Does thinking about climate change give you a sinking feeling? Does the Anthropocene keep you awake at night? Me too. Join EPIC, Friends of the Eel River, Humboldt Baykeeper, and the Northcoast Environmental Center on Tuesday, May 5 from 7-8pm for a special discussion with HSU Professor Sarah Ray, author of the new book, “A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet,” to learn how to become a more resilient person and a more effective activist. Register for the online webinar today!
Caring about the environment can be emotionally difficult. An environmental education has costs, including an acute awareness of what is wrong with the world. Or, as the ever-eloquent Aldo Leopold put it, “One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds.” To many, climate change is anxiety producing—and for good reason. How we deal with this anxiety is important. Do we burn out or burn brighter?
Want to pick up a copy of A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety? Help support local bookstores! Eureka Books and Northtown Books have the book in stock for curbside pickup or delivery. If you live outside the area, you can also find the book online here.
Based on Ray’s decade-plus of experience as a college educator and program leader, A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety is not just another self-help book: it draws on research in psychology, sociology, cultural studies, mindfulness insights, social justice movements, and the environmental humanities. The result is an accessible and relatable resource for anyone struggling with climate anxiety. Chapter themes include:
— How to identify the signs and symptoms of climate anxiety, and where they come from;
— Finding your place in the climate movement;
— Parsing journalism and sensational media representations of environmental crises;
— Resisting the urge to argue and be “right”;
— Allowing yourself to have fun and experience joy despite the state of things.