I seem to have entered a kind of denial right after the election results, clear proof of which is that I managed to sleep quite well the following few nights. I still feel some of that denial, but it is gradually being replaced by a new, large "dark cloud" that is starting to be quite present in my everyday. Addressing that cloud emotionally will definitely be necessary. I continue my climate related work, but I question its usefulness much more than I did before the elections. I hope to get to the other side of these dark thoughts and emotions soon. Meeting and discussing with other people will be key, I think/hope.
I also felt that mix of numbness and denial in the immediate aftermath where I just couldn't feel much and then it really started to seep in over the coming days. I have been comforted to notice how it does make me feel even more committed to my climate work though. These responses can fluctuate and change a lot. Thanks for being here and sharing.
Your climate work is very clearly impactful, I think that's the main difference. I have a "normal research job" where I can have hopes for it being impactful, but academic work is slow...too slow. I do some other stuff too, and identify as an activist, but it's still low impact on a wider scale. Anyway, I'll keep at it! Thanks for sharing as well, and thanks for the important work that you do!
As selfish as this sounds, considering how previous negative climate news made me feel, in light of the election results, I need to get my own mental health in order before I do anything else, climate action-related or not. Right now, I’m in a state where if I even think about recent events, I’ll likely become a danger to myself or others.
I can’t take care of others if I can’t even take care of myself.
Very important to point that out Phil, that to be of any service of others we really need to tend to our own wellbeing adequately first. It's a foundation of making climate action personally sustainable too. Sending much care.
1. I initially felt as if I had been kicked in the stomach when I awoke around 2 in the morning and checked on line. After returning to bed and tossing and turning, when I woke up in the morning I had a bit of a feeling of calm acceptance, realizing I have been through this before and survived. I in fact experienced considerable emotional growth from 2016 to 2024. Last time, in 2016 , I went through a 3 month depression until the women's march. I then got politically active and in 2024 Georgia voted for Biden AND we sent 2 Democratic Senators to Washington who later would vote for the Inflation Reduction Act.
2. I have a group of 7 to 8 men who understand the delima facing humanity and the planet who get together for breakfast twice a month. I also have increase my time outdoors on walks in the woods with my dog. I also try to focus on the many good things in nature from clouds to bumble bees and kingfishers....
3. I would like to approach them with love and understanding once if feel like my anger is under enough control. I am having to deal with a sharp division between my wife and our 50 yr. old daughter who voted for Trump. The anger is over not just her vote, but concern we are prejudicing our grandchildren against their parents. For the first time, Thanksgiving will be a separate event for our family this year. In a way, while sad, I'm okay with this as the best short term solution.
Bill, what a wise set of things you're doing, from your coping mechanisms of knowing you can get through this because you basically have done so already, your political action, and this awesome sounding breakfast club with likeminded men and time spent in nature. The situation with your daughter and grandkids sounds quite delicate and it's good to hear you're finding short term compassionate solutions as initial steps for finding a way through.
Thanks for this invitation to slow down and share. One big feeling I'm feeling is guilt. I'm trying to conceive, and I was feeling guilty before. The election of Donald Trump is just another reason for me to feel guilty about it. The future that our future generations are going to face will be harder than the reality we live in now. I am working on holding it all: my guilt and complicity, my love for the planet, my desire to parent and have a child, my commitment to serve and contribute.
Once I get through that wave of guilt I feel my anger more. My anger and even my hatred. For myself and all humans in our destructiveness and selfishness. My longing for us to heal.
And under that is my fear and grief. Not knowing what will come. But seeing loss and pain on the horizon.
I know I already commented how I felt, and how I need to focus on self care before doing anything else. But I want to share one insight I’ve seen circulating in various forms that has helped me out. Call me naive but it’s kept me going.
Ever see the movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day? I know what you’re thinking: how could an action movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger possibly be relevant? Well, for one reason. It’s a movie about people trying to overcome fate. And showing that it’s possible.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that as much as we dread the future — I certainly did and still do to some extent — we don’t know it, and for good reason. It gives us the opportunity to change it. Things are bleak right now but that doesn’t mean they always will be.
Speaking of Arnold Schwarzenegger; he’s previously proven to be no fan of Trump despite being a card-carrying Republican. Look up some of the things he said during Trump’s first term. And take that how you will.
I sincerely hope this helps. If it doesn’t, I apologize in advance.
I'm Canadian so I have less stakes (but definitely not none) in these election results. I've felt a pit in my stomach since it was clear he was going to win. Environmentally, it will of course affect Canada: climate collapse doesn't recognize borders. It will also embolden far right politicians and their supporters in Canada. We have a political party that's very chummy with the far right and our current leadership is very unpopular right now so it's likely the conservatives will win the next election. It's all so messed up. I have a friend who works as a social worker in the field of men's violence against women and she's horrified but not surprised, sadly. I try to remain hopeful but it's hard. Perhaps this is just the dying gasps of a sick society and we can rebuild better.
Having loads of friends, family and professional associates on both sides of the aisle I often feel like I’m living in 2 worlds. I’ve often felt hated by both sides the last 4 years(ish) to 8(ish). But maybe they just needed to be heard?
Maybe they feel like they ‘got through’ by unloading on me: that (possibly the only) odd person in their life they are close to that does hang out with both sides.
It is hard for me to hold ‘all that’.
I know both sides fear the other.
I know I only have one answer: make friends.
^ That’s my answer - I’m sharing :) not preaching >
Meet people. Keep meeting people. Preferably in person. And listen. That’s my solace. That may not work for everyone. I’ve also gotten professional help for the first time in my life to deal with ‘all this’.
^ Again :) my answer and yes please take breaks >
I know Gen Dread changed my life and that started with reading your book after watching Don’t Look Up.
I’m quite sure I have not answered these post questions properly, nor well. But I’m trying. And not sure I can respond from here.
My general thought about the two corporate parties in the USA is: same shit, different piles, and yet I am terrified about a trump presidency. Several days ago, I walked in on a conversation at a gas station where one man was expressing joy at the election results, exclaiming that now things would get back to normal with no more crazy shit like men claiming to be women even though they had dicks... The hate in his presentation stunned me... I am terrified for my LGBTQ+, BIpoc friends and anyone else who does not present as a MAGA type.
Here are 2 tools I've been using. I hope they can help some of you.
I've always had trouble with the concept of "processing" emotions. I know it's important, but *how* does one do it? Especially if your default is to avoid and repress and has been for as long as you can remember? It's all well and good to say "take some time to process emotions," but if you don't know how, you may as well be telling me to fly an airplane.
Here's something I stumbled upon a few weeks ago that has been helping me immensely: https://scienceghost.com/the-healing-techniques/journalspeak/. It's a focused journaling technique that helps you get to the heart of things rather than going round and round.
The best sessions have been when I have time (about an hour) to do the techniques back-to-back. The journaling to uncover the emotion and the somatic meditation to help it move through the body.
That's a great point - for so many, knowing how to sit with and be with one's emotions is a very challenging and unfamiliar task. Thanks for sharing these pragmatic tools to help people do just that if "processing" seems daunting or new.
I learned today that fish use coral to navigate home. I didn’t know fish had homes. Bleaching coral events due to warming oceans just took on a whole other level of horror for me. And Trump was elected. Again. And 10 humans, with enough wealth already, earned $64 million dollars more. And I read about how Black and Latino men elected Trump. Really? That’s the story of this tragedy? Wealthy elites elected Trump. So the stock market could soar.
These election results make me feel deeply confused. How could half of the US want climate denial, ecosystem degradation, racism, misogyny and xenophobia? How could you trade wealth for the planetary health that provides you the place in which you thrive? How could you believe a wealthy elite will change the price of bread with tariffs and deportations? Why is freedom not for everyone? How can we be free to drink, sleep and eat in a decaying ecosystem? How are we still revering money at a population level when wealth inequality is outrageous?
I also feel fearful that Canada will repeat this pattern, tossing out leadership that guided them through a pandemic because there was a pandemic, everything costs too much and gender is a spectrum. Fearful that the necessary understanding of science, planetary systems and marginalized persons within the population is absent, and creates catastrophic ignorance and denial.
And I feel guilty. Guilty that my investment portfolio looks better. Guilty that I have the privilege of knowledge and time to understand science and the Earth’s precarious position.
But my empathy and curiosity are mine, and I can’t ignore transgender folks, new immigrants, refugees, heating oceans and lost fish. I was born this way. The election results hurt.
Thank you for the invitation for an outlet. It takes real courage to be there for others. I sincerely appreciate it.
As a regular reader of your newsletter, the one thing that keeps me centered and focused on equanimity is a certitude (not a certainty - that's very different!) in who we really are: intimately connected, one with another, in ways that we seldom appreciate; recipients of unconditional love, if we choose to be, which we can in turn practice gifting to others; and most of all possessed of the capacity to overcome our latent fear of death - of annihilation, of extinction.
When I remember, I see before me a never ending fountain of love and knowledge, restoring in me the capacity to be of service to others, to think and act in ways that are genuinely loving. Sometimes it's just HARD to remember though!
Some time back I wrote this article to help people like the readers of this blog:
It starts off dark, but to me its real value is in approaching an exploration of the biggest and most vital question of our time: re-discovering who we are - ourselves and each other.
I feel terrified and very alone. Most of all I feel more estranged than ever from so much of society who isn’t paying attention. I’m a disabled single Canadian; as the world gets inevitably sicker I will to and I will become homeless. I believe in fighting to the very end but gosh I’m tired of fighting when the world’s politicians and companies send us further back with every greedy breath they take.
I feel like we can talk about this all we want, we can break it down over and over and try to find ways to make it feel more comfortable and ways to cope for now, but civilizational collapse is still going to happen soon, and we're still all going to suffer and die painful horrible deaths. I feel like it doesn't matter how I try to deal with the emotions I'm feeling now because I still am going to watch my family die tragically and I won't be able to have children. I feel like there's a few years left before the apocalypse happens and I'm spending the little time I have left working my ass off to the point that I'm so exhausted I can't do anything but lie in bed when I'm not at work.
The American political system never ceases to baffle me. I'm still trying to process the sheer fact that they allowed a felon to even run for president in the first place. Biden barely got through 2020's election by his skin and teeth, but when they swapped Biden for Harris, I was not surprised by the results. This was the same setup for 2016 in 2024 and they ran with the same empty, failed strategy: "At least, I'm not that guy, vote for me." They had 4 years to secure Women's health rights, claim an climate emergency when floods and wildfires raged all over the world, enforce a cease fire in the Gaza genocide, but they didn't, and so here we are.
I've had some time to fortify myself mentally since 2016. I knew the people around me who voted for Harris would only be disappointed in the end. I allowed them to process their emotions and reassured them with hugs and reminders to keep on fighting. Perhaps Trump and his crony Administration are the antagonists we need to bring about the much needed change we've been hoping for. But only time will tell.
Dear All, The ERA is still alive. We’ve met all requirements for the Equal Rights Amendment to be part of the Constitution. (I realize many of you may not even be old enough to remember it.) Now it’s time for President Biden to cement his legacy as a champion for gender equality and do everything he can to make sure it’s published before the end of his presidency. Call the White House at (202) 456-1111 and demand that the ERA becomes reality. You can also help us spread the word about this campaign via social media here https://eracoalition.org/the-legacy-we-deserve-call-on-biden-to-put-the-equal-rights-amendment-in-the-constitution/
I seem to have entered a kind of denial right after the election results, clear proof of which is that I managed to sleep quite well the following few nights. I still feel some of that denial, but it is gradually being replaced by a new, large "dark cloud" that is starting to be quite present in my everyday. Addressing that cloud emotionally will definitely be necessary. I continue my climate related work, but I question its usefulness much more than I did before the elections. I hope to get to the other side of these dark thoughts and emotions soon. Meeting and discussing with other people will be key, I think/hope.
I also felt that mix of numbness and denial in the immediate aftermath where I just couldn't feel much and then it really started to seep in over the coming days. I have been comforted to notice how it does make me feel even more committed to my climate work though. These responses can fluctuate and change a lot. Thanks for being here and sharing.
Your climate work is very clearly impactful, I think that's the main difference. I have a "normal research job" where I can have hopes for it being impactful, but academic work is slow...too slow. I do some other stuff too, and identify as an activist, but it's still low impact on a wider scale. Anyway, I'll keep at it! Thanks for sharing as well, and thanks for the important work that you do!
As selfish as this sounds, considering how previous negative climate news made me feel, in light of the election results, I need to get my own mental health in order before I do anything else, climate action-related or not. Right now, I’m in a state where if I even think about recent events, I’ll likely become a danger to myself or others.
I can’t take care of others if I can’t even take care of myself.
Very important to point that out Phil, that to be of any service of others we really need to tend to our own wellbeing adequately first. It's a foundation of making climate action personally sustainable too. Sending much care.
1. I initially felt as if I had been kicked in the stomach when I awoke around 2 in the morning and checked on line. After returning to bed and tossing and turning, when I woke up in the morning I had a bit of a feeling of calm acceptance, realizing I have been through this before and survived. I in fact experienced considerable emotional growth from 2016 to 2024. Last time, in 2016 , I went through a 3 month depression until the women's march. I then got politically active and in 2024 Georgia voted for Biden AND we sent 2 Democratic Senators to Washington who later would vote for the Inflation Reduction Act.
2. I have a group of 7 to 8 men who understand the delima facing humanity and the planet who get together for breakfast twice a month. I also have increase my time outdoors on walks in the woods with my dog. I also try to focus on the many good things in nature from clouds to bumble bees and kingfishers....
3. I would like to approach them with love and understanding once if feel like my anger is under enough control. I am having to deal with a sharp division between my wife and our 50 yr. old daughter who voted for Trump. The anger is over not just her vote, but concern we are prejudicing our grandchildren against their parents. For the first time, Thanksgiving will be a separate event for our family this year. In a way, while sad, I'm okay with this as the best short term solution.
Bill, what a wise set of things you're doing, from your coping mechanisms of knowing you can get through this because you basically have done so already, your political action, and this awesome sounding breakfast club with likeminded men and time spent in nature. The situation with your daughter and grandkids sounds quite delicate and it's good to hear you're finding short term compassionate solutions as initial steps for finding a way through.
Thanks for this invitation to slow down and share. One big feeling I'm feeling is guilt. I'm trying to conceive, and I was feeling guilty before. The election of Donald Trump is just another reason for me to feel guilty about it. The future that our future generations are going to face will be harder than the reality we live in now. I am working on holding it all: my guilt and complicity, my love for the planet, my desire to parent and have a child, my commitment to serve and contribute.
Once I get through that wave of guilt I feel my anger more. My anger and even my hatred. For myself and all humans in our destructiveness and selfishness. My longing for us to heal.
And under that is my fear and grief. Not knowing what will come. But seeing loss and pain on the horizon.
I know I already commented how I felt, and how I need to focus on self care before doing anything else. But I want to share one insight I’ve seen circulating in various forms that has helped me out. Call me naive but it’s kept me going.
Ever see the movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day? I know what you’re thinking: how could an action movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger possibly be relevant? Well, for one reason. It’s a movie about people trying to overcome fate. And showing that it’s possible.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that as much as we dread the future — I certainly did and still do to some extent — we don’t know it, and for good reason. It gives us the opportunity to change it. Things are bleak right now but that doesn’t mean they always will be.
Speaking of Arnold Schwarzenegger; he’s previously proven to be no fan of Trump despite being a card-carrying Republican. Look up some of the things he said during Trump’s first term. And take that how you will.
I sincerely hope this helps. If it doesn’t, I apologize in advance.
I'm Canadian so I have less stakes (but definitely not none) in these election results. I've felt a pit in my stomach since it was clear he was going to win. Environmentally, it will of course affect Canada: climate collapse doesn't recognize borders. It will also embolden far right politicians and their supporters in Canada. We have a political party that's very chummy with the far right and our current leadership is very unpopular right now so it's likely the conservatives will win the next election. It's all so messed up. I have a friend who works as a social worker in the field of men's violence against women and she's horrified but not surprised, sadly. I try to remain hopeful but it's hard. Perhaps this is just the dying gasps of a sick society and we can rebuild better.
Fellow Canadian here. Totally get that. I have the same fears about our political system somewhat following suit given the current conditions.
Having loads of friends, family and professional associates on both sides of the aisle I often feel like I’m living in 2 worlds. I’ve often felt hated by both sides the last 4 years(ish) to 8(ish). But maybe they just needed to be heard?
Maybe they feel like they ‘got through’ by unloading on me: that (possibly the only) odd person in their life they are close to that does hang out with both sides.
It is hard for me to hold ‘all that’.
I know both sides fear the other.
I know I only have one answer: make friends.
^ That’s my answer - I’m sharing :) not preaching >
Meet people. Keep meeting people. Preferably in person. And listen. That’s my solace. That may not work for everyone. I’ve also gotten professional help for the first time in my life to deal with ‘all this’.
^ Again :) my answer and yes please take breaks >
I know Gen Dread changed my life and that started with reading your book after watching Don’t Look Up.
I’m quite sure I have not answered these post questions properly, nor well. But I’m trying. And not sure I can respond from here.
My general thought about the two corporate parties in the USA is: same shit, different piles, and yet I am terrified about a trump presidency. Several days ago, I walked in on a conversation at a gas station where one man was expressing joy at the election results, exclaiming that now things would get back to normal with no more crazy shit like men claiming to be women even though they had dicks... The hate in his presentation stunned me... I am terrified for my LGBTQ+, BIpoc friends and anyone else who does not present as a MAGA type.
That's all pretty terrifying. What a stunning anecdote, and yet it's happening widely. Thanks for sharing.
Here are 2 tools I've been using. I hope they can help some of you.
I've always had trouble with the concept of "processing" emotions. I know it's important, but *how* does one do it? Especially if your default is to avoid and repress and has been for as long as you can remember? It's all well and good to say "take some time to process emotions," but if you don't know how, you may as well be telling me to fly an airplane.
Here's something I stumbled upon a few weeks ago that has been helping me immensely: https://scienceghost.com/the-healing-techniques/journalspeak/. It's a focused journaling technique that helps you get to the heart of things rather than going round and round.
The other thing that's been really helpful are somatic meditations, in particular this one, called Meditation for When You Need a Good Cry: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6wlsom0THYINFwLab8AdmW.
The best sessions have been when I have time (about an hour) to do the techniques back-to-back. The journaling to uncover the emotion and the somatic meditation to help it move through the body.
That's a great point - for so many, knowing how to sit with and be with one's emotions is a very challenging and unfamiliar task. Thanks for sharing these pragmatic tools to help people do just that if "processing" seems daunting or new.
I learned today that fish use coral to navigate home. I didn’t know fish had homes. Bleaching coral events due to warming oceans just took on a whole other level of horror for me. And Trump was elected. Again. And 10 humans, with enough wealth already, earned $64 million dollars more. And I read about how Black and Latino men elected Trump. Really? That’s the story of this tragedy? Wealthy elites elected Trump. So the stock market could soar.
These election results make me feel deeply confused. How could half of the US want climate denial, ecosystem degradation, racism, misogyny and xenophobia? How could you trade wealth for the planetary health that provides you the place in which you thrive? How could you believe a wealthy elite will change the price of bread with tariffs and deportations? Why is freedom not for everyone? How can we be free to drink, sleep and eat in a decaying ecosystem? How are we still revering money at a population level when wealth inequality is outrageous?
I also feel fearful that Canada will repeat this pattern, tossing out leadership that guided them through a pandemic because there was a pandemic, everything costs too much and gender is a spectrum. Fearful that the necessary understanding of science, planetary systems and marginalized persons within the population is absent, and creates catastrophic ignorance and denial.
And I feel guilty. Guilty that my investment portfolio looks better. Guilty that I have the privilege of knowledge and time to understand science and the Earth’s precarious position.
But my empathy and curiosity are mine, and I can’t ignore transgender folks, new immigrants, refugees, heating oceans and lost fish. I was born this way. The election results hurt.
Your humanity is just pouring out of each sentence! This is a beautiful post. Painful, but beautiful.
Thank you for the invitation for an outlet. It takes real courage to be there for others. I sincerely appreciate it.
As a regular reader of your newsletter, the one thing that keeps me centered and focused on equanimity is a certitude (not a certainty - that's very different!) in who we really are: intimately connected, one with another, in ways that we seldom appreciate; recipients of unconditional love, if we choose to be, which we can in turn practice gifting to others; and most of all possessed of the capacity to overcome our latent fear of death - of annihilation, of extinction.
When I remember, I see before me a never ending fountain of love and knowledge, restoring in me the capacity to be of service to others, to think and act in ways that are genuinely loving. Sometimes it's just HARD to remember though!
Some time back I wrote this article to help people like the readers of this blog:
https://vocal.media/earth/is-humanity-doomed
It starts off dark, but to me its real value is in approaching an exploration of the biggest and most vital question of our time: re-discovering who we are - ourselves and each other.
That's very powerful, profound, rings very true. Really appreciate you sharing this crucial and well formulated reminder!
I feel terrified and very alone. Most of all I feel more estranged than ever from so much of society who isn’t paying attention. I’m a disabled single Canadian; as the world gets inevitably sicker I will to and I will become homeless. I believe in fighting to the very end but gosh I’m tired of fighting when the world’s politicians and companies send us further back with every greedy breath they take.
I feel like we can talk about this all we want, we can break it down over and over and try to find ways to make it feel more comfortable and ways to cope for now, but civilizational collapse is still going to happen soon, and we're still all going to suffer and die painful horrible deaths. I feel like it doesn't matter how I try to deal with the emotions I'm feeling now because I still am going to watch my family die tragically and I won't be able to have children. I feel like there's a few years left before the apocalypse happens and I'm spending the little time I have left working my ass off to the point that I'm so exhausted I can't do anything but lie in bed when I'm not at work.
The American political system never ceases to baffle me. I'm still trying to process the sheer fact that they allowed a felon to even run for president in the first place. Biden barely got through 2020's election by his skin and teeth, but when they swapped Biden for Harris, I was not surprised by the results. This was the same setup for 2016 in 2024 and they ran with the same empty, failed strategy: "At least, I'm not that guy, vote for me." They had 4 years to secure Women's health rights, claim an climate emergency when floods and wildfires raged all over the world, enforce a cease fire in the Gaza genocide, but they didn't, and so here we are.
I've had some time to fortify myself mentally since 2016. I knew the people around me who voted for Harris would only be disappointed in the end. I allowed them to process their emotions and reassured them with hugs and reminders to keep on fighting. Perhaps Trump and his crony Administration are the antagonists we need to bring about the much needed change we've been hoping for. But only time will tell.
I hope this is an acceptable post:
Dear All, The ERA is still alive. We’ve met all requirements for the Equal Rights Amendment to be part of the Constitution. (I realize many of you may not even be old enough to remember it.) Now it’s time for President Biden to cement his legacy as a champion for gender equality and do everything he can to make sure it’s published before the end of his presidency. Call the White House at (202) 456-1111 and demand that the ERA becomes reality. You can also help us spread the word about this campaign via social media here https://eracoalition.org/the-legacy-we-deserve-call-on-biden-to-put-the-equal-rights-amendment-in-the-constitution/
https://www.academia.edu/110573746/Emotional_Trauma_and_the_Fragilification_of_Being