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Conversations

A Conversation on Climate Anxiety

February 10, 2021

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.

FOLCS was joined by author, Sarah Jaquette Ray, for a Conversation on A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety on February 10, 2021.

Sarah’s book is available here.

Watch A Conversation on Climate Anxiety here.

See more from FOLCS here. 

Sarah Jaquette Ray
Author

Sarah Jaquette Ray is Chair of the Environmental Studies Department at Humboldt State University. Her first book, The Ecological Other: Environmental Exclusion in American Culture (University of Arizona, 2013) explores the ways that environmental discourse often reinforces existing social hierarchies, drawing on a legacy of nativist, racial, and ableist exclusion in environmental history. Dr. Ray has edited three collections, including Critical Norths: Space, Nature, Theory (2017), Disability Studies & the Environmental Humanities: Toward an Eco-Crip Theory (2017), and Latinx Environmentalisms: Place, Justice, and the Decolonial (2019). Her second book, A Field Guide to Climate Change: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet (California, 2020) is an existential toolkit for the climate generation.