‘Climate change stories don’t have to be scary’: The arts festival that hopes to cure your eco-anxiety

CHANGE Festival founder Becky Burchell speaks to Zlata Rodionova about the crucial role artists and creative industries have to play in changing the narrative

‘The World We Made’: one of the performances at the festival tells the story of two students living in 2050 (Kim Hardy)

With devastating hurricanes, a fast-melting Arctic and months of climate protests on the streets, you’d be forgiven for feeling a little anxious lately. In the words of climate change activist Greta Thunberg, “our house is on fire”.

This has led to the phenomenon “eco-anxiety”, described by Psychology Today as “a fairly recent psychological disorder afflicting an increasing number of individuals who worry about the environmental crisis”.

But, according to Becky Burchell, the founder of new arts festival CHANGE, which launches on Friday in England, the conversations around climate change need to move on from scare stories to positive tales of hope and inspiration.