How do you deal with depression about climate change?

Someone said to me once "Relax! Nothing is under control."
Worry about what you can control —which is very little, especially when facing a world crisis like climate change— and accept what you can't.
The people who should be fixing this mess are not you or I. It's the big corporations and the Governments that should regulate them through robust, uncompromising climate policies. Vote for Governments with honest, solid climate agendas.
Other than that, contributions from individuals like you and I are but a drop in the boiling ocean of global warming. By all means, keep doing what you're doing. It certainly doesn't hurt to lead a more sustainable lifestyle but don't feel bad if you don't do everything you're supposed to do. Don't let the real culprits here gaslight you into thinking otherwise.
Again, if you're worried more about your mental health than the problem itself at this stage, it's ok to feel that way. Many of us do. But the best advice I can give you is to just accept there's nothing you can really do about the situation. Whatever happens, happens. Easier said than done, I know, but once you "learn" to accept this fact, your anxiety will drop right down.
- Everything this guy said.
  I've struggled with anxiety my whole life. But my anxiety is about things that I can control. I don't worry about climate change, or wars or pandemics or whatever, because it's pointless worrying about things that you can do literally nothing about.
- Yep. Fix what you can control, and accept what you cannot. You cannot control what others do, you can only try to persuade. What you can control is your reaction to it.
  OP, you may want to try reading some books on stoicism.
- You can vote and march. Those are the only small actions that will make a huge impact.
- The reason I struggle with this rationale is that if everyone did this we'd be even more worse off. Kinda like I struggle to get around the apathy-is-the-enemy philosophy.
  
  The problem with your viewpoint is that it's little more than a thought experiment. Realistically, you will never get all 8 billion people who inhabit this planet to make the necessary lifestyle changes needed to combat climate change.
  https://www.wri.org/insights/4-charts-explain-greenhouse-gas-emissions-countries-and-sectors
  This one throws has some good figures: https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/global-greenhouse-gas-overview
  Sources we could attribute to individuals:
  Transportation (15%): including public transport
  Buildings (6%): this includes energy usage and waste
  In total, 21%. Even if we said that's still a 21% we could do something about, besides switching to a green energy provider and using an EV instead of diesel cars (which is a good move though sourcing the Lithium-Ion batteries these EVs is a big problem in and of itself), what else is there for the average Joe to do? Companies and governments should give individuals the option to lead a sustainable lifestyle. At the moment, the reality is the options simply do not exist or are so expensive that are out of reach for the vast majority of consumers.
  On the other hand, we have industrial and public usage...
  Electricity and heat production (non-residential), which was (as of 2019) the leading source of global carbon emissions, accounting for 34% of the total emissions.
  Industry (24%)
  Agriculture, forestry, etc. (22%)
  That's a staggering 80% altogether.
  You ever heard of the Pareto principle? It says that 80% of the consequences come from 20% of the causes. In this case, 80% of the emissions come from a minority of people (industry, corporations, etc.).

The earth will be fine. It's us that are fucked

Have you considered eco-terrorism? \s

First of all, I saw a therapist, and they helped. Truly, if it's bad enough, go talk to someone.
Now what I personally do? The biggest thing was learning that I can't carry the weight of the world on my shoulders. I have a habit of doing that. I'm a very empathetic person so when I see climate change I just fall into a spiral that's hard to get out of. Learning that I need to focus on what I can change is the most important.
So, I do what you already touched on. I am not going to get Shell to stop polluting, but I can change myself, and those near me. I have switched my entire home away from fossil fuels (heat pump, electric water heater), when it was time for a new vehicle I went for an EV, and even then I take the bus and train whenever I can now. I'm looking into an e-bike.
That still wasn't enough so I'm starting to get into local politics a bit. City council issues, local neighborhood issues, those are things I can help control. My city is trying to push a natural gas ban on new housing, and conservatives are frothing, but it's something I can push and help with. I'm pushing for more transit in our area, with more bus lines. And my ultimate one, writing letters and trying to ban fucking leaf blowers god fucking damnit just use a goddamn rake they're so fucking loud and pollute so much.
That helps me personally. And hey, if everyone did these things, we'd make a dent on climate change. I can't change everyone, I can't do everything myself, but I can influence those around me.
An odd thing that makes me feel oddly comforted too. World birthrates are dropping. Conservatives are also frothing at the mouth over this because iNFiNiTe GrOWtH but to me, I view it as another form of evolution. Have we realized as a species we've reached the limit of what Earth will support? Fewer and fewer people are having kids. Idk, in a weird way it feels comforting, like evolution is still at play and something very biological in us as a species is like "nope, can't do any more"
- I fucking hate leaf blowers!
  
  Another name for leaf blowers is air brooms and air brooms are useful for big jobs. They now come as battery powered which is better on two fronts as they are quieter but more importantly they are not using 2 stroke motors. Apparently the 2 stroke is the most polluting of internal combustion engines whose design hasn’t really improved since they were first invented.

People saying do nothing, I'm saying do something!
Get out start a community. If one already exists join it. Find ways to improve your community.
Go vegan.
There are so many things you can do. Don't accept doing nothing, be a stubborn fuck and do something to alleviate the sadness.
- "There are so many things you can do. Don’t accept doing nothing, be a stubborn fuck and do something to alleviate the sadness."
  Good words to live by. :)
- Go vegan.
  Any climate activist who isn't vegan is just a virtue signalling poser.
  
  if it were effective at reducing industrial impacts you might be right.

Earth’s time has started to end. Its death is inevitable.
Even in a worst case scenario life will continue on earth. It's honestly doubtful that humanity will end. This is not controversial among climate scientists. Don't get me wrong, societal collapse, mass human deaths and a huge extinction event are all on the table, but there are many lifeforms that will thrive.
- Yeah I know. It's just what I told myself to cope about it.

Take a break from the internet for a bit. I got offline as much as possible for two weeks a few months ago and it did wonders for my mental health.
- Unfortunately this is some of the best advice. I think different people are more susceptible to existential anxiety - or moreso anxiety over things that will never be able to change or control. Some people can channel that emotion into advocacy, volunteer work, etc while others mentally drown in thought loops. As rude as it sounds, sometimes it really is a 'touch grass' type of thing. You HAVE to watch out for your own mental health and oftentimes that means disconnecting from triggers and focusing on your own life and interests. Play a game, watch something, read a book, go to the zoo, meet up with friends - live in the moment and outside your head. I also recommend using the internet purposefully and not just to kill time - use social media for discovery and research of specific topics and not for just general consumption.
  
  This is the way.
  Social media will jump from one super important and stressful thing that we all need to lose sleep over to the next with or without us. Yes, these things might be important, but a lot of online activism seems to be about who can scare more people into supporting X, Y, or Z with zero regard for the reader's mental health, the rhetoric used, or even being 100% factual.
  It doesn't hurt to disengage every so often.

I smoke weed and play vidya.
- This guy gets it.

I realized I was anxious about climate change because I was depressed and not the other way around. I cannot change the world radically but I can do my part, convince others to do the same, vote for the right politicians, pressure companies and politicians to act for climate change… In a nutshell I can do a lot and being depressed or anxious doesn’t help

I work in energy r&d, and have for several jobs over the years now.
My sadness is transmuted into passion for solving these issues from the ground up. Top brass is interested in "stock options" and blah blah blah, I'm just focused on solving technical problems to make efficient, powerful energy production that isn't hard on the earth.
The money won't matter if there's nowhere to live. My efforts may not be enough, ultimately, but I'll die knowing I tried to help solve the problems we've caused.
- I want to get some trash burning power plants running to help limit methane emissions and be able to scrub the stack - how crazy is my idea in the broad strokes?

- Staying child-free is likely the most effective personal decision you could make to reduce your environmental impact.
  How do you reach this conclusion ?

To be honest I just look at the state of the world and laugh like I'm watching a sad comedy.
And I avoid thinking about how I'm in it and I have basically zero power over it.
I vote for whomever is the least bad candidate and try not to think about it too much the rest of the time.

“Evolution had given a bit more thought to species survival”.
… that’s not how evolution works, unfortunately. It requires us to do the thinking.

Climate change is a systemic issue: Capitalism is based on always more production. It can’t be solved by individual actions but only by a radical system change. I put some energy in actions that can help - I hope - for this change.

- A story that’s always stuck with me is: “at a party someone told the group that there wasn’t enough pizza for everyone to have 2 slices, and some people took one slice, and some took three - and that really describes humanity.”

try and pay attention to China honestly. the seriousness they treat climate change with is the only thing that gives me hope that we'll beat it. some examples from very recently:
China’s embrace of rail and EVs stalls holiday petrol demand
China adds new clean power equivalent to UK’s entire electricity output
Shanghai to fully switch to new energy buses, taxis by 2027
China is on track to reach its clean energy targets this month... six years ahead of schedule
China Makes $31 Billion Nuclear Push With Record Approvals
Brief summary of the last three months of Chinese decarbonization policy by David Fishman on Twitter (xcancel link)

Notice how public discourse goes round & round in a lively show, but never seems to get anywhere?
This is strawman public discourse, and its largely by design.
Stop thinking, worrying and especially talking about climate change.
Instead talk about pollution & poison
Everyone can see it. It can't be denied or handwaved or debated away.
STOP POISONING OUR AIR, WATER AND SOIL.
WE NEED THEM TO BREATH, LIVE AND GROW OUR FOOD. (duh)
- But that’s not how carbon dioxide works. It isn’t individual poison - our bodies don’t give a shit whether it’s 350 ppm or 450 ppm. The planet does though.
  
  The planet does
  The planet which happens to be where we live and borrow atoms from to make our physical bodies?
  Poisoning the planet is poisoning ourselves.
  Where do you think that CO2 is even coming from? It doesn't magically teleport into the air. It's coming from the very pollution sources we're talking about. In one year ~89% of CO2 pollution came from emissions sources which are harmful to us and other life.
  Stop poisoning ourselves == stop poisoning the planet.
  The mentality that we can somehow magically separate one from the other suits the polluting industries very well.

you be the best possible you, thats enough.

By living in denial mostly. Or hoping i die before the planet.

I've accepted that humanity is fucked. Once you get past the existentialism, things get easier. It helps if you've had a bunch of estasential crises before this one.

Plant hemp. Plant as much of that weed as you can, harvest the roots and store them somewhere that the carbon can't get back into the air. Underground in a sealed drum or underwater if you have a trash compactor handy, and can dump it into the deep parts of the Pacific.

I try to watch what I read online, and it truly helps.
Do:
Keep yourself informed by reading bland articles about climate studies with direct interviews from the scientists conducting them.
Stay knowledgeable about who to vote for to support reasonable climate policies.
Do NOT:
Read articles that inject opinions from the web journalist, terrifyingly worded headlines designed to get you to click, or anything written for a secondary purpose (e.g. voter mobilization).
Get your info 2nd, 3rd, or 4th hand from social media personalities on tiktok, youtube, twitter, or any website with an algorithm than rewards the most extreme takes with more engagement.
Let fear prevent you from living the life you want to live or making long term plans.

all i can do is my best, and then my part will be over.
i try not to focus on what comes next as the future is too amorphous to worry that much about. humans are resourceful, and weve been in tighter spots. genetic analysis points out that at one point in our evolutionary past we were down to something like 15k individuals.
even if the world temps raise drastically and billions die, i believe humans will live on

I act local, think global. I also accept that it's largely beyond my control, so there is no point in being that upset about it. It's not like I will be having kids to worry about in the future, either.

"Slowly, I told myself that evolution failed itself by giving a bit more individual selfishness over community/species survival."
There are a lot of great answers here already, but I would like to put forth the anticapitalist position that the quote above is likely false. Humans can work together, we have developed systems of cooperation that can deter selfishness from destroying a community. This is possible (and despite decades of propaghanda..popular!) What is stopping it is the greed for wealth and power of the 1% at the expense of everyone else and the planet. The masses of people are constantly trying to stop this, and mostly fail. But cracks in their power do open occasionally, and you just have to do what you can until a Crack is available for you to help widen. I think it's possible to win, but not through personal lifestyle changes and voting alone. Only through activism and protest is it possible. Most humans keep trying to solve this, and that gives me hope.

Focus on progress that has been made, solutions to the climate crisis have been growing exponentially over the past decade. And it's not a binary issue of everything is sunshine and rainbows vs we're all fucked. There's more of a spectrum. Also remember the past environmental successes we've had with like acid rain, the ozone layer, leaded gas, mercury pollution. We've come a long way.
Making any progress, no matter how small makes the future just that much better than it otherwise would be. Yes, systemic changes out of the control of anyone on Lemmy are needed, but if say every person on Lemmy worked towards reducing their own environmental impacts that could have huge ripple effects in the economy of the green transition. Just plan out pragmatically/realistically how much time, mental energy, and resources are worth it to you.
A lot things that individuals can do to help with the climate crisis often also have personal benefits like long term financial savings, less pollution exposure, healthier plant-based diets, etc.

I don't think about it.
Really, that is it, I don't deny climate change, it obviously is real.
But I am just an IT guy, I live alone, I commute with public transport, I have a small apartment, my car is a PHEV, bought used, consuming 4,5L/100km petrol on average.
I keep my computer turned off when I am out, I won't pretend that I am super eco friendly, I do fly from time to time, this year I've been to Spain twice. I also enjoy driving my car, but I am cutting back on it.
When celebs and VIPs are bombing around the planet in business jets, companies and governments are actively working against electrified rail or rail in general, and pushing for more car infrastructure, then I can see that me feeling guilty about driving my car for fun or just to get to cool photo spots won't make a difference.
Add to that the huge waste of energy that us crypto, and I have realized that yes we are fucked, but I have time to see cool stuff before everything goes to hell, so I try to use it.
I am planning on taking a trip down to germany next year and see some cool museums, and won't feel bad about it.

By not having kids
- This is my solution. I've said it before, but think it should be repeated. The global population was half of today's when I was born. 4 billion instead of the current 8+ billion.
  That means if half the population disappeared today, we'd just be back where we were in 1975.
  Not having kids is the best thing I can do for both the environment, and myself.
  Has the added benifit of leaving me as a passive observer who doesn't have a biological need to care about the future.

You could put more efforts towards making a systemic change rather than just affecting your own life. Protests, promoting green things at your workplace, outreach and education, etc. It's been ingrained that individuals are the problem and they they should recycle more at home and create less waste but the root is always on things being unregulated. Even if you sacrifice some individual benefits you have been at a small systematic change would likely have a much bigger impact.

Alcohol

I personally do not care that much about the survival of entire species (including ours); I care more about the lives of the individuals. To illustrate this, it saddens me when we cause extinctions, but a little more because of the animals that suffered in the process and a little less about the whole "loss" of a form of life. Yet, it all is sad.
How do I deal with this climate change sadness? I guess I don't see it separately from other sad things from humanity (and existence, but let's focus on humanity). I have accepted the fact that most human beings are morally questionable in my book, this causes the world to be worse for everyone in it, and no amount of reasoning with most of them (about the benefit for them and others of being more conscious about their lives) will change it for now.
At some point, some have felt that a better society is just a step ahead of us because it's relatively easy in material terms, but now I feel it much farther as the social factors are not as easy. I guess I have surrendered to a certain idea of psychological determinism. If we imagine a person has an object we want at their reach, while it's out of our reach, and we could get it if they only cooperate, we can feel frustrated when they don't. "Why do they make it so difficult? It's as simple as reaching for the object and grabbing it for us. Just do it! Why are they waiting for? Ugh!". But if we start from the idea that there's a chance they won't help us because they simply can't be bothered (different reasons as to why), and that's probably not fixable, we won't feel that level of frustration for their inaction and we will strategize differently how to get that object.
By the way, I don't think selfishness or self-centeredness or whatever is individualism, nor that altruism is communitarianism. I'm inclined to individualism, but that's what makes me think that just as my life and freedom are valuable, so are others'. I do not like societies that are communitarian because they drown the individual (in false responsibilities, in fear of ostracism, etc.), and I hate that. We have one life and only one and we should be as free as possible, even if that means being unattached, different, whatever. The only rule for that freedom and for everything is ethics. And that's the difference for me, that's how I see it. Not individualistic people versus communitarian people, but people that live without an interest in being ethical (whatever that ends up meaning) and people who do.
So... I think I see a lot of these people and I don't get as frustrated as before. I sigh and continue my day. Reading this last part, it reads a little stoic (learning that I cannot change these parts of society and focusing on the ones we can change). Stoicism is like the ibuprofen of life; paracetamol is pyrrhic skepticism. I'm bad at analogies, lol, but you get the point (I hope).
Prioritizing my health (including my mental health) has helped a lot. Good levels of everything in my body do wonders for my energy, but also my resilience, my mood, etc. Emotional regulation skills, combating stress... I know these are just common recommendations, but I don't have more.
I'm sorry that you're feeling down. It's been a hard time...

seeing your post then this scumbag back to back really hits...: https://lemmy.ml/post/19412006

I am grieving hard, and grief includes a lot of different feelings and experiences. Yes, there is depression, but there is also anger and reflection and the chance to find joy amidst the horror. My priorities have changed. I used to want to leave a legacy for the next generation; now I want to live in defiance of the evils that have ravaged our beautiful planet. Fuck billionaires, politicians, and cowardly centrist news outlets. Fuck them in perpetuity, until they rot away in their apocalypse bunkers. I will burn bright and hot to the end--that will be my legacy.

This is going to get some upset
On an individual level, there is not much you can do. Because of that why let it get to you? If you do not effect the outcome it shouldn't be on your radar.

Well, I don't really think our own species is likely to be ended by this one, but when it comes to death and loss, I think you've hit on the right perspective. Everything ends; things are finite in space and finite in time. If you like causality that's actually a feature, not a bug, because everything happens all the time if there's an infinite amount of it.

I console myself that I am getting older and won't see the worst of it.
- and personally I'm choosing not to bring more life into the planet right before the large event.

Schadenfreude. Learn to take pleasure in things like massive increases in risk making insurance unaffordable for conservative fuckheads in places like Florida. A fancy beach house on Cape Hatteras just fell into the ocean (creating a wave of nasty pollution).
Climate chaos is coming for all of us, and we have done basically nothing to avert it (lots of lip service). 2023 set the record for carbon emissions, at least until 2024 is in the books.
All that is left is to watch the ensuing horrors and enjoy our comeuppance.
- The kids though.
  
  I'm not saying there is no reason to be depressed. I'm just saying there is nothing that can be done, so focus on things that make you happy - like dead billionaires trying to visit the Titanic.

I'm taking a nihilistic approach to it.
I turn off the lights when I leave a room. I'm conscientious about my water usage. I recycle.
When I find that a company is a mass polluter, I do everything in my power to not give them any of my money.
I'm doing my part.
The fact is every human being on the planet in their own personal circle could go carbon neutral and climate change would still happen because it is industrial processes and commercial shipping that are driving the great majority of carbon and methane release in the atmosphere.
It's not anything that you or I are doing, or rather, in the scheme of things what we are doing is negligible, easily absorbed by the natural cleaning processes of the planet like trees and algae and rain and time.
Our current system has incentivized pollution. There's no amount of personal choice that we as individuals can take to stop it.
What we need are politicians who acknowledge the issue and who override the objections of the vocal minority to fix them even at deleterious costs to the economy.
After all, can't have an economy when the world is dead.

Capitalism is the cause of climate change. Corporations are interested only in max profits. This won't change under capitalist countries, ever. Study socialism and join a local org or party that you ideologically support.
China is controlled by the communist party and its policies aren't driven by short-term profits. There are corporations but they can't go against the interests of the Chinese society, unlike the USA. Look at how China generates more clean energy than the UK total electricity output.
Don't forget to go vegan

I became communist. It does not solve anything, of course, but gave me hope that this dystopian mess that we live in can be solved.

Cynicism, trying to do what I can personally, voting and participating in politics, and just fucking hoping we're over estimating the effects or that we'll manage to come up with the political will to mitigate the worse effects.
Also, praying to Cthulhu that boomers hurry the fuck up and kick the bucket... at least the ones that aren't cool.
Looking at Trump's climate priorities (basically, burn as much coal as possible) and the people who support them fills me with disgust... it is as greedy and uncaring as our shitty late stage capitalism and I can't comprehend existing with so little empathy or foresight. The deniers are essentially incomprehensible to me so I avoid them whenever possible and just hope they'll die off faster than sane people.

I gave up all hope that it's going to turn out all right, and more or less stopped caring

Considering the fact that corporations make up about 70% +/- of all the solution and climate destruction, and the fact that politicians are bribed by said corporations to ignore the problem, there's little we can actually do about it except voting.

View the end of humanity as a positive, the suffering machine will be over (at least until it re-evolves).

Anger, knowing they will get what they deserve more quickly than I initially thought. I'm not thinking about rich celebrities, they are just a few people. There are so many regular people who refused to modify their lifestyle even a little to mitigate the problem. They will suffer alongside me and I find some solace in that.
- Your analysis is good but you conclusion is ... fucked up.

- The thing about recycling is, that it is only the third of the 3 Rs. The first one is Reduce and that's also the one that would have the most effect, but nobody wants that...

The same way to deal with depression about anything. Depression is an illness that renders one incapable of helping themselves or others and debilitates people from contributing to the solution to the problems which contributed to the depression. Depression should be treated as an illness to be cured before anything else.
As far as being not being depressed by events beyond one's control, it requires effort since even being aware and concerned by such problems of this magnitude is highly unnatural and highly unintuitive. It is necessary to consciously come to peace with the world and humanity as it is. The universe is chaotic and we have as much control over the collective will of billions of completely ignorant and afraid people as we do over natural disasters just with less ability to predict when issues will occur. Although it is the case that we have a good grasp of the environmental issue, we have absolutely no grasp of how get plutocrats not to behave like plutocrats having no care for anything or anyone other than increasing their personal fortunes meaninglessly or to get the majority of people to understand the degree to which it is a problem that we continue to allow this. Being upset that humans are failing to achieve stable societies just as we have always failed for the entire 10,000 years we have been trying to achieve them is having unrealistic and unfair expectations of our species. Everyone is trying their best and no one knows what they're doing really. It may be scarier to consider how much less agency people have than they believe they have initially, but it does allow one to have the comfort of more consistently helpful expectations of oneself and others.

You are not alone. The only way to stop it is to go back to regulations. Regulations have been stripped since the 80s. We need to put them all back in place, there is no reason anyone should have that much money. They are going into space and moving bridges so they can fit their yatchs disturbing hard working peoples lives. Capitalism is great but only when it’s regulated. We dont need a formal investigation to know that these people have visions that align and they will fuck everyone for their gain. Also they have underground bunkers ready for anything.
- So your solution to depression about climate change is, "singlehandedly accomplish what all of the non-evil politicians have been trying and failing to do for decades, but do that while both powerless and depressed"?
  
  Yes
  I mean I would like to go back to hanging these fuckers but you know thats illegal.

100mg of ketamine every day, half in the morning, half in the afternoon.

Thee is zero we can do about it. Celebrities and politicians and the rich in general will never lift a finger, except to point at us as being the "problem"
- That's how you talk to someone with depression? Validate their hopelessness? Fuck off.
  OP, voting is the bare minimum. You're going to feel much more empowered joining your local climate protest group.
  
  Not very nice. Just being truthful, unfortunately. If indeed climate change exists, you can bet all they will do is try to find a way to make money from it. Oh wait.

“The Skin of Our Teeth” YouTube is a stage play by Thornton Wilder. It highlights humanity’s long and storied history of careening from one disaster to the next. Each time, surviving by…the titular title!
We’ll wait until the last minute, then we’ll literally redefine Heaven and Earth, as we move them, to save ourselves.
We always have, we always will.
So you can wait for that to happen, or you can start right now by getting involved in politics. Be the voice you want to hear, encourage people to vote for candidates that will support legislation to do something about it.
That’s literally the very old saying, “You can be part of the problem, or you can be part of the solution.”
- We're not facing a problem, we're in a predicament.
  We always have, we always will
  That's a statement of religious faith. We have barely ever even existed so it's plainly nonsense, and there is no rule of the universe that we must continue to exist or that we cannot unfixably destroy our planet's ability to support us. You're just baselessly asserting "they'll think of something".
  
  Wow did you miss the mark. Better luck next time!

by worrying about the rampant militarization and progressively hawkish stance of nato with overt threat towards china and russia and how i could escape this hellhole with my family instead.

You deal with it by recognizing that you’ve been consuming wildly exaggerated accounts of the effects of climate change.
It’s not going to end life on Earth. It’s not even going to end human civilization.
Things are gonna be tough. Much like they’ve always been. You are evolved for difficulty, and you can handle it. So can other people. We’re going to get through this.
- Ah yes, the No it wont argument.