Humanity&Planet

My brother and his family, in western NC, got power back last night. The gratitude I feel over them being ok is immense. My brother’s work necessitated him driving over the weekend despite all the roads being closed except to emergency vehicles (he’s responsible for the care of vulnerable people), and my worry about him was a constant backdrop to the past few days. They sustained some slight property damage and had one close call that unnerved us all, but they are feeling very lucky. They’re ok. Their outdoor animals are ok. I just keep repeating to myself that they’re ok. So many people are not. Stories I’ve heard from friends, and friends of friends, are horrific.
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The place names of western NC are evocative and reflect landscape, stone, stories, people. Blowing Rock. Boone. Spruce Pine. Chimney Rock. Swannanoa. Linville Gorge. Grandfather Mountain.
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My grandparents lived in Asheville for many years, only moving to be nearer to us in the central part of the state when I was a very young child. But they went back to the mountains regularly, and we’d go there with them every fall. We’d get “mountain apples” and drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway, the place where my love for nature was born. Going home, my beloved grandfather would make my stomach churn by memorably careening down the mountain freeway (I-40 and others) with the confidence of someone who’d been driving those curves for decades. He was a pretty firm believer in the joy of not feeling compelled to stay between the lines of his lane. Some of those roads are washed away now.
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For a hurricane to affect western North Carolina, not to mention to destroy it, is utterly incomprehensible. Hurricanes have always belonged on the opposite side of the state. This was sun turning into moon, raccoon into bear, sky into craggy mountain rock; it seems as if it cannot be. It feels as impossible as my grandfather not delivering me safely home, as he did time and time again despite the alternative I imagined from my view in the back seat.

Some ways to help in North Carolina, my home state, devastated by Hurricane Helene. My family and friends in western NC, the worst-hit region, are safe at this time, for which I’m relieved and grateful though still worried for the days ahead. But there are many people now who need rescue or help of some kind, and it will take years for the area to recover.

My heart hurts for my birthplace, the land where I lived for almost thirty years. I weep for the beautiful Appalachians, flooded, wind-whipped, and with trees ripped from the earth. I ache for the mountains I know to be as they were just days ago. My stomach knots as I think of the lives lost and the people stranded, all roads impassable due to mudslides and being washed out. Towns gone. Homes washed away.

Just a couple of weeks ago, on the other side of the state, Carolina Beach was hit with horrific flooding. All the while, houses in Rodanthe continue to fall into the Atlantic. North Carolina is being destroyed by climate change.

This November, every vote counts. The next victim of a climate catastrophe is someone’s neighbor, someone’s family member. Project 2025 will end NOAA, which tracks climate change, warns and tracks severe weather like hurricanes, and provides our weather reports. Trump has called climate change a “hoax.”

This is the most important election of our lives. The timeline for addressing climate change is beyond urgent. Even if a candidate is not perfect, if our democracy is preserved then that candidate can be pushed more on climate change once elected. Make a plan to vote; it’s a critical action that shows your caring for others and for our world.

Tomorrow’s your last chance to register for next week’s Michigan Climate Summit , hosted this year at ! I’m looking forward to being on the “Roots That Run Deep” panel on sustaining advocates, along with LaUra Schmidt , Marnese Jackson , and Jesse Estrada Whire and Jack MacQuaig , and moderated by Bryan Smigielski . Come find us at 11am Thurs Sept 26 in the Pendleton Room in the Michigan Union!

If you’ll be at the American Psychological Association’s annual convention this August, put our session on “Emotions and Climate Change Anxiety in Young Adults” on your schedule! We’re on at 3pm on Thursday, Aug. 8. My talk, “Helping Young Adults with Climate Emotions: Meaning and Motivation at a Tipping Point of Their Own,” will be part of a data blitz with my fantastic colleagues Zoey Rogers and Jen Myers, PhD, who’ll be discussing interventions with undergrads.

I’ll be presenting on the emotional experiences of, and clinical intervention with, graduate students in E/S, using an illustrative case. Environment/sustainability students, researchers, and scientists at all stages of their careers are at higher risk for eco/climate distress and burnout. Whether you’re an academic or a clinician, you’ll come away with knowledge about how and why climate emotions matter in this population, and why support is needed.

Register at convention.apa.org

If you’re a K-12 teacher in Michigan or know someone who is, check out the great offerings (including CEs) for educators at Michigan Alliance for Environmental and Outdoor Education’s climate change workshop series! I’m excited to be teaching attendees on June 24 about understanding and working with climate emotions in the classroom.

Michigan students in grades 3-12 have access to a fantastic climate change curriculum, thanks to the lessons developed and released by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy earlier this year. Addressing students’ feelings, like worry or sadness, about climate change is an important complement to academic knowledge about it. Helping educators learn about climate emotions and how to work with them in the classroom not only benefits kids who are already feeling concerned but also has the potential to help students in general develop critical emotional reslience around climate change, which will be needed throughout their lives. And it can give kids the chance to connect with their nurturing, caring feelings about the natural world, which, in turn, increases the desire to protect that world.

Registration is at www.MAEOE.com.

Yesterday it was 70 degrees here; today it’s 30. In the face of these wildly swinging temperature and weather changes, it’s understandable if you might feel that all we can do is go along for the ride. But while it might be all we can do for this exact second, but it’s not actually all we can do (especially for those of us with privilege). We can feel empowered by our love for others and our world, even in the face of something that feels disempowering. 💚

Climate change is what causes these extreme changes and vacillations in weather. What if we all took this moment to reflect on what we can do about that, and then act on it? Whether it’s participating in groups like Postcards for Voters or Environmental Voter Project to get environmental voters to the polls, buying an EV or plug-in hybrid if you can afford it (the Chevy Bolt EV is $25K right now with the tax credit), making a commitment to significantly decrease single-use plastics (plastics are made from petrochemicals, ie crude oil), sending in a donation to the Climate Reality Project or a similar org, joining a local chapter of a climate org (eg, Citizens’ Climate Lobby), etc, we can all look this wind and weather in the eye and do something right this minute.

Let’s do it together—there’s strength in community. And in love. 🙌💚🌎🌍🌏

Plastics are the fossil fuel industry’s next line of attack since they’re threatened by green energy on the rise.

Starting in the ‘50s, internal oil industry memos showed that the industry knew they’d cause climate change and then they engaged in subsequent decades of intentional disinformation campaigns to the public. They marketed the idea of an individual carbon footprint in order to place responsibility on us instead of them.

Now they are spreading propaganda about plastics, which are made from petrochemicals—and they’re doing it in our nation’s schools to get the next generation hooked on plastics.

A link to today’s WaPo article about what they’re doing is here: https://wapo.st/3OIbbww

This photo isn’t real, but climate change is. Think about this: One-fifth of ALL money invested in US oil, gas, and coal companies comes from our retirement savings. So I’m joining a virtual march to get Wall Street to give everyone climate-friendly options for their 401(k)s.

March with us: RetireBigOil.org /

Let’s hear it for *this* version of the winter blues! We have long winters in Michigan; I’m grateful for, and am soaking in, this sky.

I’m excited to be offering an in-person Living with Climate Change group in March and April for environmental/sustainability students and recent grads. See the flyer above or link in bio for details, and contact me to be screened for the group to make sure it’s the right fit for you!

I love what writes here: ❄️❄️

Reposted with permission from
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Let’s all stand for the right to be cold! I want my children and grandchildren and all future generations to enjoy the right to spend a day gliding through a silent snow covered forest, with branches sparkling like diamonds in the angular morning sun.

May all beings have the opportunity to know a planet that is thriving and peaceful.

May all beings know they deeply belong.

One day late wishing my adopted state of Michigan a Happy 187th Birthday! With two incredible national lakeshore and one of the least-visited national parks in the US, it’s a gorgeous place, this Mitten.

Some important and positive climate news today! The press release is here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/01/26/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-temporary-pause-on-pending-approvals-of-liquefied-natural-gas-exports/

The last slide is from the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/26/climate/biden-lng-pause-climate.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Qk0.CuTx.p_47WcpxVHTu&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=c-cb

Yale .change.communication released its latest climate opinion maps yesterday, which are current through Oct 2023.

That orange everywhere (69% US average) in the slide about people believing corporations should do more to address global warming is heartening; it feels hopeful to me that so many people believe corporations are culpable and should be accountable.

In Michigan, where I live, the percentage of people worried about global warming has increased from 50% to 62% since 2010.

Of particular interest in this election year are the data showing that a majority of Americans think “developing clean energy should be a priority for the president and Congress” and “global warming should be a priority for the next president and Congress.”

If you’re looking to talk with a climate therapist about climate change or environmental concerns, my personal history—10 years ago this year—of building a grassroots organization that fought the oil industry nonstop for two years means I’m not new to caring about environmental issues and climate change. Check out my website and contact me (link in bio) if you’d like to learn more about climate therapy with me.

(And while we lost the lawsuit (the battle) shown in the second slide in my post, we were instrumental in creating lasting change at the state level (the war, though of course only in a small way, given the immensity of the industry). There are a few articles linked in my bio about us if you want to read more.)

Are you angry about climate change (and biodiversity loss, environmental degradation, etc.)? Climate anxiety/eco-anxiety has been making headlines for the past few years, which has been incredible for raising awareness and validating people’s experiences. In fact, though, climate/eco emotions are much more complex, and eco-anxiety is just one of the many feelings people have about what’s happening in our world.

Environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht creates evocative terminology for the deep variety of the positive and negative emotions related to climate change and ecological destruction. You can read some of his work in his 2019 book, Earth Emotions. (Btw, the word “negative” in referring to emotions generally in psychology doesn’t connote that emotions are problematic but rather that they’re experienced as painful or difficult as opposed to feeling good for people.)

We’re just learning about and starting to figure out the ways that different emotions about climate change affect people and affect things like motivation. The latest research, out of Norway in the fall of 2023, explored some of the facets of anger in relation to climate action. They found that, among climate emotions, anger was the strongest predictor of climate activism and is strongly related to policy support, but wasn’t related to individual mitigation efforts.

Climate change is so immense that it can overwhelm us and freeze us up, thinking that we can’t make a difference. But even when you don’t see them, there are people like you everywhere, every day, taking action. And those actions create a combined force for good. We’re not alone in this.

The items in the first photo are 31, 26, and 17 years old. They are (1) a purse that I love for its beautiful, ornate design, found in 1993 at a thrift store in Georgetown (D.C.) that a friend and I would sometimes walk to from our office in DuPont Circle during lunch; (2) a small backpack gifted to me by a loved one in 1998; and (3) an Eileen Fisher sweater, one of my warmest, thrifted around 2007, when I moved to Michigan. It makes me feel good to use items that I’ve had for so long.

I have clothes that were bought new as well, though I’m not a shopper and rarely buy clothes; most of mine have stood the rest of time. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have room for improvement!

Even though individual responsibility for climate change—the myth that we, and not the fossil fuel industry, are supposed to fix it—is the result of a decades long marketing campaign by…the fossil fuel industry. It’s impossible to fix that by ourselves, without economic, corporate, governmental, and societal changes. But that doesn’t mean individual action isn’t important. Far from it. After all, we make up society.

The other photos are from Optoro and a NYT article. Online shopping has dramatically increased returns since no one is ever really sure whether something’s going to fit when we order it. What you don’t see a photo of here (since I don’t have them anymore 😉) is the returns I’ve made in my life. Returns I wish I hadn’t made, or needed to make, or had ever ordered in the first place.

It’s challenging—with more online shopping, we have fewer brick-and-mortar stores, so we’re more likely to go online to try to find the size or style we want or need, which becomes a self-perpetuating loop.

But we can make a difference by not opting in to the consumerist idea that we have to buy things. We can buy only what we need. Buy items that endure, treat them well and repair them so they last. Thrift. Buy locally, so we can try things on. Buy clothes not made from petrochemicals. Lots of people making sustainable choices matters. What kind of society and world do we want? Let’s create it.

The COP28 president, Sultan Al-Jaber, is the head of the UAE’s state-owned oil company, and the UAE, where COP28 is being held, is the 7th-largest oil-producing company in the world. In the days leading up to COP28, communications were discovered showing that Al-Jaber has been lobbying for oil and gas deals with foreign governments using his COP28 presidency as access and leverage. In brief—don’t believe this corrupt leader. 💰💵

But also—don’t turn away from paying attention to COP28, which is what the fossil fuel industry would like you to do. COP is where world leaders come together to (occasionally) make commitments to decreasing fossil fuels. Keeping those commitments hasn’t worked out particularly well so far and there have been problems with COP in the past. However, having a COP is very important and this level of corruption, while completely anticipated, must be seen and called out.

When climate tipping points are passed, there are things we will never get back. We’ve passed some already and we are poised to pass more if we do not keep warming to 1.5C by 2030, which was the goal of the Paris Agreement, signed at COP21. The countries of the world are not on target to do that.

But there are also positive, social tipping points that accelerate the path to net-zero. We have everything in place to make this work; we just need the action. So we need huge, systemic change *and* lots of people doing something—especially when that doing something is pushing for systemic change. Call the White House and your legislators regularly (set a reminder for once a week) to tell them you want renewable energy now. Work to get your community or state to commit to the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty (www.fossilfueltreaty.org). Buy an EV if you can (yes, scientists say it’s better to ditch your gas-powered car even if it’s not dead yet). Eat less red meat and encourage others to. Work to pressure celebrities flying private planes everywhere. If you have power or privilege, use it to help those who don’t. Look for the helpers. And be one. Let’s do this!

COP28, in all its controversy, is going on now in the United Arab Emirates. If you want to watch any of it from afar, live or recorded, you can download the UN Climate Change app, which is used for each COP. You can read about COP28 at www.cop28.com and about the U.S. schedule at https://www.state.gov/u-s-center-at-cop28-schedule/.

The head of this year’s COP, Sultan al-Jaber, is the head of the UAE’s state-owned oil company—one of the largest oil companies in the world—and is also head of its state renewable energy company. This week documents were found indicating that the UAE was planning to promote fossil fuel deals during COP28.

The New York Times notes: “The Emirates, the world’s seventh-largest oil producer, will produce oil ‘as long as the market demands it,’ Mr. al-Jaber told The Times. The energy firm that he leads, ADNOC, is investing tens of billions of dollars to expand oil-production capacity.”

Cynicism, frustration, and anger are understandably high, given all this. And the world is not on target to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, which was adopted at COP21. We should be angry.

One thing we know about climate emotions is that anger is motivating. It can lead us to act. Whether you watch some of COP28 or read about it, or whether you are tuning out in disgust, know that your anger makes sense and you can channel it in prosocial, caring ways that matter. Donating, protesting, actively encouraging and helping others to go green, contacting your government, working to get your community to be part of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, and more—there’s a lot we can do, right now.

Huge and exciting news out of Sweden! The very first RCT (randomly controlled trial)—the gold standard of research in our field—of climate therapy has shown good results in helping people with climate distress! Yes, we already knew we were helping people, but to measure it and have “proof” is a big step in the right direction.