LibGuides: Earth Ethics Institute Resources: Welcome

Resources for Climate Grief and Community Wellbeing

Resources for Working With Climate Emotions

The All We Can Save Project, partnering with Britt Wray of Gen Dread, developed this "shortlist of resources created specifically for navigating the emotional terrain of climate."

Emotional Resilience Resource

Visit this resource to learn more about what it means to be emotionally resilient, provided by the Youth Rising Webinar hosted by Post Carbon Institute.

The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment, 2016

This report offers organized, concise summaries of its major findings regarding how climate change impacts human health, with great diagrams (and explanations) for each section.

Active Hope & Deep Adaptation Resources

Active Hope

"Developed by Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone, Active Hope is a practice like Tai Chi or gardening that we do rather than have. It involves actively participating in a story that is moving towards the future we hope for. Active Hope takes the form of a strengthening journey in four stages.

The journey begins with gratitude, a nourishing social emotion that reminds us of our allies and all that supports us. This resourcing puts us in a stronger position to face the stuff that hurts.
In the second stage we give voice to the grief we feel for the world, respecting our feelings and motivating impulses. If we feel overwhelmed or despairing, this tells us we’ve stepped beyond what we can easily cope with alone – now we are facing something much bigger that calls for new responses and different ways of thinking.
In the third stage we explore blocking beliefs and find new perspectives that increase our sense of possibility.
The final stage focuses on practical steps we can take. We discover learnable skills that help us harness the inspirational power of positive visions and find our personal role in working towards them."

Learn more about Active Hope:

Active Hope with Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone (YouTube Video)

Deep Adaptation

"Deep Adaptation refers to a paper written in 2018 by Professor Jem Bendell. The paper explores the personal and collective changes that help (and have helped) us to prepare for – and live with – societal disruption and collapse. Mainstream work on adaptation to collapse doesn’t assume that our current economic, social, and political systems can be resilient in the face of rapid changes.

When using the term social or societal collapse, we are referring to the uneven ending to our current means of sustenance, shelter, security, pleasure, identity and meaning. Others may prefer the term societal breakdown when referring to the same process. People who consider that societal collapse or breakdown is either inevitable, likely or already unfolding, are using the term “deep adaptation” to explore responses.

We don’t know exactly what will happen, but we understand that, at the very least, disruption of the biosphere and climate is forcing us to change how we live, and may lead to global societal collapse. Deep Adaptation is a way of framing our current global situation that can help people to refocus on what’s important in life while our social order collapses under the weight of its own consumption, pollution, and inequality. We are finding new ways of being with ourselves and being together, no matter what happens.

There are two broad paths within Deep Adaptation:

Inner adaptation: exploring the emotional, psychological, and spiritual implications of living in a time when societal disruption/collapse is likely, inevitable, or already happening.
Outer adaptation: working on practical measures to support wellbeing, ahead of and during collapse (e.g. regenerative living, community-building, policy activism)."