7/29/15  An updated version of this essay now exists! It includes material from Pope Francis’ Encyclical on our Common Home, Laudato Si, as well as updated news of The Climate Mobilization’s recent successes. I strongly recommend you read that version! For those who prefer to read the original, Sans-Encyclical, out of date version: Enjoy 🙂 …
This article was originally posted on Common Dreams  Why are we morally obligated to fight climate change? Climate change is a crisis, and crises alter morality. Climate change is on track to cause the extinction of half the species on earth and, through a combination of droughts, famines, displaced people, and failed states and pandemics, …
Read more “What Climate Change Asks of Us: Moral Obligation, Mobilization and Crisis Communication”
What a weekend! The People’s Climate March was an absolutely outstanding, beautiful experience, and The Climate Mobilization had a great launch! Here is a brief update on our March activities. We talked with tons of Marchers about the Pledge, gained many allies, and received an exciting, if surprising, amount of press attention! But since this is …
Read more “First Video! Introducing The Climate Mobilization”
I just read the article  “A Young Climate Activist Reflects on Lessons Learned” by Chloe Maxmin, the student leader of Divest Harvard, and I am so impressed! Chloe clearly thinks deeply about herself and her activism. My favorite of her points are #2, 3, and 6. #2 Being thoughtful, even in a terrifying crisis, I …
Read more “Impressive self-reflection from a young climate activist”
A slightly shorter version of this post was published yesterday on the Psychology Today blog, “Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Action” It is easy to scoff at climate change “deniers”—people who refuse to believe the scientific consensus that fossil fuel emissions are causing global warming and a host of disastrous impacts, including intensified drought, flooding and severe …
Read more “Are You in Climate Change Denial? Three Signs to Look For”
The best thing about having the blog The Climate Psychologist is all of the allies it has connected me to. Climate change is a global issue, and meeting activists (and thinktavists!) from around the world has been exhilarating and enriching. Some of the people I have connected with deeply agree with my psychological, “person-to-person, Pledge …
Read more “Introducing Team Members! Fred Branfman: “Do Our Children Deserve to Live””
Something remarkable happened a few days ago in the Facebook Group “Global Warming Fact of the Day,” (GWFoTD) something that I think there is much to learn from, especially regarding the emotional and psychological elements of climate change. Summary of events What happened is this: the group — which has over 2,500 members, many of …
You “know” that climate change exists. But how much do you really know? How current is your information? How deep is your understanding? Because climate change is terrifying, we have the tendency to purposefully not learn more about it, to avoid new information. I believe it is a moral, and strategic, obligation to fight this …
Read more “Learning about Climate Change is a Revolutionary Act: Top 5 Books to Educate and Empower”
Reading the recent acrimony between Naomi Klein and Joe Romm reminded me of conducting therapy with couples. Here is the scenario that it reminds me of: A middle-aged married couple is distraught over their young adult son who seems relentlessly bent on self destruction. He abuses drugs and alcohol, is frequently involved in violent conflicts, …
Read more “Couple’s Therapy: Tough Love for the Feuding Naomi Klein and Joe Romm”
Last week, TIME ran an article on the contributions that psychologists are making to understanding inaction on climate change. This is a good opportunity to acknowledge the work that other psychologists have contributed to this issue, and also to delineate differences in thinking between them and myself—particularly, that I think the focus on “individual action” …