The
Biden administration
is pledging taxpayer dollars to mobilize
climate change
activists across the world, noting that some experience “climate-related mental health conditions,” documents show.
President
Joe Biden
has made climate change a priority since he took office, beginning with the creation of the White House’s “National Climate Task Force” as part of an executive
order
in January 2021. The U.S. Agency for International Development, a top foreign aid agency, plans to “encourage youth’s active participation” in the climate movement by supporting “behavior change and communications campaigns,”
according
to a strategy report, which notes that certain activists suffer from “a broad range of climate-related mental health conditions.”
“Youth (ages 10-29) have emerged in recent years as key actors in mobilizing large-scale awareness, demanding government action to tackle the climate crisis, running educational programs, promoting sustainable lifestyles, conserving nature, supporting renewable energy, adopting environmentally friendly practices, and implementing adaptation and mitigation projects,” said the
USAID
in a 2022 through 2030 climate strategy report that details a $150 billion spending spree to build an “equitable world with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.”
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Child climate activists include those who suffer from “eco-anxiety,” a disorder the USAID seeks to fight through its global strategy, according to the report. Eco-anxiety is “a chronic fear of environmental doom,” according to a March 2017
study
by the American Psychological Association, as well as the groups Climate for Health and ecoAmerica.
Symptoms of the disorder, which is common for those who “express a strong sense of guilt about the situation of the planet,” may include “sleep disturbances” and “nervousness,” Iberdrola, a multinational renewable energy company headquartered in Spain,
said
.
The global climate strategy is one example of how the Biden administration has long rolled out plans seeking to address climate change through federal agencies. Biden’s January 2021 executive order on “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad” demanded agencies take steps to “combat the climate crisis with bold, progressive action.”
Roughly one year after that order, the USAID released its climate strategy report, the first time it has done so since 2012 in
compliance
with an executive order signed by then-President
Barack Obama
. The 2012 order, which former President
Donald Trump
repealed in May 2018, required agencies to measure and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, bolster renewable energy use, and release an annual plan on sustainability.
The USAID’s strategy report outlines that energy consumption in developing nations will allegedly spike 70% by 2050, noting that “a majority of emissions come from deforestation, agriculture, and other land use.” Daniel Turner, executive director of Power the Future, a pro-
fossil fuels
energy advocacy group, thinks the Biden administration’s plan “punishes the developing world by refusing them to have what we have, which is the prosperity that comes from fossil fuels.”
“It’s just horrifying to think we spend tax dollars, giving it to poor countries, to create more Greta Thunbergs,” he
told
the Washington Free Beacon. “There’s nothing charitable about that — if anything, it’s the epitome of first-world privilege.”
Youth climate activists have faced heightened scrutiny in recent years, particularly
after two teenagers threw soup
on Vincent Van Gogh’s acclaimed painting Sunflowers in October 2022. The painting, which is dated to 1888, is housed at London’s National Gallery.
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The activists were working on behalf of Just Stop Oil, an activist group in the United Kingdom that aims to convince the British government to halt fossil fuel production and licensing. Meanwhile, supporters of the group have faced arrest roughly 2,000 times since April 2022,
according
to Just Stop Oil.
The USAID did not return a request for comment.
