She is a self described bird nerd, but her first love is plants. She feels safer sleeping in nature than in a hotel. She tends a plot in a community garden to grow her vegetables, and tends to flowers and medicinal plants in the small plots of soil in her duplex's backyard. She is 31 and nervous about becoming a mother in times like these, but aches to become one. When she was a child, her father told her that her generation would be the one to get us out of this "global warming mess." So, she majored in Environmental Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz and intended to become a teacher. She wanted to spread hope to the children of her community and instill a love of nature. She worked in Environmental Education for 4 years before deciding to become a massage therapist. Teaching proved to be too stressful on top of managing her Bipolar Type 1 diagnosis. Climate Crisis events trigger mania in her. In her last bought of full blown mania, she blocked traffic with an Earth Ball and dropped yellow rose petals in the road. The hospitalization from that episode left her with pain in her right hip from the Haldol injection she was forced to receive because she was so physically resistant and borderline violent. It took about five medical professionals to hold her down because she is a very strong and muscular woman. This woman needs to learn about Climate Anxiety, because she experiences it. When she was 12 years old in San Diego, CA, she lived through evacuations during the Witch Creek Fire. When she was 16, she went through evacuations again due to another fire. And when she was 29, while moving back to Santa Cruz, her community experienced the worst wild fire in recent history. Almost 1,000 homes in the Santa Cruz mountains were lost. How many animals lost there homes, she will never know. She knows the taxidermy collection at Big Basin Headquarters turned to ash. She hasn't returned to it because her heart is still aching over the loss. This woman is resilient and strong. She started an All We Can Save Circle and intends to do an Environmental book club after this circle concludes. Generation Dread is at the top of her list.
The person I would gift this book to is yet unknown. Who I imagine they would be...A parent like myself, concerned about the climate crisis and the future of their children and children's generation and on. Someone who would like to do more but right now might be in a shock about the dire state our current situation is in. This is a book I would like to have to pass around to concerned parents. When I talk to them, whether a random meeting at a park or a parent from class, I always bring up climate in some way...I would like to be able to pass this book to the parents who are concerned or who might be curious but scared to look past this being a "recycle our way out of it" problem. This will become a community book in that way. A way we can connect as parents and make sure we are letting ourselves process what is happening, why, and how we can move past the fear to fight for our children's future. I thank you so much for the consideration and this wonderful giveaway.
I would devote it to... To the spark it could ignite in the embers, dormant in the indifferents' hearts. To the ounce of hope that subsists in the battling, even if we feel so small. To the fatigue that looks away, not able to bear the weight of every additional dramatic fact. To the courage of action, only antidote to self-destruction by despair. Somehow praying for the adrenaline to kick in. Humans pushed their luck far too long, will self-preservation reflexes wake up the sleeping?
I am an artist, mother and grandmother whose work is centered specifically on the visual expression of climate grief through data and myth. I am immersed in climate research all of the time, and am old enough to have memories that bear personal witness to the speed and scope of ecological decline. I look forward to using this book myself to help stabilize the sometimes overwhelming emotional toll that the escalating, compounding climate (and non-climate) eco-crises have on my personal well-being, as well as reading and sharing with the next generation of my family. thank you for your important work and inspirational leadership!
My friend Kristel could benefit from this book. She is a climate activist and parent of three children, the oldest of whom has recently been overwhelmed by her own eco-anxiety. Kristel uses her time and efforts to tirelessly confront issues of air pollution and climate change, despite a several-years-long struggle with asthma and recurrent lung infections and inflammation worsened by wildfires in California where she lives. She is also an excellent poet, and her work gives haunting and beautiful voice to climate grief, loss, and anger. Kristel does amazing work, but struggles with the gravity of the climate crisis and with looking toward her future and her children's future.
Dear Dr. Wray, What a wonderful way of sharing your always insightful take on eco/generational angst! I just finished my class on Personality Psychology. Our reading was Gordon Allport's Becoming, and I asked the class how they saw the process of becoming fully who they are (that is, becoming self-actualized as the jargon goes) given the environmental/ecological/social context in which they are living. My students didn't surprise me by how ambivalent they are about such things as long-term relationships, but I tried to reassure them that trusting/loving relationships with others is the only way to harness the power needed to change the social structures that will continue to try to inhibit their growth. I know that sounds like a lot of psychobabble and probably is. It was the last time I'll ever teach the course, as I'm retiring next year and have a different course schedule. My students are anxious but not afraid to confront that anxiety and so I nominate them (list of 41 available on request), as well as my nine-year old grandson, who is just starting to understand news about the world. Thank you for all of your good works (not trying to butter you up here). Please take care. My best, Randy
First, thank you for your tireless work on such an important topic! I'm a clinical psychologist-in-training with a major interest in conservation and eco-psychology. Most of my clinical work thus far has been with the LGBTQ+ community, gen Z, and activists/organizers, three populations I'm a part of myself. I'd love a copy of this book to have on hand in my professional library to lend out to my clients as needed. I primarily work through the Acceptance & Commitment Therapy model, which focuses on acceptance of things that are outside of our control while honing in on where we can commit and take values-based action in our lives, and your work marries so well with that philosophy. I could see it being a wonderfully affirming, comforting, and inspiring read for my awesome clients who feel like they can't catch a break from the existential dread that comes from being a young person in today's society. Self-care is a radical act in a capitalist world, and I'd love to share a glimmer of communal hope with them in the form of your book.
Happy Birthday to Gen Dread! The person that I have no doubt could benefit the most from your labour of love is a deeply concerned eco-spiritual co-journeyer like you are, who is committed to the quest for inner and outer planetary well-being that involves the heart and mindful ecopoiesis. She was born with a spiritual gift, but to her untapped understanding of her vast inner universe, her inner voice being quenched, her sight being clouded with the brutal, systematic conditioning that does not belong to her, and her sense of wholeness was replaced by the fabrication of the fast-forward society does not wait. She knows she has something to say; she has the innate creativity & potential to tell her stories that would ring true and bring light & hope for the many. She told me she would cocoon her way through to break free again. Growing up, she used to have the privilege to play, dance, and celebrate with Nature but not so much in her later schooling years riddled with technological human civilization, when she was 'wrapped into a box' to fit in and surrounded by the grey air that constantly distressed her Spirit. I witnessed her subtle change during her self-exploratory years away from the ultra-bustling cosmopolitan she was raised, and she seemed to spark by deeper awe of how Nature teaches her in the garden, the forests, and the blue valley. There, she felt re-birthed into her clarity, strength, and aliveness that is so pure and simple that she just wants to be in that stillness a tad longer. There, she brought poetry and songs to a small climate crisis & grief-sharing circle and seasonal home gatherings to share her fear, anxiety, despair, and anger about the climate change catastrophe as well as other pressing social issues, such as indigenous cultures preservation, economic justice and access to education. She started to learn to be with her feelings even though there was a lot of pain and struggle, and the only way forward she discovered was to allow her to deeply feel and express the fear, rage, shock, panic, sadness, anxiety, and despair. At the same time, she connected with profound gratitude and joy for life that she called it home and still yearns for nowadays after she relocated away from her home sweet home.
The kindred spirits of your illuminating book reminded me of the inner journey that we all traverse through, being with and ongoing unraveling the past, releasing the gift that already exists within us that we might not yet have fully discovered and unfolded. As a true friend, I care about the well-being and the common Soul purpose of seeking the higher calling in an age of climate crisis while accepting who we are by giving a touch of compassion towards ourselves in times of uncertainty.
Meanwhile, I deeply echoed your remarks on the spiritual crisis of connection at your recent PPC webinar, and that really draws me closer to fulfilling that purpose of co-creating memories while treasuring intimacy with all living beings; as the saying goes, "The universe says loss demands birth and the two are lovers."
Once again, thank you so much for the marvelous book baby you gifted to the World! I am awe-inspired by how it shines a light on humanity and the planet earth, and I celebrate the beauty, depth, and inspiration it encompasses for the generations to come!
First, thank you for slogging it out for four years with this book. I know that pain (and joy) well. My son could really use your book. He's 27 and living on disability. He first saw the film, An Inconvenient Truth, when he was 11 years old. We tried to dissuade him, but he's an Aries on the cusp of Taurus, so his stubbornness wore us out. We've both been activists since emerging from the womb, so we were not hiding the truth from him, but we also knew that our son who has been gifted with enormous sensitivity would suffer enormously if he saw the film. He wouldn't speak about it directly for several months, but when he did, he said, "why did you have me if you knew things would be so bad..." And then said, "I don't want to be an activist; I just want to enjoy my life. We tried to assuage his worries by telling him about all the activists working hard to change things, but he was unconvinced. Also as meditators, we offered him many tools for staying in the present moment to process grief and plant gratitude. He's taken some of that in over the years, but he also has gone through many struggles with mental health since that time: OCD, depression, anxiety and finally was diagnosed with High Functioning Autism at age 21. He doesn't read much that isn't on his phone (he does lots of reading there), but I think your book might shed some light on his eco-anxiety. Thank you for writing it.
Hi, thanks for this initiative and the hard work you have been putting into the book. A much needed resource! I would like to suggest you send it to Rena Barlow. She is the librarian at ISP international school. As a parent, I have worked with Rena to set up a climate section in the High School Library. There is no book about climate anxiety yet, and the school counselors have not addressed the issue so far either - probably because they do not know how. Meanwhile, I know that many students at the school suffer from climate anxiety. In a country like Panama, where the climate debate is still notwidespread, I think that Rena can help the students and the staff if the book was available in the library. Thanks so much!
Hello! Thank you for the question. I'm a young professional just starting a career in environmental education, and I would love to incorporate lessons on eco-anxiety. While I have some definite personal experience with it, I don't think I have the language to teach children about it, but I feel that it's incredibly necessary to give kids tools to navigate mental health, especially as it relates to the climate crisis. Really looking forward to reading this book!
Hi, thank you for doing this! My friend is in her second year of teaching English at a middle school in New England. She has really interesting and creative lesson plans -- I wish I could retake middle school with her! She uses modern authors and media to talk about systemic racism, history and social justice with her students. I think this book would resonate a lot with her & her students.
Hi Britt, I sent you an email about our weRcircular project whose purpose is to "To help reduce eco-anxiety through collectively advancing a circular economy in Canada". Our vision is to work collaboratively with multiple stakeholders as a "A purpose-driven company that enables circular economy capacity building in communities ". Our platform and public masterbrand message will "inform, inspire, and connect people to build capacity for a circular economy".
We would love to collaborate with you to build the "evidence" of how important it is to adopt positive climate action - one by one - to build belief that small actions create positive change.
I am in a Counseling Psychology Master's program and would like to share the book with the Department Chair to try to get eco-anxiety addressed within the curriculum for training Marriage & Family Therapists (MFT) and Licensed Professional Clinical Counselors (LPCC) who will be out doing the work after graduation! The fact that our curriculum does not address this crisis for mental health care practitioners is very concerning. I presented my final research paper on clinical treatment strategies to address eco-anxiety and my classmates and professor were enthralled. But this needs to be embedded in our graduate program curriculum for training clinicians. So your book would help convince our Dean and Department Chair to find a way to incorporate it into our training curriculum! THANK YOU for writing it! :)
Mine just arrived here today in Ottawa. Iām both excited and terrified to read it but mostly excited. Congrats.
She is a self described bird nerd, but her first love is plants. She feels safer sleeping in nature than in a hotel. She tends a plot in a community garden to grow her vegetables, and tends to flowers and medicinal plants in the small plots of soil in her duplex's backyard. She is 31 and nervous about becoming a mother in times like these, but aches to become one. When she was a child, her father told her that her generation would be the one to get us out of this "global warming mess." So, she majored in Environmental Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz and intended to become a teacher. She wanted to spread hope to the children of her community and instill a love of nature. She worked in Environmental Education for 4 years before deciding to become a massage therapist. Teaching proved to be too stressful on top of managing her Bipolar Type 1 diagnosis. Climate Crisis events trigger mania in her. In her last bought of full blown mania, she blocked traffic with an Earth Ball and dropped yellow rose petals in the road. The hospitalization from that episode left her with pain in her right hip from the Haldol injection she was forced to receive because she was so physically resistant and borderline violent. It took about five medical professionals to hold her down because she is a very strong and muscular woman. This woman needs to learn about Climate Anxiety, because she experiences it. When she was 12 years old in San Diego, CA, she lived through evacuations during the Witch Creek Fire. When she was 16, she went through evacuations again due to another fire. And when she was 29, while moving back to Santa Cruz, her community experienced the worst wild fire in recent history. Almost 1,000 homes in the Santa Cruz mountains were lost. How many animals lost there homes, she will never know. She knows the taxidermy collection at Big Basin Headquarters turned to ash. She hasn't returned to it because her heart is still aching over the loss. This woman is resilient and strong. She started an All We Can Save Circle and intends to do an Environmental book club after this circle concludes. Generation Dread is at the top of her list.
The person I would gift this book to is yet unknown. Who I imagine they would be...A parent like myself, concerned about the climate crisis and the future of their children and children's generation and on. Someone who would like to do more but right now might be in a shock about the dire state our current situation is in. This is a book I would like to have to pass around to concerned parents. When I talk to them, whether a random meeting at a park or a parent from class, I always bring up climate in some way...I would like to be able to pass this book to the parents who are concerned or who might be curious but scared to look past this being a "recycle our way out of it" problem. This will become a community book in that way. A way we can connect as parents and make sure we are letting ourselves process what is happening, why, and how we can move past the fear to fight for our children's future. I thank you so much for the consideration and this wonderful giveaway.
I would devote it to... To the spark it could ignite in the embers, dormant in the indifferents' hearts. To the ounce of hope that subsists in the battling, even if we feel so small. To the fatigue that looks away, not able to bear the weight of every additional dramatic fact. To the courage of action, only antidote to self-destruction by despair. Somehow praying for the adrenaline to kick in. Humans pushed their luck far too long, will self-preservation reflexes wake up the sleeping?
Britt. I am so glad this book is here. We need it. <3
I am an artist, mother and grandmother whose work is centered specifically on the visual expression of climate grief through data and myth. I am immersed in climate research all of the time, and am old enough to have memories that bear personal witness to the speed and scope of ecological decline. I look forward to using this book myself to help stabilize the sometimes overwhelming emotional toll that the escalating, compounding climate (and non-climate) eco-crises have on my personal well-being, as well as reading and sharing with the next generation of my family. thank you for your important work and inspirational leadership!
My friend Kristel could benefit from this book. She is a climate activist and parent of three children, the oldest of whom has recently been overwhelmed by her own eco-anxiety. Kristel uses her time and efforts to tirelessly confront issues of air pollution and climate change, despite a several-years-long struggle with asthma and recurrent lung infections and inflammation worsened by wildfires in California where she lives. She is also an excellent poet, and her work gives haunting and beautiful voice to climate grief, loss, and anger. Kristel does amazing work, but struggles with the gravity of the climate crisis and with looking toward her future and her children's future.
Dear Dr. Wray, What a wonderful way of sharing your always insightful take on eco/generational angst! I just finished my class on Personality Psychology. Our reading was Gordon Allport's Becoming, and I asked the class how they saw the process of becoming fully who they are (that is, becoming self-actualized as the jargon goes) given the environmental/ecological/social context in which they are living. My students didn't surprise me by how ambivalent they are about such things as long-term relationships, but I tried to reassure them that trusting/loving relationships with others is the only way to harness the power needed to change the social structures that will continue to try to inhibit their growth. I know that sounds like a lot of psychobabble and probably is. It was the last time I'll ever teach the course, as I'm retiring next year and have a different course schedule. My students are anxious but not afraid to confront that anxiety and so I nominate them (list of 41 available on request), as well as my nine-year old grandson, who is just starting to understand news about the world. Thank you for all of your good works (not trying to butter you up here). Please take care. My best, Randy
First, thank you for your tireless work on such an important topic! I'm a clinical psychologist-in-training with a major interest in conservation and eco-psychology. Most of my clinical work thus far has been with the LGBTQ+ community, gen Z, and activists/organizers, three populations I'm a part of myself. I'd love a copy of this book to have on hand in my professional library to lend out to my clients as needed. I primarily work through the Acceptance & Commitment Therapy model, which focuses on acceptance of things that are outside of our control while honing in on where we can commit and take values-based action in our lives, and your work marries so well with that philosophy. I could see it being a wonderfully affirming, comforting, and inspiring read for my awesome clients who feel like they can't catch a break from the existential dread that comes from being a young person in today's society. Self-care is a radical act in a capitalist world, and I'd love to share a glimmer of communal hope with them in the form of your book.
Dear Dr. Wray,
Happy Birthday to Gen Dread! The person that I have no doubt could benefit the most from your labour of love is a deeply concerned eco-spiritual co-journeyer like you are, who is committed to the quest for inner and outer planetary well-being that involves the heart and mindful ecopoiesis. She was born with a spiritual gift, but to her untapped understanding of her vast inner universe, her inner voice being quenched, her sight being clouded with the brutal, systematic conditioning that does not belong to her, and her sense of wholeness was replaced by the fabrication of the fast-forward society does not wait. She knows she has something to say; she has the innate creativity & potential to tell her stories that would ring true and bring light & hope for the many. She told me she would cocoon her way through to break free again. Growing up, she used to have the privilege to play, dance, and celebrate with Nature but not so much in her later schooling years riddled with technological human civilization, when she was 'wrapped into a box' to fit in and surrounded by the grey air that constantly distressed her Spirit. I witnessed her subtle change during her self-exploratory years away from the ultra-bustling cosmopolitan she was raised, and she seemed to spark by deeper awe of how Nature teaches her in the garden, the forests, and the blue valley. There, she felt re-birthed into her clarity, strength, and aliveness that is so pure and simple that she just wants to be in that stillness a tad longer. There, she brought poetry and songs to a small climate crisis & grief-sharing circle and seasonal home gatherings to share her fear, anxiety, despair, and anger about the climate change catastrophe as well as other pressing social issues, such as indigenous cultures preservation, economic justice and access to education. She started to learn to be with her feelings even though there was a lot of pain and struggle, and the only way forward she discovered was to allow her to deeply feel and express the fear, rage, shock, panic, sadness, anxiety, and despair. At the same time, she connected with profound gratitude and joy for life that she called it home and still yearns for nowadays after she relocated away from her home sweet home.
The kindred spirits of your illuminating book reminded me of the inner journey that we all traverse through, being with and ongoing unraveling the past, releasing the gift that already exists within us that we might not yet have fully discovered and unfolded. As a true friend, I care about the well-being and the common Soul purpose of seeking the higher calling in an age of climate crisis while accepting who we are by giving a touch of compassion towards ourselves in times of uncertainty.
Meanwhile, I deeply echoed your remarks on the spiritual crisis of connection at your recent PPC webinar, and that really draws me closer to fulfilling that purpose of co-creating memories while treasuring intimacy with all living beings; as the saying goes, "The universe says loss demands birth and the two are lovers."
Once again, thank you so much for the marvelous book baby you gifted to the World! I am awe-inspired by how it shines a light on humanity and the planet earth, and I celebrate the beauty, depth, and inspiration it encompasses for the generations to come!
Sincerely,
Rose
First, thank you for slogging it out for four years with this book. I know that pain (and joy) well. My son could really use your book. He's 27 and living on disability. He first saw the film, An Inconvenient Truth, when he was 11 years old. We tried to dissuade him, but he's an Aries on the cusp of Taurus, so his stubbornness wore us out. We've both been activists since emerging from the womb, so we were not hiding the truth from him, but we also knew that our son who has been gifted with enormous sensitivity would suffer enormously if he saw the film. He wouldn't speak about it directly for several months, but when he did, he said, "why did you have me if you knew things would be so bad..." And then said, "I don't want to be an activist; I just want to enjoy my life. We tried to assuage his worries by telling him about all the activists working hard to change things, but he was unconvinced. Also as meditators, we offered him many tools for staying in the present moment to process grief and plant gratitude. He's taken some of that in over the years, but he also has gone through many struggles with mental health since that time: OCD, depression, anxiety and finally was diagnosed with High Functioning Autism at age 21. He doesn't read much that isn't on his phone (he does lots of reading there), but I think your book might shed some light on his eco-anxiety. Thank you for writing it.
Hi, thanks for this initiative and the hard work you have been putting into the book. A much needed resource! I would like to suggest you send it to Rena Barlow. She is the librarian at ISP international school. As a parent, I have worked with Rena to set up a climate section in the High School Library. There is no book about climate anxiety yet, and the school counselors have not addressed the issue so far either - probably because they do not know how. Meanwhile, I know that many students at the school suffer from climate anxiety. In a country like Panama, where the climate debate is still notwidespread, I think that Rena can help the students and the staff if the book was available in the library. Thanks so much!
Hello! Thank you for the question. I'm a young professional just starting a career in environmental education, and I would love to incorporate lessons on eco-anxiety. While I have some definite personal experience with it, I don't think I have the language to teach children about it, but I feel that it's incredibly necessary to give kids tools to navigate mental health, especially as it relates to the climate crisis. Really looking forward to reading this book!
Hi, thank you for doing this! My friend is in her second year of teaching English at a middle school in New England. She has really interesting and creative lesson plans -- I wish I could retake middle school with her! She uses modern authors and media to talk about systemic racism, history and social justice with her students. I think this book would resonate a lot with her & her students.
Hi Britt, I sent you an email about our weRcircular project whose purpose is to "To help reduce eco-anxiety through collectively advancing a circular economy in Canada". Our vision is to work collaboratively with multiple stakeholders as a "A purpose-driven company that enables circular economy capacity building in communities ". Our platform and public masterbrand message will "inform, inspire, and connect people to build capacity for a circular economy".
We would love to collaborate with you to build the "evidence" of how important it is to adopt positive climate action - one by one - to build belief that small actions create positive change.
I am in a Counseling Psychology Master's program and would like to share the book with the Department Chair to try to get eco-anxiety addressed within the curriculum for training Marriage & Family Therapists (MFT) and Licensed Professional Clinical Counselors (LPCC) who will be out doing the work after graduation! The fact that our curriculum does not address this crisis for mental health care practitioners is very concerning. I presented my final research paper on clinical treatment strategies to address eco-anxiety and my classmates and professor were enthralled. But this needs to be embedded in our graduate program curriculum for training clinicians. So your book would help convince our Dean and Department Chair to find a way to incorporate it into our training curriculum! THANK YOU for writing it! :)