn more about Moms’ work on car and truck pollution.
TELL EPA: WE NEED THE STRONGEST POSSIBLE CLEAN CAR STANDARDS