Dear Friends and Colleagues,

More interesting news on the environment and psychology from a variety of sources.    

Regards,

Susie Burke and Harriet Radermacher

Public Interest, Environment and Disaster Response
twitter:  @BurkePsy.

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After two weeks of intense negotiations and waves of global mobilization by the climate movement, last Sunday world governments meeting in Paris produced a major climate agreement.

While there’s so much this deal leaves undone and so much work still to do, the Paris Agreement does finally send a signal to the world that the age of fossil fuels is over.

Now it’s up to us to close the gap between rhetoric and reality. We’re ready.

Check out this video from 350.org

Health professionals and groups from around the world gathered in Paris to attend COP21, the global climate talks, as well as to attend concurrent meetings and conferences, and to use the opportunity to meet with negotiators and strategize together about how to keep the pressure up for people’s health and wellbeing to be acknowledged as a key driver for, and an outcome of, ambitious global and national climate policy.

This report captures some of the efforts of climate and health advocates in Paris to ensure health was recognised in the text of the Paris Agreement, as well as report on some of the events CAHA was involved in.

Read the report.

The report includes a link to a Global Climate and Health Alliance webinar on communicating about climate change through the health frame.

A multi-disciplinary investigation into overcoming the barriers to a zero carbon future.

There is now a growing body of forward-thinking groups across the globe that have developed such scenarios which offer robust blueprints for a zero carbon future. Whilst the climate science is clear - we must rapidly move beyond fossil fuels and eliminate man-made emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) almost entirely by mid-century, change is not happening fast enough! This new project seeks to identify the barriers to achieving a zero carbon future and the means to overcome them.

The first section in this initial report looks at the psychological barriers.  These include:

• Bob Gifford's 7 dragons of inaction  
• scepticism about the efficacy of actions taken to address it (which leads to stealth denial)
• feelings of helplessness
• being divorced from nature
• entrenched individualistic and consumer culture which undermines collective effort

Read more here.

Neville Ellis from the Centre for Responsible Citizenship and Sustainability, WA, interviewed 22 farmers from a Wheatbelt town of over the course of the 2013-14 agricultural season. The interviews revealed that the negative impacts of climate change, as manifested in issues like wind erosion and unpredictable weather, was undermining their wellbeing.

A positive sense of place is vital for good health and mental wellbeing, particularly among people who maintain close living and working relationships with the land. But the farmers’ identities are so wrapped up in their land, any changes caused by variable weather had a negative effect on their emotional state.

Read more here.

Meghan Walsh, 28 December 2015

Interesting essay on the emotional dimensions of scientists doing climate advocacy that applies equally well to nuclear disarmament work. The writer seems ambivalent but raises a critical question of how we preserve our own emotional well-being and take responsibility for the emotional consequences of our efforts to mobilize others. 

Read the article

At the APS conference we had an exhibition of letters written by psychologists describing how they feel about climate change. This was a pop up exhibition based on Joe Duggan's curated exhibition of climate scientists writing letters on the same topic. 

To read a blog on why it is important to know how people feel about climate change, click here.

And to see some of the Australian Psychological Society letters, click here.

Want some great tips about having positive, engaging conversations about climatechange?

Climate change is a notoriously ‘distant’ risk for most people – it feels ‘not here’ and it feels ‘not now’. Anyone who has had any experience trying to engage the public on climate change will likely recognise the challenge of overcoming the so-called ‘psychological distance’ of the issue, and bringing climate change ‘closer to home’. There is a lot of research to support the idea that reducing the psychological distance of climate change is important, but this guide explains why it may not be as straightforward as focusing on ‘local’ rather than ‘global’ aspects of the issue.

Show me the Guide!

Flink af natur Meaning “kind when in nature” and “naturally kind”, this Keep Denmark Tidy campaign is cleverly framed to communicate their goal of reducing litter by appealing to everyday kindness. They have based their campaign on some rather promising research findings that most Danes have an enjoyable outdoor experience every week, but that litter is the biggest obstacle to this experience.

http://www.cleaneuropenetwork.eu/en/blog/kindness-naturally/aav/

Re.imagining activism The civil society network Smart CSOs has recently released a handbook on systemic change and it comes highly recommended! These people know their stuff. Useful for any of us wanting to use systemic principles to change our strategies, how we raise funds, and how we work.

http://smart-csos.org/images/Documents/reimagining_activism_guide.pdf

'Our Climate is Our Health' seminar, 19th November 2015

'It’s 2030, and the world is firmly on a path to low carbon economies and societies. Governments across the world have introduced low carbon policies for energy and transport, zero carbon homes and buildings are commonplace, and many individuals and businesses now generate their own energy from the sun and the wind. The health of people was a key factor in motivating this shift. The advisory panel present today will describe how this happened, outline how different things are from 2015, and offer insights into the healthy future that lies ahead.'

Part thought experiment, part Q&A, this panel of guest interacts with the audience to collaborate on ideas, consider evidence and dream alternative futures.

Panellists:
• Grant Blashki (Nossal Institute)
• David Holmgren (Vision for energy descent)
• Susie Burke (Australian Psychological Society)
• Matthew Wright (Zero Emissions Australia)
• Monique Conheady (Chair of Moreland Energy Foundation, founded Flexicar)

Watch the highlights

Bronwyn Wauchope, who has been working with Susie Burke throughout 2015 to develop resources for dealing with burnout and coping with climate change distress, if offering an 8 week course this year on mindful self-compassion.  She has teamed up with another clinical psychologist, Kathleen Cator, to facilitate this course, staring on February 2nd.  

This course can be claimed as CPD.   

For enquiries, contact Kathleen on 0412441018.

'Cooking Up a Storm' will be launched in 2016

The Cooking up a Storm Program (CUSP) is designed to recognise women’s extraordinary environmental leadership in Australia and support them and their campaigns into the future at this critical time for Australia's environment. 

CUSP is a ground-breaking national initiative that will bring women environmentalists together to collaborate in developing a deeper understanding of the environment movement and the structures it engages with, and of how gender and leadership are constructed within these. 

CUSP offers 15 to 20 women the opportunity to participate in three experiential residential workshops (April 18-22, July 19-22 and November 15-18, 2016) and to work collaboratively throughout the year.  Formal applications close Friday 12 February 2016. 

I want more information!

Two new PhD positions are up for grabs in the Environmental Psychology group at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, with the focus on public acceptability of energy sources, systems, and policies.

Tell me more!