Fossil fuels can go extinct — If we take climate anxieties seriously

Dear Climate Majority, 

We hope you’re preparing for a restorative holiday break. The CMP team is also looking forward to some time off after an intense period of work. In particular, as the COP season concludes another anxiety-inducing instalment, we have now publicly launched the first phase of our Climate Anxiety Campaign. 

Our open letter is helping build a coalition of climate scientists, mental health professionals, youth leaders and educators that can credibly call for a public response to climate anxiety as a public health issue, and an opportunity to mobilise serious mass action. Already signed by Bill McKibben, Renee Leertzmann, James Dyke, Charlie Gardener, Phoebe Barnard, Merlin Sheldrake, Andri Snaer Magnason, and many  more, the letter focuses first on climate anxiety among students; calling for resources and support for everyone who must teach and learn about climate change. 

Learn more about the campaign through our website, this recent article and on social media.

We would be immensely grateful if you could reach out to people in your networks with the letter and help us connect them with other stakeholders in this coalition.

Also, for some holiday hope, don’t forget to preorder The Climate Majority Project book!

Warmest wishes,

The CMP Team

“True public engagement with climate anxiety entails facing up to its causes –– including the disturbing lack of any credible plan for mitigation of — or adaptation to — climate breakdown. To face these facts is to understand that COPs will continue to badly fail us until a popular mobilisation ends the ‘outsourcing’ of our future to huge meetings of powerless diplomats. Such a mobilisation would help millions to use their nervous energy to make a difference rather than feeling overwhelmed. To catalyse such a mobilisation is the founding vision of the Climate Majority Project, and as our new campaign explores, paying attention to our climate anxiety is a prerequisite for this collective action.”

Liam Kavanagh for DeSmog