Climate and Mental Health

Navigating climate and environmental distress

According to the American Psychological Association, 68% of American adults report experiencing at least some climate anxiety, and nearly half (48%) of young adults aged 18-34 feel stress about climate change in their daily lives.

Here are resources that can help you learn to cope with climate distress—and even cultivate a sense of meaning and purpose amidst the climate crisis.

WEBSITES AND ARTICLES

• All We Can Save Project x Gen Dread: Resources for Working with Climate Emotions
• Gen Dread: A newsletter about staying sane in the climate and wider ecological crisis
• Climate Mental Health Network Resources
• EcoAnxious Stories: Resources for working with climate feelings
• WIRED: Where parents can get help with climate anxiety
• NPR: Climate anxiety is real. Here’s how you can manage those feelings.
• BBC: Climate grief: How we mourn a changing planet
• BBC: How to heal in the Anthropocene
• The New York Times: How to calm your climate anxiety
• Parents: A calm guide to climate anxiety for parents

BOOKS

• A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet, by Sarah Jaquette Ray
• Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis, by Britt Wray
• All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine Wilkinson
• Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World, by Katharine Hayhoe
• Turn the Tide on Climate Anxiety: Sustainable Action for Your Mental Health and the Planet, by Megan Kennedy-Woodard and Patrick Kennedy-Williams
• A Guide to Eco-Anxiety: How to Protect the Planet and Your Mental Health, by Anouchka Grose
• Parenting in a Changing Climate: Tools for Cultivating Resilience, Taking Action, and Practicing Hope, by Elizabeth Bechard
• How to Talk to Your Kids About Climate Change: Turning Angst into Action, by Harriet Shugarman

PODCASTS

• Climate and YOU
• Climate Change and Happiness
• Facing It: A Podcast About Love, Loss, and the Natural World
• WHY?!? A Good Grief Network Podcast

FILMS AND VIDEOS

• TED talk: How to turn climate anxiety into action, by Renee Lertzman
• TED talk: How climate change affects your mental health, by Britt Wray
• TED talk: Courage and acceptance in troubled times, by Catherine Ingram

Updated: December 2022

Back to main Climate Change and Mental Health section