Young people are deeply worried about climate change and the impact it will have on their future.  In a recent study of 16,000 youth ages 16-25 across the U.S., 85% of young people said they were worried about climate change, and 38% said climate change affects their ability to function (Lewandowski et al., 2024). 

How can we better support youth in this country to face the challenges posed by climate change with grit and resilience? Teachers offer an important point of intervention, as they often serve as supportive adults in young people’s lives, and have the power to touch the lives of many youth from diverse backgrounds on a regular basis.

In my role at Climate Mental Health Network, I’ve worked with and spoken to hundreds of teachers grappling with how to best support their students through the emotional toll of climate change. This is true whether their students have been directly impacted by a climate disaster – such as by the wildfires that ravaged my city of Los Angeles in January and leveled 12 schools – or if their students have been indirectly impacted – such as by watching climate disasters play out on the news or on social media.

In a study we conducted with 63 middle school teachers across the country, 71% of teachers said their students express negative emotions about climate change, and 67% of teachers said they did not have the resources and support they need to effectively support student climate emotions. What’s more, 82% of teachers in our study said they personally struggle with negative emotions about climate change, and indicated that they need more support to navigate these emotions  (CMHN & NEEF, 2025).

Informed by this research, Climate Mental Health Network and the National Environmental Education Foundation developed the “Climate Emotions Toolkit for Educators” to help teachers better support their students in the context of climate change– as well as support their own mental health. Widely endorsed by teachers around the country in our nationwide pilot, we are now excited to share our toolkit with you. We hope it can help position teachers as a source of support for students, improve teachers’ sense of wellbeing, and create a stronger connection between teachers and students - because community and connection is the foundation of resilience.

In 2021, I was teaching 6th grade in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, as students returned to in-person learning after over a year of distance education. During the pandemic, I visited the LA River daily for my own mental health, which inspired me to create an interdisciplinary unit about the river, past, present, and future. I wish I had access to SubjectToClimate’s resources- they would have saved me hours of planning. My students were deeply engaged as they examined the significance of water, the LA River ecosystem, Indigenous history, and environmental restoration. Since joining SubjectToClimate, I’ve learned even more about integrating mental health into climate education, and reflecting on my teaching, I’m proud that I connected learning to a local place, encouraged a personal connection to water’s positive impacts, and provided creative time for students to envision the LA River’s future using Canva. If I could enhance the lesson plans in regards to mental health, I would include a 5-10 minute meditation with river sounds, introduce tools to expand students’ emotional vocabulary, and co-create class definitions for "collective efficacy" and “climate anxiety.” As educators, we are constantly learning and evolving, and supporting both our own mental well-being and that of our students is essential- especially when navigating complex topics like our connection to the natural world.

This resource offers seven games to teach sustainability and ecosystems. Play supports mental health, develops social-emotional learning, and fosters communication in young students.

This comprehensive guide walks teachers through the process of supporting students as they experience the strong emotions that come from learning about climate change.

In this resource, teachers can learn how to handle students' anxiety with understanding while providing a safe space to discuss and explore their feelings.

This guide helps teachers support students' climate anxiety with activities that promote positive coping and fit into existing science units.

This lesson helps students understand and manage climate anxiety. They explore their emotions, practice coping strategies, and create a toolkit to handle stress and build resilience.

This activity allows students to describe, draw, or color in their feelings about climate change in a climate emotions wheel and encourages them to share their feelings with others.