Exploring neurodiversity & climate action through co-production

how we prevent activist burnout on a planet on fire

Over the past few months, I have been contributing to an online co-production group facilitated by Nifty Sustainability, where we are exploring the intersections of neurodiversity and the climate crisis, hoping to help others in their climate activism journeys.

By exploring topics like eco-hope and eco-anxiety, we are collectively working to create resources to share with organisations and individuals taking on one of the biggest challenges we face. Sharing our stories of how our neurodivergence shows up in our activism and working towards building sustainable systems has been personally a very affirming experience.

There is a quote by Mary Heglar that goes,

The thing about climate is that you can either be overwhelmed by the complexity of the problem or fall in love with the creativity of the solutions.

The climate crisis is not a single issue; it transcends, impacts, and wreaks havoc across every aspect of our life support systems. Attempting to confine the climate crisis to a neat ‘environmental’ box is predominantly used by corporations to drive the crisis and delay action to distract from the systemic drivers. Decades of strategic greenwashing by those benefiting from destructive industries have effectively framed the climate crisis as a ‘green’ issue, rather than a political, economic, and relational one.

The enormity of the climate crisis can be overwhelming, but I find hope in the small projects and campaigns I can work on, always keeping the global picture in mind. However, feeling that this is ever ‘enough,’ especially as someone who is neurodivergent, has led to multiple instances of burnout from overworking and spinning too many plates at once.

Co-production

So, when I received an email about the opportunity to contribute to a co-production group exploring how neurodiversity and climate action intersect, I was excited to join a collaborative group not just exploring the issues, but working collectively on solutions and building educational awareness.

The benefits of co-production include allowing a group of people with similar lived experiences to contribute to a shared resource or outcome. Through our Zoom calls, we have contributed to online murals focused on topics like the barriers we face working in sustainability and climate actions, what ‘eco-hope’ means to us, and our experiences of eco-anxiety.

While joining a call with a whole group of new faces was initially daunting, I quickly realized that I am not alone in being drawn into overworking and running out of steam due to my neurodiversity and strong commitment to advocating for climate justice.

We have explored both the physical barriers of being neurodiverse and a climate activist—sometimes having to choose less sustainable forms of transport or food options—and the mental barriers, like taking on too much work and having limited energy. Collecting and sharing these experiences has highlighted the significant crossover between climate justice and neurodiversity. Aside from just being called 'Greta,’ being neurodiverse and an activist has allowed me to never waver from my morals and ethics, and contribute significantly to the movement. However, it has also increased my internal pressure to be constantly working. A holistic understanding of climate change means we can never escape it; every day, we are surrounded by things that materially impact the climate, which is difficult for anyone aware of the climate crisis, let alone individuals navigating the world through the lens of neurodiversity.

How we approach the climate crisis and neurodivergence should strongly intersect with looking at the systems and structures we work and live within. To tackle the climate crisis, we must address the root causes, and to accommodate neurodivergence, we must look at how inaccessible the world is, and interrogate ableism and the ways that disability is viewed as undesirable.

At the end of our last workshop, we explored what moves us from eco-anxiety to eco-hope; we shared that being outside with nature, connecting with others and moving away from individualism towards community action is vital to sustaining ourselves to sustain our planet. For me, eco-hope is an active stance towards stewardship of all living beings, with an understanding that we can make a difference and that every fraction of a degree matters.

I hope through our following workshops, we can curate a resource that can inform both climate activists and organisations on how to support neurodiverse workers and build more accommodating environments to avoid us entering cycles of burnout.