Climate Cafés at ESA

Conference program description:

Feeling anxious about how climate change will affect your research? Not sure how to talk about climate change with other students, your students, friends, or family? Join us for open-hearted discussion, hear what others are thinking, share what works for you. This is your invitation to join others as they express their fears, learn coping skills, get inspired to increase their environmental activism in ways that are healthy and sustainable, and build a community of peers who are experiencing many of the same concerns.

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The climate crisis can bring up some intense and unwieldy emotions, all of which are familiar to Scientist Rebellion and ecologists everywhere. That’s why Scientist Rebellion Turtle Island held Climate Cafés: safe, social spaces to experience these feelings with others who care as much as you do. We know doing the work of a scientist while fossil fuels and corporations decimate the habitats where you work isn’t easy, and while encouraging ecologists to use their voices to speak out against the climate crimes perpetrated against those creatures and habitats we know and love so well, we also need to validate the emotional difficulties faced by ecologists as they witness and document the devastating effects of anthropogenic climate change.

Held both in person on Tuesday and virtually on Wednesday, our Climate Cafés included both the work of world renowned climate psychologists (such as the Climate Emotions Wheel by Dr. Panu Pihkala of the Climate Mental Health Network) and local climate-trained therapists, preceded by a land acknowledgement and labor acknowledgement on the unceded land of the Tongva and Acjachemen peoples.

Emotions such as grief, outrage, depression, panic, and of course hope and optimism were all welcome in a space held and led by a practiced meditation leader from The Resilient Activist and Novasutras. All were encouraged to share, none were pressured to, and all was kept confidential. Attendees learned about a three-pronged approach to dealing with climate emotions: feeling and expression, related action, and space taken to breathe and heal. Though not to be considered as a replacement for therapy from a climate-aware or other therapist, Climate Cafés are a healthy addition to the life of anyone struggling with climate anxiety, depression or otherwise… and Scientist Rebellion Turtle Island can help with the “related action” aspect (because while our work is NOT easy, it IS necessary).

According to personal testimony from one SR Turtle Island rebel who attended a Climate Café for the first time, “I’ve never felt so much peace and community regarding the climate crisis. I mean, yeah, the terrifying emotions are still there–l started crying as soon as one of the mediators said, ‘This is a safe space”–but now I have some extra tools to deal with it all. Now I know that there are people out there who love and care for nature as much as I do. It was really moving and inspiring–I felt powerful, which was a relief when the immensity of the climate crises makes me feel so powerless all the time. It was something I don’t think I’ve gotten anywhere else, even when talking to my therapist or my family and friends.” To try it out for yourself, check out an online Climate Café on the last Monday of every month through The Resilient Activist, or email Debra Borys and Kara London about their online Climate Cafés.