Research and resources, shaped by those doing the work

Accessible and concise guidance for parents on talking with children about the climate crisis.

Guide prepared for the Schools Summit of London Climate Action Week 2021, offering guidance on communicating about climate change with children.

Apologies in advance, but I’m hoping that reading this will help you feel depressed – about biodiversity loss and our lack of progress over the climate crisis. The thing is, in these extreme circumstances, a bit of depression about the environment could be precisely what we need – it’s the only sane response.

Suicide is a stark indicator of human hardship, yet the causes of these deaths remain understudied, particularly in developing countries. This analysis of India, where one fifth of the world’s suicides occur, demonstrates that the climate, particularly temperature, has strong influence over a growing suicide epidemic. With 47 y of suicide records and climate data, I show that high temperatures increase suicide rates, but only during India’s growing season, when heat also reduces crop yields. My results are consistent with widely cited theories of economic suicide in India. Moreover, these findings have important implications for future climate change; I estimate that warming temperature trends over the last three decades have already been responsible for over 59,000 suicides throughout India.

As we face a future of rising global temperatures, and associated extreme weather events, distressing emotional responses are understandable. Climate scientists comprise a unique group, in that they must regularly confront the reality, and consequences, of climate change. In this paper, we explore how the principles of compassion-focused therapy (CFT) might be applied to comprehend the responses of climate scientists to climate change; by doing so, we aim to gain a deeper understanding of these responses in order to consider fruitful avenues for providing support and investigating this area further.

As humanity faces a future of rising global temperatures, and associated extreme weather events, distressing emotional responses are understandable, but often silenced. Climate Cafés are unique, dedicated spaces where such responses can be shared and validated with others. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with attendees of Climate Cafés facilitated by the Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA). An initial interview of 45 minutes was followed by a shorter follow-up interview 3 months later. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) methodology was used with seven female participants. Four superordinate themes were identified: (1) Having a keen awareness of threats to planetary health, (2) Action taken in the face of climate change, (3) Journeying from isolation to connection, and (4) Legacy of Climate Cafés.