Rakel Zetterlund - Undergraduate student experiencing Eco-Anxiety

Meet Rakel Zetterlund, a former Canadian ECEC Teacher who now resides and works as an International Service Officer at a university in Amsterdam. Today's discussion revolves around Rakel’s recently completed Master Thesis in Education for Sustainable Development from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The focal point of our conversation is "Understanding Eco-Anxiety: The individual lived experiences of undergraduate students aiming for a hopeful future."

In this talk, Rakel shares the experiences and challenges that many young undergraduate students encounter today, stemming from both the pandemic and climate change. Eco-anxiety, as defined by the World Health Organization (2020), refers to heightened levels of stress, anxiety, and depression, along with obsessive thinking directly linked to environmental changes.

Driven by personal experiences of anxiety and the observed increase in anxiety, stress, and depression among undergraduates within the university setting over several years, Rakel embarked on this master's journey. The decision to delve deeper into this subject was fuelled by a desire to better understand and find ways to support students facing these issues.

This is such an important topic please make sure to share widely, discuss, debate but most importantly ENJOY and TAKE CARE OF YOURSELVES / Liisa