Conservation Ecology

Resources for Hope: Turning Climate Anxiety into Action

Resources for Hope: Turning Climate Anxiety into Action

At the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS), we’re driven to find solutions for a clean, sustainable and just future for all. As a school, we acknowledge that we’re facing some of the most complex and pressing challenges of our time—which can understandably cause people to feel anxious or hopeless—but there are reasons to feel hopeful about a sustainable future.

To secure such a future, we think it's important to work on channeling the anxiety people may be experiencing into meaningful action for change. SEAS Professor Michaela Zint is focused on these efforts, leading a seminar called “Leadership for Turning Climate Anxiety into Action.” One output of the course is an annual event, “Advancing Climate Education,” which Zint spearheaded in collaboration with her students to bring together U-M faculty, staff and students interested in promoting climate education across campus while learning about the potential of turning climate anxiety into action.

The result of the course and the event is a plethora of resources that will be compiled on this page for inspiration and use, in addition to any other interviews or articles tied to the topic.

To start, here are some quotes from U-M faculty that were pulled from interviews conducted by Zint’s students. Each of the faculty members provided their observations surrounding climate-related emotions and offered advice on how to cope with anxiety and harness it into hope and action.

Faculty Quotes

Here are some quotes from...

michelle3

Michelle Martinez

SEAS lecturer and director of the Tishman Center for Social Justice and the Environment

"People, in communities, have solutions and have knowledge about their own neighborhoods, their own family structures and communities that are the right solutions. And so turning that anxiety into action means togetherness. Right? It means building trust. It means reciprocity. It means survival of joy. Also, music. It means dancing, right?"

raymond

Raymond De Young

SEAS Associate Professor

"We are psychologically well suited to what's coming, and that offers us hope. When people feel that the news is depressing or anxiety-inducing, it may help to realize that the response we will need to adopt are in fact behaviors that can enhance our well-being.”

mike

SEAS Professor of Practice & Engagement; Director of Engagement, Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR) and Michigan Sea Grant (MISG)

"There’s plenty of room for requirements and room for actions that are driven by anxiety and the full range of climate emotions.”

peck

Dean Jonathan Overpeck

SEAS Samuel A. Graham Dean; William B. Stapp Collegiate Professor of Environmental Education; Professor, Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering; Professor, Earth and Environmental Sciences

"Helping other people realize that climate change is solvable and that they can play a role is how I am mitigating my own climate anxiety. What I advise students to do is to get involved and focus on what you can do about the climate problem."

ashley1

University of Michigan School of Social Work, Assistant Professor of Social Work and Educational Studies

"I also think it's important for students to grapple with some of the challenges associated with climate change. Action is the appropriate path to go. Students need to be given the tools and information on how to engage in climate change initiatives at the school of social work and across campus.”

steve

SEAS Professor of Environmental Policy and Planning

"People are not so far apart as you might think, and they can actually be quite reasonable in discussing solutions when you give them a chance. And that means we need to be working to build understanding and bridge conflicting positions, which I define as working the strategic middle. And I think SEAS students are absolutely well positioned to do that. That's what it's all about.”

sarah1

University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, Associate Professor of Theatre and Drama

"... if we think of some of our action around climate change as just little acts and small habits, our climate anxiety will lower and those habits will become daily things and those daily things will remind us that we are working on a bigger issue and it’s something we need to embody in our larger practice."

michaela1

SEAS Arthur F. Thurnau Professor; Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

"Collective action, in particular, is effective in managing climate anxiety and other negative emotions linked to climate change."