These are scary days. Let’s get bigger, bolder, and braver together.
The Gen Dread team needs your help to be a better support to you!
Hi there!
Welcome to Gen Dread, a newsletter about how the climate crisis is making us feel, why that’s happening, and what we can do about it. Subscribe now to find community, comfort, and practical coping strategies from experts all around the world.
First, some reality.
The threat of the climate emergency is as salient as ever this week for millions of people in the US and Canada who are are choking on hazardous smoke from wildfires. The teeny particles in the smoky polluted air can have negative long term health impacts, and we’re asking what more we can do. If you’re struggling with difficult feelings about the crisis, check out our resources for working with climate emotions.
Next, some confetti.
This week, the Gen Dread team celebrates six months of working together on this newsletter. Before 2023, Gen Dread was a one-woman band – Britt had been doing it all for the previous two years. And then in January, our tiny and triumphant team formed, and since then, we’ve been amplifying the heroic and hopeful climate work so many people are doing around the world. Celebrating the stories of this community. Striving to create a space of compassionate coping for all of us who are awake to the climate crisis and in tune with how it’s affecting our body, mind and spirit.
Our community is growing and expanding every day: we recently hit 15K Gen Dread subscribers (TRUMPET SOUND). We’ve gained a ton more followers across every social media platform, except for MySpace which, full disclosure, we haven’t been investing a ton of attention in. We’ve interviewed authors, activists, teenagers, scientists, mutual aid experts, and gardeners. We’ve shared some of the best concrete tools for proactive adaptation we’ve found in these fraught and frightening times.
A lot of you have told us that the joy, care, and thought we pour into this work is shifting your mindset, changing your day, and even transforming your world. Here are some kind and encouraging words some of you have shared recently:
“You keep me from despair, that crippling feeling that makes you curl up in a ball in your mind and want to disappear.”
“I *need* to read what you have to say. I have struggled since the 1990s to deal with the lack of concern and collective action. Back then almost NO ONE talked about how climate change would play out, let alone how those of us who were already convinced of the science would be made to feel. It's been much worse than I thought, in every way!”
“You provide the sense of hope and connection I need in this climate crisis.”
“I'm glad to come to spaces like this where people know what the IPCC report actually is. And care. And do small (and big) things to make change. We can't do this without community.”
So here’s what we’re thinking.
As our reach expands, so too does our vision for what this place could be. We don’t take the gift of your time and attention lightly; we know your focus is pulled in a billion different directions every hour of every day, and we’re so grateful you choose to engage with Gen Dread. Without you, our work wouldn’t work.
But as you can appreciate, the type of grand plans we’re imagining also require some financial support. The Gen Dread newsletter has always been free and free it shall remain. Now that Gen Dread is a team effort, and because so many of you have shared ideas about what would help support you most in this space, we’re really excited to do a deeper dive on what you want from us, and to start offering some extra services that speak to your desires. If you find our work necessary for these times, like the people who shared the testimonials above, you’ll be able to nourish our evolution in a super practical and tangible way. Details on paid options are forthcoming, and our gratitude for your support is oceans wide.
Next week, we’ll be sending out a short survey asking you who and where you are, what you get out of Gen Dread, and what you’d most like to see in our new array of resources and offerings. There will be space for you to share any musings. And we will read each and every response very carefully. We’d be so grateful if you’d take a few minutes to respond because we need your feedback. We’re looking to make this community as valuable and useful and beneficial as possible, because this is an emergency and we have a role to play in supporting you through it, but we can’t do that without first determining your needs and hopes.
At the time of this writing, much of Canada and some parts of the US are covered in wildfire smoke. And we’re noticing that all the really useful and practical advice – what air purifier to get, where you can find N95 masks for cheap, what should go in your emergency evacuation bag – is not coming from the government or the mainstream media. It’s on Twitter, it’s on TikTok, it’s over texts. It’s regular people looking out for each other, sharing what they’ve learned, and ensuring that no one is left behind. It’s community, quietly weaving together across the country, the continent, the world. In addition to the smoke, there’s real strength in the air right now, too.
Here at Gen Dread, we know this is the only way to step into the future. It’s why we do what we do. So! Watch this space because we’re going to build something brave, and we’re gonna need each and every one of you to help us.
If you liked reading this, feel free to click the ❤️ button on this post so more people can discover it on Substack 🙏🏼
Making Waves
The climate emergency causes so many painful feelings—grief, terror, rage, and alienation. These are really uncomfortable, awful feelings, and are often made even more difficult because they are about a situation that feels out of our control. That’s why Margaret Klein Salamon, a clinical psychologist turned climate warrior, wrote Facing The Climate Emergency: How to Transform Yourself with Climate Truth, a psychological self-help guide for reckoning with the climate crisis, and turning your pain into action.
We are pleased to announce that Gen Dread is participating in a giveaway of the second edition of this beloved self-help book. The first five people who like, share and leave comments on "Why do you need this book?" will get their copy!
PS: If you’re not one of the lucky five, please consider pre-ordering from Bookshop or Amazon to help spread the message far and wide. (Not ready to commit? You can download a free chapter here). All author royalties will go to the Climate Emergency Fund.
Hope in a Time of Precarity is a five-day in-person climate-focused gathering at Hollyhock on Cortes Island that will bring together a diverse group of thought leaders and culture shapers. The retreat will weave a rich tapestry from multiple modalities, helping to strengthen mental, emotional, and spiritual stamina needed to respond to climate change and other symptoms of planetary distress.
With facilitator Palesa Koitsioe, speakers LaUra Schmidt and Abbey Piazza and participants who are part of an emerging regenerative front that draws on ecological, feminist, and Indigenous perspectives to offer lessons, healing, and creativity, this event is selling out quickly.
PS: Scholarships are available to support folks from equity-seeking communities. Contact kim@hollyhock.ca with any questions.
As always, you can share your thoughts and reach the Gen Dread community by commenting on this article or replying to this email. You can also follow along on Twitter and Instagram.
‘Till next time!
I need this book because I am struggling to manage my climate anxiety and also figure out how to lead my young children through this crisis!
I need this book because I want to have better guiding principles to manage my own feelings and better tools to engage with the people around me about the climate crisis. I’m also looking for ways to translate my fears and worries into direct action that contributes to long-term solutions instead of just ruminating