Research and resources, shaped by those doing the work

I came to view my work with Hiroshima survivors in 1962 as not only a scientificstudy but a form of bearing witness to what the bomb did to human beings in thatcity. I tried to bring professional knowledge and experience to that effort, to becomewhat I later called a witnessing professional. Nuclear and climate issues interacted in that early study, and have continued to be inseparable for all of us. I drawupon examples of witnessing professionals over the course of our struggles with thesetwo planetary threats. In each case, they had to expose and combat the malignantnormality, the dangerous prevailing assumptions and narratives, of their time. Inthat way, these professionals have contributed to important social movements. Theyhave also deepened–as we too can–the ethical dimensions of professional work.

A reflection on how climate anxiety intersects with disability and ill health, noting that ableism makes disabled people disproportionately vulnerable to climate change and less able to access mental health support.

One of the first rules of effective communication is to “know thy audience.” Climate change public engagement efforts must start with the fundamental recognition that people are different and have different psychological, cultural, and political reasons for acting – or not acting – to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Our research has identified “Global Warming’s Six Americas”: six unique audiences within the American public that each responds to the issue in their own distinct way.

ABSTRACT: Compassion has been suggested to be a strong motivator for prosocial behavior. While research has demonstrated that compassion training has positive effects on mood and health, we do not know whether it also leads to increases in prosocial behavior. We addressed this question in two experiments. In Experiment 1, we introduce a new prosocial game, the Zurich Prosocial Game (ZPG), which allows for repeated, ecologically valid assessment of prosocial behavior. Experiment 2 shows that helping behavior in the ZPG increased in participants who had received short-term compassion training, but not in participants who had received short-term memory training.

Background: Climate change is increasingly recognized as a driver of mental health disorders, exacerbating conditions such as anxiety, depression, and post‑traumatic stress. However, climate policies rarely address mental health considerations.Objective: This study investigates the extent to which mental health is incorporated into national climate adaptation policies, specifically Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), from countries classified as high or very high risk according to the INFORM index.Methods: We conducted a systematic literature review and policy analysis of NDCs from 38 high‑risk countries. A keyword‑based approach was used to assess the frequency and depth of mental health references in climate policies.

This article, published in French, examines the effects of positive discourse on anxieties related to climate change ('Des effets des discours positifs sur les angoisses liees au changement climatique').

AbstractClimate change is one of the greatest threats to health that societies face and can adversely affect mental health. Given the current lack of a European consensus paper on the interplay between climate change and mental health, we signal a need for a pan-European position paper about this topic, written by stakeholders working in mental health care.On behalf of the European Psychiatric Association (EPA), we give recommendations to make mental health care, research, and education more sustainable based on a narrative review of the literature.

‘Discourses of climate delay’ pervade current debates on climate action. These discourses accept the existence of climate change, but justify inaction or inadequate efforts. In contemporary discussions on what actions should be taken, by whom and how fast, proponents of climate delay would argue for minimal action or action taken by others. They focus attention on the negative social effects of climate policies and raise doubt that mitigation is possible. Here, we outline the common features of climate delay discourses and provide a guide to identifying them.

ABSTRACT (Open Access via Helsinki repository/PhilArchive): This essay examines the connection between fear and the psychopathologies it can bring, looking in particular at the fears that individuals experience in the face of the climate crisis and environmental degradation more generally. We know that fear can be a source of good and ill — fears of climate-change-driven heat waves, for instance, can spur both activism and denial. But we don't yet have a very good understanding of why eco-fears shape our thoughts and actions in the ways that they do, or why some experiences of eco-fear can lead to depression, PTSD, and other psychopathologies. The essay focuses on the role that feelings of agency — our general feeling that we have enough ability to address the threats and challenges we face — play in understanding and addressing these pathologies.