A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet

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Univ of California Press, Apr 21, 2020 - Nature - 216 pages
Gen Z's first "existential toolkit" for combating eco-guilt and burnout while advocating for climate justice.

A youth movement is reenergizing global environmental activism. The “climate generation”—late millennials and iGen, or Generation Z—is demanding that policy makers and government leaders take immediate action to address the dire outcomes predicted by climate science. Those inheriting our planet’s environmental problems expect to encounter challenges, but they may not have the skills to grapple with the feelings of powerlessness and despair that may arise when they confront this seemingly intractable situation.
 
Drawing on a decade of experience leading and teaching in college environmental studies programs, Sarah Jaquette Ray has created an “existential tool kit” for the climate generation. Combining insights from psychology, sociology, social movements, mindfulness, and the environmental humanities, Ray explains why and how we need to let go of eco-guilt, resist burnout, and cultivate resilience while advocating for climate justice. A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety is the essential guidebook for the climate generation—and perhaps the rest of us—as we confront the greatest environmental threat of our time.

 
 

Contents

Embracing Life in the Anthropocene
1
Get Schooled on the Role of Emotions in Climate
15
2
30
Claim Your Calling and Scale Your Action
52
Hack the Story
80
5
97
Move Beyond Hope Ditch Guilt and Laugh More
114
7
128
Acknowledgments
145
Bibliography
177
Index
199
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About the author (2020)

Sarah Jaquette Ray teaches environmental studies at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California, and is the author of The Ecological Other: Environmental Exclusion in American Culture.

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