bay area, for a safe and secure future, this is abc 7 news. hi, there. i'm kristen sze. welcome to our daily program called getting answers. we're asking experts your questions everyday at 3:00 to get answers for you in realtime. today we're talking about climate anxiety, ecostress, if will you. and if you suffer it, what can you do about it? plus a local resident who is relocating to hawaii from san francisco with free air fare. but there is a catch. we'll talk about the movers and shakers program. but we're beginning to explore the battle over the pandemic relief bill. as you know quite the battle on the senate today on capitol hill. we're talking about your stimulus checks they are involved as part of the package. and the new battle launched by a

bay area congressman to hold president trump responsible for the capitol riot happening on january 6th. joining us shortly is oakland congressman barbara lee. but while we try to get that up for you we do want to give you some background on it. as you know pandemic relief package currently as it is now would carry with it $140 oh checks for many americans, especially those who make under $75,000 a year and families making under $150,000 a year. as you know, the house passed that version, right. but the senate is voting on amendments today. and it's been a total battle. it is now at a stand still. not only are republicans not onboard at all, there is also a lot of democrat infighting. we're definitely talking to congresswoman barbara lee. checking with my producer to see if the congresswoman is able to log in. okay. that is not happening right now. so right now we are going to look at a story done earlier a

as we look at restaurants reopening, movie theaters and gyms. you know what will be one of the last places to see business again? night clubs. unless you want to live in a region with zero night life the time to act now. one of the premier lgbt communities is on the verge of closing. the call is out to save the oasis. tomorrow they are doing a telethon to safe it. >> darcy and snack, such a pleasure to see both of you and thanks for showing up in all your drag. >> thank you so much for having us. >> yes, thank you for making us do this so early in the morning. >> darcy, i told you this before. but, your club oassist means so much to me personally and so much to the lgbtq community. when we found out that this has been such a struggle to keep open, and that you're going to have a fund raiser of course we had to be here for you.

tell me, what are you doing? >> well, it's an old tel telethon. a 12-hour show. both live performances, digital drag numbers, testimonials. we have people from san francisco all around the country, performers, politicians, fans of the club. we're also going to do a live auction that will run for the full 12 hours with some fabulous gifts and treasures. and we're also going to have some strippers, the baloney boys every hour will auction off the clothes off their back for a good cause. and my favorite part is a phone bank full of drag queens. so like everything nowadays you witho can go online and you can make a donation. but you can also call and speak to a real live drag performer

and make your donation that way. >> so income tax. when darcy told you this was the plan, were you, like, girl! >> i was like, i need to take a nap. you know, i have worked very closely with darcy for years now. and obviously the last year and now a little over a year has been tumultuous to say the least. and darcy has wild ideas and we'll be in meeting about something else and he will be like i'd like a telethon with drag queens answering phones. and i'm like okay, dear, sure. we'll table that for now but when darcy gets an idea in her idea she doesn't let it go. it's been a labor of love performing in general and trying to have a business survive in san francisco is always a labor of love. this year has shown us how much weather watcher to plak it work. >> and i feel it.

like snacks and my other employees have been working so hard from the beginning, and even now so much work and working on our streaming platform. everyone is pretty much volunteering their team to make the magic happen and keep it alive. and we are part of the independent venue alliance. and they're a group of small business owners that have small independent performing arts venues here in san francisco. and i know all of them are struggling as well. and it's a tough place to be. and san francisco needs to think about what they want when this is over. because if we don't act a lot of us are going to be gone. >> i think that's a really important point. of course your club is for anyone. i mean, it's an open door. but the lgbtq community is the focused. and i just want to explain to people that, yes, while we have the castro and there are many bars and venues there, you are in soma. and we have seen closures in soma recently, which have been

really heart breaking, especially for the lgbtq community. but your venue is special because of its size and the sorts of performances that can happen there for all sorts of groups. that some of the smaller venues simply can't host. >> from the beginning i wanted to make this a clubhouse more than anything. it's a hybrid space like that where we can do everything from live music. we've got a steinway baby grand piano, to cabaret shows, big drag shows, broadway shows. we need to preserve queer san francisco. >> all right. just want to bring you breaking news real quick. new guidance from the state of california. and this allows amusement parks, including disneyland, magic mountain and universal studios to open as of april 1st with

limited capacity. that's a big new development. but they do need to be out of the most restrictive purple tier. so red, for example right now in los angeles in orange county is where disneyland would be. they're still in the purple. they could not open if they stay there as of april 1st but it looks like they will progress to red. you could be going to some of the big amusement parks with sports and concert venues, they're included as part of the reopening new guidelines with limited capacity starting april 1st. so if you are still krpg spring breaks and such, disneyland could be a possibility. although as you know they still have the guidance right now of urging people not to go outside 120 miles away from your home. and remember when they do reopen in the red tier it's only 15% capacity. it would be hard to reserve a spot most likely. but we'll keep you posted on developing stories. but after the break we'll get

into something you don't hear a lot about. climate anxiety.

but water break and time to get back on air. >> hi, there, we're back and we apologize we had connection issues with congresswoman barbara lee. so we will converse with her another day. but the show must go on. we want to talk about climate change and the climate crisis may be impacting more than just the world. it could be impacting your mental health. so joining us now to explain what this means and what you can do about it, dr. brit roadway, a writer and post doctoral fellow at stanford university. thanks for joining us, dr. roadway. >> hi, thank you. good to be here. >> a lot of us are worried, true, about the impact of

climate change. but you've been doing research into something more serious. climate anxiety or ecostress. can you define what that means if somebody has one of those? >> ecoanxiety and climate anxiety refer to feelings of distress that could manifest in different ways, worry, concern, fear, dread even about the environmental predicament we face with the environment and the water ecological crisis. it shows you are in touch with the world. i want a humane thing to feel. it reveals the vul nernlt we are experiencing for our livelihood as the environmental problems get worse. the american psychological association calls it the chronic fear of environmental doom. but really what i want to say is there is nothing pathological about feeling this. it's the not a disorder or something you get diagnosed with. but it's something you can work with for post-environmental

actions and other benefits. >> you started suffering from it after you got married and were considering having kids, right? >> i was, absolutely, dealing with new levels of ecodistress when my partner and i were about starting to try to get pregnant. keeping track of the path we are on, the terrifying future we are walking into and looking at the environmental things we are experiencing, and the racial and economic disparities that are deepening, really the harms already here with us but that we know are ramping up matched with completely inadequate action from the political establishment is a really painful dilemma for me. that's how i got in touch with it. but many people have their own story. >> it's not the same but i remember after 9/11 i considered having kids and i started to worry a lot. because what kind of a future or world would i bring the child into? when you face big life moments

you think about the issues that scare you. so when you started having the ecoanxiety, how did that manifest in you? were you depressed? would you cry? what would trigger that? >> i didn't get depressed. i did get anxious. i did feel scared. i did find i couldn't talk about the future without overlaying the filter of apocalyptic possibility. it was overspilling to people i was close to, affecting my relationships with my husband. i started stressing him out because i was basically like a living breathing walking version of the man walking the unhabitable earth if anyone read that book. i wasn't coping. i was seeing everything through the narrow lens of of a future version. i lost trust in other people's ability to tackle the problem and hadn't restored myself in the way of showing the helplessness we feel is a sham. >> we don't know how many people have climate anxiety.

do we have a sense how many americans may be very worried about climate change and the environment? >> so we do have from the climate change we have climate change and the american mind which show the latest stats are 6 ever 10 americans are alarmed or concerned about climate change. what used to be the globe of climate denial is shifting even though we still have dplil in the country. and people realize, of course with the storms and the fires, and everything that has been happening, that this is not a mirage, it's real and ramping up. and people are feeling adequately concerned. >> as of extreme events happen more, probably each time the anxiety level rises. but do different groups of people experience different levels of climate anxiety as in any research who is to be youafflicted. >> we know poor people, poor

people of color put in harm's way because of historical marginalization and being in communities where any live next to polluting plants that make them more exposed to air pollution and other environmental hazards, that that creates -- actually if you look at the stats and who cares about climate change in this country, it is latin x people and the black population compared to the white population interestingly. and that is surmised to be because of this -- increased vul neshlt and the exposure. and there is also great are likelihood from the same study where the populations are more ready to take action. and so, yeah, you can think about risk and vulnerability and who is aware and people in defile. they tend to be kind of protecting themselves from it. >> if you deny it, you don't have to worry about it. but for those worried about it,

how can they deal with it? let's start with, how did you deal with it? >> well i'm a science communicator, science writer and i turned my lens on myself wondering what is the new disposition i have where i'm so uncomfortable all the time thinking about the future. i've studied conservation at university. i'm an environmental journalist. the information was nothing new but became more personal with the existential question of having a kid or not. and so i started looking at climate psychology and what psycho analysts and psychiatrists and public health experts and community organizers and all kinds of different people say about what's going on about how this crisis messes with our minds. because if it was making me so triggered around the question of having kids of course it's attacking people in lots of other ways. i became curious and i set on a three-year process of researching and writing a book coming out next year about the mental health impacts of the climate crisis and what we can

do to cultivate inner resilience to be able to enjoy our lives along the way and also take actions that help protect the planet for people and all other creatures on it, and in socially just ways. so, yeah, i mean there is lots of coping tools, mindfulness practices, coming together with others, forging community, finding containers and spaces with people who get it and give permission to this and don't dismiss your feelings. don't point at the ska rowe sky and say it's not falling, get over yourself, which is still something that happens wabo, because these are disenfranchised feelings the culture at large doesn't recognize. but there are tons of people creating spaces and sportive ways to come together, acknowledge it and say this is how i'm feeling and it's scary. but there is also hope that comes from this too when we turn the feelings into a transformative superpower. >> absolutely you got to ac floj it to start, normalize it and find ways to do something in

that space that contributes to positive change. and that gives you empowerment any say. one last question for you. did you resolve the issues? did you decide to have that baby? >> well, the baby hasn't come yet. but, yeah, we've decided that we want to. you know, there is different ways of kind of working through these feelings and everyone ends up on -- it's a very personal decision of course. i've ended up in a much more hopeful place than how i started the journey. but that's just me. >> well that's great. i'm happy to hear that dr. brit roadway great talking with you. thanks for sharing what you know about climate anxiety. appreciate it. >> thank you. all right. coming up, a role resident got selected to get free air fare to relocate and work remotely in hawaii. sound good? well her story is

about five seconds. how would you like a free

trip to hawaii? but that's not all. you'd get discounts stays. and get to work there. a few months ago we told you about movers and shakas a program to relocate mainlanders to the aloha state with something to give. and we have a san francisco resident who got selected as part of the first batch of 50 participants. jennica gue thanks for joining us today. >> thanks for having me. >> i know you have a lot of packing to do. i appreciate you spending a few minutes with us. when do you start your new adventure. >> i will be landing in honolulu on sunday. >> sunday, okay. you are in the first group of 50, right, 90,000 people we heard applied. congrats. do you feel like you won the lottery there? >> i did. i was so shocked but extremely honored to have been selected. 50 out of 90,000.

that's crazy odds. >> let me give our viewers the basics of the program. the goal is to the diversify hawaii's beyond tourism by drawing people with skills and kick start industry industries there. tell us why you applied. what's your field and why you thought you could do that in hawaii. >> okay. sure. my field is actually engineering. i'm a software engineer withzilla group. how can it help hawaii, i wasn't sure until i read everything they had to say about it. like you said about the diversifying of the economy. but also the aspect of giving back to the community. that's what made me apply. we're all paired with different non-profit organizations. and it's all based on our interests and our skills, whether it be in tech or it be marketing. we're paired with whatever the non-profit needs. >> what are you doing? what's your non-profit you are

diving into? >> i was so excited to be paired with somebody called putty foundation and their main mission is to preserve and perpetuate the native hawaiian traditions and culture. but they give voices to native hawaiian artists, dancer and musicians. >> i know you are a native hawaiian, moved to the bay area, been here the past 10, 15 years, which is great. it's kind of a going home kind of thing. but tell me what is paid for as part of the program? and what do you have to pay for. >> just one quick correction i'm not native hawaiian but i'm from hawaii. >> that's an important distinction, yes. >> yes. >> in the deal what do you have to pay for? >> you -- well, they will help you with discounts and hotel stay or anything look that. we're actually asked to stay for at least a month. and they do help you with the air fare. but honestly that was nothing i

took up, because i just wanted to give back to the community. and i'm staying with my parents. >> oh. >> there is nothing i'm really getting out of it except to really give back and have this great opportunity. >> got it. now is your family going with you? are their expenses paid as well. >> no, not at all only the members that were chosen. >> how about -- i know you work for zillow and i'll continue with that. they were fine with you working from hawaii. any concerns about the time difference? i know it's only two or three hour time difference. >> we're lucky to have open minded people at zillow group and we have a new distributed workforce. we're all kind of around the country right now and making time zones work. but i will be weigh up early to be logging in. >> especially if you have east coasters as well. then a six-hour difference. at 5:00 a.m. probably zooming in. i guess if your view is that of a beach you're good with that.

>> yeah, with the sun coming up, yup can't beat that. >> was it a tough decision still, though, as wonderful as hawaii is the to leave the bay area, leave san francisco? >> for me not so much, just because i -- after -- since i've left i felt a part of me has still always been there. it's like my true home. and all of my close family is actually living there. so i'm actually the only one out here with my -- my immediate family, my child and my wife. so -- >> okay so it's not so much you wanted to flee the bay area or anything. >> no. >> you just have the pull towards hawaii, right. >> yes. >> so i guess i'm wondering, you know, when you're there what else are you looking forward to? tell me about the cohorts, right. i know 49 others were selected. is there going to be a lot of engagement or are you going your separate ways once there? >> because of covid-19, unfortunately we can't meet up that much.

but they have planned excursions outdoors for us every weekend. and it's in small groups. i will get to meet them, of course with masks and all of the covid-19 protocols that come with it. and we also meet each other virtual online for training. that's actually how i've been getting to know everybody. and, yes, that's how we are doing it. >> all right. look, there are some locals who are not happy with this program bringing mainlanders to hawaii during the pandemic. what would you say to them? >> i would say i was kind of on the fence and maybe one of them when i first read about this, because i wasn't sure what the program was about. but we also are limited with our resources and everything like that. but this cohort, 65% are returning hawaii residents. what we call kamina, 75% have ties to hawaii.

the majority of us are actually staying with our families. that's great that we're not taking up more -- we're not taking away any housing, which is what i was initially with. and we all have to have full-time remote jobs. we're not taking any jobs away from hawaii people either. this is just a great way for people to reconnect. >> jennica gue, garages, i will sa

shakas. exiting to be part of the first group. hopefully she will get her stuff packed. and thank you for joining us on today's interactive show getting answers. we do have breaking news i'm going to summarize them theme parks in california and outdoor sporting events can resume with capacity restrictions in counties in the red tier. much of california's projected

to be in the red tier soon. this change takes effect april 1st. disneyland fans, you may b tonight, several developing stories as we come on the air. the vaccinations around the clock in this country. and the debate tonight across the nation. americans exhausted, ready for some sort of normalcy. some states opening slowly. others opening all at once. tonight, arizona's governor signing a executive order allowing businesses back to full capacity, following texas and mississippi. california tonight with a slower approach, announcing theme parks will open at 15%. major league baseball stadiums at 20%. then masks. 15 states with no mask mandate or plans to lift them. tonight the cdc urging caution, saying the masks are helping with the drop in covid cases and deaths. and the images from across the country tonight. look at this -