#439: Learning with Eco-Hope: How Young Environmentalists Sustain Possibility through Doing, Belonging, and Becoming

We explored how young environmentalists sustain constructive eco-hope amid growing eco-anxiety. While depictions of environmental crisis shape how youth imagine their futures, eco-anxiety, which is characterized by distress and uncertainty, can also serve as a motivator for learning and engagement. Drawing on Ojala’s framework of constructive hope and sociocultural perspectives on emotion and social movement learning, this study examines how eighteen young environmentalists, teenagers involved in environmental and climate initiatives, navigate the emotional tensions between hopelessness and possibility. Using Ecoportraiture, we analyze how constructive hope is enacted through practices of doing, belonging, and becoming. Findings show that eco-hope emerges through collective action, relational networks, and ecological identity work, which transform eco-anxiety into motivation and agency. Rather than a barrier, eco-anxiety can be a generative force for learning when acknowledged and supported through shared practices that foster meaning, community, and future-oriented imagination.