Concerns about climate change are being echoed are echoing in Waterloo Region, leading some people to begin seeking help as they grapple with what they call climate despair.
Climate despair, or the feeling of helplessness in the face of climate change, has become a big enough problem that a Kitchener man has started a support group.
Tim Alamenciak facilitates Coping with Climate Change.
"(It's) to make some connections and to realize we're all in this together, and there are, in fact, a lot of people working on it," he explains.
The group works through three stages: gratitude for nature, fears for the future of climate and the environment and talking about actions to take moving forward.
Meg Ruttan runs Rise for Climate Waterloo Region.
She says she suffers from climate despair, something she realized when her son was born.
"It's going to affect his entire life, everything that happens to him is going to be informed by the climate crisis," she says.
She says the biggest threat to those suffering is silence and isolation.
That's why both activists' organizations focus on ways people can help.
"These moves are happening, we're getting there, it's just we don't hear about it often," Alamenciak says.
They look to climate strikes, like Friday's which saw millions take the streets to call for action, and education as a couple of ways everyone can help.
More climate strikes are planned around the world for Friday, including Waterloo's, which is planned for 11:30 a.m. in Uptown Waterloo.
