#19 15.1 million people in France are eco-anxious. The real problem isn't the anxiety.

420,000. That's how many people the French Observatory of Eco-Anxiety (Obseca), working with the country's environmental agency ADEME, now considers at real risk of tipping into depression or an anxiety disorder because of the climate. The study, published on September 4th, puts eco-anxiety more broadly at 15.1 million people in France — roughly one in three people aged 15 to 64. That's up 20% in two years. People aged 15-24 are hit hardest, well ahead of the 35-64 group. Top worries: wildfires (47%), heatwaves (44%), species extinction (41%).

I have two kids, seven and ten. This study doesn't land for me as a brand founder. It lands as a father trying to figure out what they're actually going to inherit from us.

What the study confirms, and what it doesn't

It confirms something a lot of people already feel without having a number to put on it: the climate stopped being an abstract topic for the generation that grew up with 40°C summers and forest fires streamed live on social media. Psychologist Pierre-Eric Sutter, who's tracked this for years, puts it plainly: global warming stopped being something distant — people have understood they can't outrun its effects anymore.

What the study doesn't tell you is what to do with that anxiety. And that's exactly where a lot of brands, including plenty in "sustainable fashion," get it completely wrong.

The classic mistake: turning anxiety into guilt

The most common response, in brand messaging and in public debate alike, is to answer eco-anxiety with more pressure: "cut your consumption," "boycott this," "you're the problem if you still buy that." It's an easy thing to write. It feels like taking the subject seriously. But from the point of view of someone already carrying that anxiety around, none of it actually helps — it just shrinks the space where any action feels possible. You don't treat a feeling of powerlessness by telling someone they're guilty and powerless at the same time.

What actually helps, from what I've seen year after year from the people who write to us, is the opposite: handing back a concrete space to act, even a small one, even an imperfect one.

Why one concrete choice outweighs a speech

We built Singulaar's commitment around a specific number instead of a vague promise: 1 kilo of plastic removed from the ocean per pair sold. Not because that one kilo, on its own, is going to save anything — it won't, and pretending otherwise would be exactly the kind of lie we refuse to tell. But a verifiable number gives someone something to hold onto, instead of just reading statistics about a problem they have no control over.

A pair of shoes doesn't solve climate change. Nobody serious can claim that. But a consumption choice that's consistent with what you believe, repeated over time, hands back something 15 million people are currently missing: the sense that their decisions actually add up to something measurable, not just something to feel less guilty about.

What we won't claim to answer for you

I'm not a psychologist or a doctor, and this article isn't a substitute for professional support for anyone whose eco-anxiety has become genuinely disabling — the study puts that at several hundred thousand people in France, and it deserves to be taken seriously well beyond a blog post from a sneaker brand. What we can say, at our scale, is that responsible consumption isn't a therapeutic band-aid. It's one of the real levers that exist, alongside all the others: voting, staying informed, getting involved locally, talking to your kids about it without paralyzing them with fear.

My kids sometimes ask me about the wildfires they see on the news. I don't answer with eco-anxiety statistics. I show them what we've chosen to do differently, and let them form their own opinion on whether it's enough. Spoiler: it never fully is. Maybe that's the real answer to give someone who's anxious — not "it'll all be fine," but "here's what's actually in my hands, and I'm doing it."