You aren't alone feeling anxious about climate change.

nelsonstar.com By Laura Sacks, West Kootenay Climate Hub, and Dr. Kyle Merritt, Doctors & Nurses for Planetary Health Kootenay-Boundary

No reason to feel alone this Earth Day if you care about climate change

Wednesday, April 22, 2026

If you are concerned about climate change and the world we are leaving our children, you are not alone. Survey after survey finds that the vast majority of us are concerned and want our governments to do more. Yet most Canadians greatly underestimate how much others care, causing a spiral of silence and anxiety.

Media pressure

The news overwhelms us, as tariffs, wars, affordability, and threats to our sovereignty dominate public consciousness. Our brains evolved to respond to immediate threats, not the larger, overriding danger of the invisible, odourless gases that are overheating our planet.

Need for a stable climate

Everything we love requires a stable climate – be it food, peace, prosperity, pickleball, or long walks on the beach. Positive actions today can address multiple problems at once. Building clean electricity generation, electrifying everything, and using energy more efficiently enhances our security and economy, while reducing health impacts from air pollution and climate-fuelled disasters.

Renewable energy more affordable

Solar and wind energy are now the cheapest forms of energy in the world. Most countries are fossil fuel importers. What would geopolitics look like if countries were energy self-sufficient and not being held hostage to the price of a foreign-owned barrel of oil.

The energy transition is rapidly accelerating around the world. For example, last year Pakistan added so much solar power that they cancelled LNG contracts. The United Kingdom is requiring that all new homes have heat pumps and solar panels. Australia is giving away free solar electricity midday. Electric vehicles are making a dent in oil demand, globally displacing two million barrels of oil per day in 2025. Locally, the just-launched Home Save program offers rebates for rooftop solar, heat pumps and energy efficiency.

Municipal power for positive change

A recent study shows how innovative policies at the municipal level have immediate positive outcomes. Things like safe cycling and walking, improved public transit, and increasing use of EVs not only help the climate, but improve the air and health of people living where the policies are adopted.

Despite the miracle of cheap solar and wind power, progress still requires effective public policy with courageous and sustained leadership. Many countries are markedly decreasing their climate pollution. In the U.K., climate pollution is at its lowest level in 150 years.

Locking in emissions

Here in B.C. and Canada, our governments continue to invest in fossil fuel mega projects, locking in emissions that will put our climate commitments out of reach. These projects also risk terrible economic outcomes as renewables soften demand for oil and gas exports. In the meantime, fossil fuel companies rake in obscene profits from war, while prices at the pump soar.

Clean energy

How about nation building projects like a clean east-west energy grid, heat pumps for all, active transportation corridors, and alternatives to gas-powered vehicles? While there are always trade-offs and challenges, we can “walk and chew gum” at the same time – securing our sovereignty, economy and ecosystems.

Caring is universal

We know we don’t have to choose between caring for humanity and caring for the natural world. It is one and the same project. Even amidst the ongoing war, Ukrainians devote energy to protecting wetlands and saving bats. Surely we could save our remaining old growth forests and strike an ecological balance with logging practices here in B.C.

While it might be true that life is a journey, fixing climate change is a race. The outcome is not black and white, and every fraction of a degree of heating matters. Lives and livelihoods depend on the speed at which we can decrease climate pollution.

Most of us are anxious about another summer of record heat, wildfires and smoke.

Celebrating Earth Days this month helps us connect with dozens of local events (earthdaysnelson.ca) to increase community connection and honour what we love and want to save.

Please share your concerns about our climate. Get involved in creating a better world. There’s much to do.

Laura Sacks is co-founder of West Kootenay Climate Hub and has a science background. Dr. Kyle Merritt is a local physician and co-founder of Doctors & Nurses for Planetary Health Kootenay-Boundary.

FTFO adds: Later is too late!