'Eco-anxiety' is a new term used to describe the depression caused by climate change, especially among children.

This is apparently is partly caused by the constant bombardment by the media of images of droughts, floods and cyclones which we see on our electronic devices every day.

This month Orange Oral History Group thought back over their own long lives to remember some of the worrying events which had occurred in the world when we were children and young adults, and how we handle these situations and what help we had to do so.

The world always seems to have been in upheaval and each generation has reacted to the different circumstances in its own way.

The main difference now is that we are now constantly aware of events which are played on our screens with frightening reality.

WWII loomed large in the in the memories of the group and it was interesting to learn of the ways they reacted to it.

As children we could do nothing to stop the hostilities although we were encouraged to support 'the war effort' as much as we could. We collected salvage, raised money for the Red Cross and practised what we would do if there was an air aid.

"I was born in 1935 and was five when the war broke out." said Dick. "I was shielded from worry to a great extent by my parents and the only time I saw anything about it was in the newsreels at the pictures."

The radio news was a very big thing in everyone's lives, and the children worried about the way their parents reacted to it.

"I grew up with the war news," Reg Golding said. "We lived 15 miles out of town which was about an hour and a half with a good horse and sulky. The batteries for the radio had to be taken there to be recharged. My father was not a cruel man but the only time I saw him lift a cat with his boot was when it was making so much noise he couldn't hear the radio. That's how important the news was."

Rhyl Martin lived in Queensland. "I was born in 1940," she said. "Although I was only a little girl I was terrified about what my parents and their friends said about the war and about the possibility of the Japanese coming."

"I remember the frightening cartoons on posters of a grinning face and a shadow over Australia. I saw a soldier on the beach carrying a gun and my parents told me he was looking for submarines. I always wanted to be in bed before the 9 o'clock news because of the worried looks on my parents' faces. Because we were in Queensland we felt we were closer to the war than the other states."

In NSW trenches were dug and children carried little cloth bags containing a cork to put between their teeth for when the bombs fell, cotton wool for your ears, a lollipop to comfort you and a comic to take your mind off the whole thing.

Needless to say we had all eaten the sweet, lost the cork and cotton wool and read the comic by the time peace was declared.

Bill was just 14 when the war broke out but his main fear was of sharks when he swam in the harbour. This surprised us, but he explained that the idea of joining up when he was 18 was exciting and something to look forward to.

This was the attitude of many young people who have no conception of the horrors of war at that stage of their lives. Men who were either too old or were in protected industries also did valuable work.

Barbara's father was an air raid warden in Cargo and was very careful about making sure that no lights were showing from any house after dark. One night he climbed the hill to overlook the town and was horrified. No light was showing but every iron roof in the town was shining brightly in the moonlight - a perfect target for the enemy.

Possibly because of all the American war movies we saw quite a few of us were frightened of low-flying planes but on the whole we agreed we had happy childhoods.

Keith, who could remember listening to a detailed live report of the of the Battle of the Coral Sea, wondered if today's children have not been exposed to much worry at all in their lives.

He remembers the terror when the Japanese broke out of Cowra POW camp. People in the vicinity were told to leave out water and bread and hide inside their houses.

Even after we grew up disastrous events continued to give rise to worry. All through the 1950s, 60s and 70s we had horrors like the Suez Crisis, the Cuban Missile crisis when it seemed that the world was on the brink of self destruction; the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and the whole long period of the Cold War.

It was generally agreed that the fact that we have climate change must be faced, but it must not be forgotten that the world has never been without something to worry about and we must try to find a balance.