Climate Grief vs. Climate Optimism: Why Not Open the Mind?

“The Centre for Climate Psychology and Change is committed to supporting people where they are at…. We are working on a rich programme of events, which includes a grief facilitator training, run by Francis Weller.”

It is grief and grieving in AlarmistLand. Jonathan Watts of The Guardian wrote:

Climate instability and nature extinction are making the Earth an uglier, riskier and more uncertain place, desiccating water supplies, driving up the price of food, displacing humans and non-humans, battering cities and ecosystems with ever fiercer storms, floods, heatwaves, droughts and forest fires. Still worse could be in store as we approach or pass a series of dangerous tipping points for Amazon rainforest dieback, ocean circulation breakdown, ice-cap collapse and other unimaginably horrible, but ever more possible, catastrophes.

Yet, apparently we must still have hope. It is mandatory. Change is impossible, we are told, without positive thinking and a belief in a better future. That is the message of just about every politician and business leader I have interviewed in close to two decades on the environment beat.

He added:

But what if it is hope that is the problem? What if hope is the antidepressant that has been keeping us all comfortably numb when we have every right to be sad, worried, stirred to action or just plain angry?

These are not questions most of us want to ask. Me included, though most people who read environmental coverage assume the opposite because the trends we report on are relentlessly grim. Some of my Guardian colleagues joke that my job is to make everyone feel miserable.

Stay Positive?

The alarmists are resisting calls to be positive, despite the need to do so as PR (doomism turns off activists, warns Michael Mann), and despite a list of intellectual arguments that challenge the gloomy narrative.

But optimism is bad too! States self-described Climate Psychology Consultant Steffi Bednarek:

When we force positivity or dismiss negative emotions, we fail to “name” the fear, grief, or despair we may actually be experiencing. This creates a disconnect between our inner emotional reality and the external world, leaving emotions unprocessed and, therefore, more likely to resurface in harmful ways – such as chronic stress, burnout, emotional reactivity, wanting to believe in false miracle solutions or false leaders.

Ignoring or diminishing real emotions in favour of mandated positivity can foster feelings of resignation. If people are only encouraged to “stay positive” in the face of a global crisis, their deeper emotional responses are invalidated. It takes enormous energy to suppress strong emotional responses. We also can’t selectively suppress, so suppressing anxiety and grief will also suppress joy and curiosity. This means that suppression of emotional states leads to a flattening of vitality which can lead to disengagement and inaction.

The climate crisis is overwhelming and, for many, deeply distressing. Forced positivity can create cognitive dissonance, where there’s a gap between what people are told to feel and their actual emotional experience. This can lead to confusion, frustration, and increased emotional fragmentation.

True resilience doesn’t come from ignoring difficult feelings but from acknowledging and working through them. Only by facing emotions such as eco-anxiety, grief, and loss can we find ways to adapt psychologically, build resilience, and engage in meaningful climate action.

The Centre for Climate Psychology and Change is committed to supporting people where they are at. We offer online training, workshops and events that bring regenerative disturbance to embedded habits of thinking whilst nurturing collective resilience, trauma aware leadership and psychological adaptability in a time of global upheaval.

Alarmists are in a bad place. They are now choosing denial rather than a fundamental rethink of Deep Ecology climate religion. Tomorrow, the strange optimism of scientist/alarmist/activist Andrew Dessler will be examined.

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