Essay by Eric Worrall
The people surveyed might have had other problems on their minds.
How storytelling can help articulate emotions that evolve as the climate changes
Published: July 27, 2026 10.16pm AEST
Bernadette McBride
Lecturer in Creative Writing, Liverpool Hope UniversityAs the smell of smoke and burning drifts around my neighbourhood from wildfires in nearby north Wales and Manchester, I worry that the consequences of this climate crisis are getting closer.
The decline of our planet is no longer just a physical threat; it is a mental health emergency. The Climate Cares Centre – the world’s first research hub dedicated to climate change and mental health – warns that the climate crisis is affecting the mental wellbeing of hundreds of millions of people around the world.
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According to 2024 survey by the independent research tracker Climate Barometer, worry (43%) and sadness (20%) are the most frequently felt emotions linked to climate change by the British public. Many people also stated: “I feel no emotion about climate change.” In a world full of competing crises, feelings linked to the climate crisis can be hard to put into words.
Read more: https://theconversation.com/how-storytelling-can-help-articulate-emotions-that-evolve-as-the-climate-changes-271006
Herein lies the problem: some of these feelings are so profoundly new or still emerging that we do not possess the language to articulate them. And if we can’t name a feeling, how are we supposed to process it?
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Here’s an interpretation you might not have considered Bernadette. When people ticked the box on the survey saying “I feel no emotion about climate change”, maybe they were trying to tell you they just don’t care, that climate change is a none issue for them.
Perhaps if the survey had included a box saying “I don’t think climate change is important”, that box would have received the ticks which went into the don’t care box.
The climate barometer website Bernadette cited admitted some people might not care about climate change the way she does;
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Yet emotions also have the power to disconnect people from thinking or caring about climate change. For those who are disillusioned with or disengaged from the climate conversation, their strongest emotions may be reserved for their rejection of climate policies or environmentalism in general (sometimes called ‘contrarian’ anger). For some people, climate change doesn’t provoke many emotions at all.
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Read more: https://climatebarometer.org/topic/emotion/
My interpretation of “don’t care” is supported by surveys which ask people to rate climate change compared to other issues, at least when they dared run such surveys. Climate change consistently comes dead last on issue comparison surveys.
For large numbers of people in Britain today, especially in train-wreck economy former industrial regions like Liverpool, finding enough cash to make it to the end of the week without getting kicked out of the rental or going hungry is a far greater priority than whether your grandkids enjoy more beach weather. While I’m not dissing efforts to redevelop Liverpool and improve people’s lives, Liverpool’s shamefully low life expectancy and relatively high unemployment rate shows many people have yet to experience the benefit.
I visited Liverpool once, a long time ago, to see someone I knew. The countryside around Liverpool is beautiful, mile after mile of rolling hills and mostly well maintained houses built decades or centuries ago. But my lasting impression of Liverpool city was miles of rusting dockside factories, boarded shopfronts and some scary looking people on street corners. I hope some of that redevelopment cash is reaching the people who need it.
Climate concern is a luxury cause for bored rich people who know where their next meal is coming from. A luxury many people in Britain can no longer afford, thanks to Mad Miliband’s expensive green energy crusade – especially in once industrialised energy intensive regions like Liverpool and Lancashire.
