Confronting anxiety and despair in environmental studies and sciences: an analysis and guide for students and faculty

In the field of environmental studies and sciences (ESS), teachers and students face a daily barrage of dire news and information from all manner of sources and all corners of the earth. Accepting, processing, and using that information in a professional learning context present existential, emotional, intellectual, and physical challenges that are too seldom made explicit in teaching and learning. This lack of explicit recognition of the deeply personal challenges of teaching and learning ESS represents a missed opportunity that disadvantages faculty and students alike by increasing, rather than decreasing, the likelihood of anxiety and despair in ESS. We analyze and provide a perspective on these circumstances, and offer several strategies for improving our ability to integrate personal and collective wellbeing into formal teaching and learning in ESS.