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This is not a newsletter. It’s just a letter. A letter to someone who mattered.

This is not a newsletter. It has no title. It offers no reflections on quantum social change. It’s just a letter.

It’s a letter to Siri Adele, one of my graduate students who is no longer with us. Siri was a bright, positive, conscientious, and caring student who was committed to making the world a better place. Siri also struggled with depression.

She was getting help, but help was not enough. She left us.

She left behind her family, partner, friends, students, teachers, colleagues, and countless others whose lives she touched. She touched me.

Dear Siri,

The last time I saw you, we literally bumped into each other in the stairwell of Harriet Holters Hus. I was so happy when I realized that it was you! We didn’t have enough time for an in-depth conversation, but to see you again made my day.

You were an excellent seminar leader for our Environment and Society students, and they loved you. We all loved you. Thank you for telling them that they could make an appointment with university’s health services if the course content affected their mental well being. I should have made that clear on the first day of class.

You were never alone in your struggles. A 2021 study showed that more than half of the 10,000 young people surveyed in ten countries felt sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless, and guilty about climate change. This is shocking, and it should be on the front pages of the news, ringing alarm bells every day. As a society, we should feel ashamed, embarrassed, and remorseful — and take responsibility for our actions. Do something. Instead, we pretend there is nothing that we can do, and give power to irresponsible people — those who act as though young people and future generations do not matter. But they do.

Earlier this year you sent me a deeply personal email. You described how you “hit the famous wall” some years ago, and instead of taking a step back to reflect and re-reenergize, you continued “with different, but nevertheless large amounts of work/studies.” You then met the wall again and again, and noted that you had simply not respected yourself enough to deal with your issues properly - until then.

Depression is a complex illness, and in an entangled world we all have to take care of each other and the planet. As we discussed with your master’s research on overconsumption, there are many structural factors at play. This means we need to address both the context-specific and systemic factors that affect the well-being of each of us. And all of us.

Your partner, Cole, said that you looked up to me and admired me. But you were looking at your own reflection. I admired you and everything about you. I saw myself in you. You mattered, Siri, and I miss you.

With love,
Karen

“I wish I could show you,
When you are lonely or in darkness,
The astonishing light of your own being.”
- Hafiz, 13th century Persian poet.

Climate anxiety and dissatisfaction with government responses are widespread in children and young people in countries across the world and impact their daily functioning. A perceived failure by governments to respond to the climate crisis is associated with increased distress. There is an urgent need for further research into the emotional impact of climate change on children and young people and for governments to validate their distress by taking urgent action on climate change.

Hickman et al. 2021. Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey. The Lancet Planet Health 5: e863–73

Image: Emanuel Haas / Unsplash