RESOURCES
Groups
One of the most effective ways to cope with climate anxiety or despair is to find a supportive community where your feelings can be shared. The groups below offer different Emotional Methodologies for dealing with grief, fear and guilt related to our climate crisis. These can be practiced on one’s own, or in a group. In addition, the workshop page on this website offers a number of DIY activities that you can use individually or facilitate for a group.
Climate Courage Workshops to support youth climate leaders (aged 13 to 30)
The Good Grief Network’s 10 Steps to Personal Resilience & Empowerment in a Chaotic Climate program.
Living with the Climate Crisis - guidebook for facilitating group discussions of climate psychology and grief
The Work That Reconnects and Joanna Macy’s related book Active Hope.
Climate Journal Project uses the power of reflection and journaling to create space for internal and planetary healing.
Climate Emotions Conversations uses small group sharing and listening sessions for anyone in pain about the climate emergency
Student Projects (view here)
Solutions
Fill out this Climate Action Venn Diagram
For specific ideas, view Project Drawdown's Table of Solutions (TIP: these are listed alphabetically, but to list them by impact on CO2 emissions, click "Scenario 1" twice so it lists from greatest to least. Then click the actual Solution to learn more [read the box "What You Can Do"])
Books on Climate Anxiety, Hope & Resilience
Britt Wray, Generation Dread: Finding Purpose In An Age Of Climate Crisis. Penguin Random House, 2022.
Sarah Jaquette Ray, A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet. University of California Press, 2020
Elin Kelsey, Hope Matters: Why Changing the Way We Think Is Critical to Solving the Environmental Crisis. Greystone Books, 2020.
Leslie Davenport, All the Feelings Under the Sun: How to Deal With Climate Change. Magination Press 2021
Daniel Wildcat. Red Alert! Saving the Planet with Indigenous Knowledge. Speaker's Corner. 2009
Lise Van Sustern & Stacey Colino, Emotional Inflammation. Sounds True, 2020
John Wiseman, Hope and Courage in the Climate Crisis. Palgrave, 2021.
Leslie Davenport, Emotional Resiliency in the Era of Climate Change. Jessica Kingsley Pub, 2017.
Joanna Macy, Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We're in Without Going Crazy. New World Library. 2012
Trebbe Johnson. Radical Joy for Hard Times: Finding Meaning and Making Beauty in Earth’s Broken Places. Penguin Random House. 2018
Cunsolo and Landman. Mourning Nature: Hope at the Heart of Ecological Loss and Grief. McGill-Queen's University Press. 2017
Kari Marie Norgaard, Living in Denial: Climate Change, Emotions, and Everyday Life. MIT Press, 2011.
Rebecca Solnit, A Paradise Built in Hell. Penguin. 2010
Bob Doppelt, Transformational Resilience. Routledge. 2016
Articles
American Psychological Association (2017). Climate Change's Toll On Mental Health.
Hickman et al (2021) Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey
Nylah Burton, People of Color Experience Climate Grief More Deeply than White People Vice, 2020.
Climate Psychology Alliance. Climate Anxiety: What you need to know. 2021
American Imago: Special issue: Ecological Grief. Guest editor: Stef Craps. Volume 77, Number 1, Spring 2020
Gaia Vince, How scientists are coping with ‘ecological grief.’ The Guardian. Jan 2020.
Kristina Dahl. Feeling Blue About Climate Change? You’re Not Alone. Union of Concerned Scientists. EcoWatch. 2018
Katherine Schafler, The One Thing No One Ever Says About Grieving Thrive Global. July 2017.
Livia Albeck-Ripka. Why Lost Ice Means Lost Hope for an Inuit Village. New York Times, Nov. 25, 2017.
Tommy Lynch, Why Hope Is Dangerous When It Comes To Climate Change. Slate. July 25, 2017
Jennifer Atkinson. Addressing Climate Grief Makes You a Badass, Not a Snowflake. High Country News. 2018
Rosemary Randall, "Loss and Climate Change: The Cost of Parallel Narratives" Ecopsychology. September 2009.
Marie Eaton. "Navigating Anger, Fear, Grief and Despair." In Contemplative Approaches to Sustainability in Higher Education. Ed. Eaton, Hughes, and MacGregor. Routledge. 2016
Ellis, N and Cunsolo, A. Ecological Grief as a Mental Health Response to Climate Change-related Loss. Nature Climate Change, 8:275–281. 2018
Ellis, N and Cunsolo, A. Hope and Mourning in the Anthropocene: Understanding Ecological Grief. The Conversation. 2018
Ciara O'Rouke. Climate Change’s Hidden Victim: Your Mental Health. Medium, 2019
Clayton Aldern, How climate change is messing with your mind. Crosscut. August 28, 2018.
Dahr Jamail, In Facing Mass Extinction, We Must Allow Ourselves to Grieve. January 17, 2019
Derrick Jensen. Beyond Hope. Orion Magazine. 2006
David Corn, It's the End of the World as they Know it: the distinct burden of being a climate scientist. Mother Jones. 2019
Ash Sanders, Under the Weather. Believer Magazine Dec 2, 2019.
Mind Over Chatter Exploring Climate Psychology. Climate One, November 29, 2018.
Julia Rosen, "Feeling distressed about climate change? Here’s how to manage it." Los Angeles Times. Jan. 11, 2020
Jillian Ambrose Hijacked by anxiety: how climate dread is hindering climate action. The Guardian. Oct 2020
Zhiwa Woodbury. "Climate Trauma: Toward a New Taxonomy of Trauma." Ecopsychology. January 2019
Stephen Running, The 5 Stages of Climate Grief. Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group Publications. 173. 2007
Lisa Kretz, Hope in Environmental Philosophy. Funded Articles, 11. 2012
Cara Buckley, Apocalypse Got You Down? Maybe This Will Help New York Times. Nov 15, 2019.
Joanna Macy, "The Greatest Danger." YES! Magazine. Feb 01, 2008
Kiana Herold. The Rights of Nature: Indigenous Philosophies Reframing Law. Intercontinental Cry. 2017.
Dylan Matthews, 23 Charts and Maps that Show the World is Getting Much Better. Vox. 2018
George Monbiot, George Monbiot – Out of the Wreckage – A New Politics for an Age of Crisis. The Gaia Foundation. YouTube video. 2017
David Orr, The Hour Before the Dawn. Yes Magazine. 2004
David Orr, “Millennial Hope,” in Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate Collapse. Oxford Univ. Press (pp 181-202). 2009
Seeds of a Good Anthropocene. McGill University, the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University, and the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition at Stellenbosch University. 2019
Gayathri Vaidyanathan. Science and Culture: Imagining a Climate-change Future, Without the Dystopia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018
World Health Organization. COP24 Special Report: Health & Climate Change. 2018
Common Ground Media. I Will Be a Hummingbird, video clip from Dirt! The Movie, directed by Benenson, B, Rosow, G and Dailly, E. 2009.
For Youth & Children
Eco Distress for Young People - produced by the Royal College of Psychiatrists: aims to help kids understand their distress and provide tools to feel better and take action.
Kids, Youth & Climatee - a page of resources from therapist Andrew Bryant
How to Change Everything: the young person’s guide to protecting the planet and each other - a book by Naomi Klein offering readers a comprehensive look at the state of the climate today, how we got here and how to join the fight to protect the planet while looking after each other.
Mental Health & Climate Communication with Children
Climate Psychology resource page
Talk to children about the climate crisis (handbook)