How drawing cartoons and starting little everyday eco actions helped me cope with climate trauma and depresssion, to take back control of climate change.

1. Dealing with Eco-anxiety
Suzanne Chew, Little Climate
Foodscape Collective
●
22nd
October 2016

2. My background
● Physics & Env Tech
● Carbon markets
● NGO low-carbon projects
(clean cooking, clean
water, clean energy)
● Set up Little Climate

3. When someone talks about climate
change, how do you feel?

4. When someone talks about climate
change, how do you feel?
Happy
Hopeful
Opti-
mistic

5. When someone talks about climate
change, how do you feel?
Happy
HopefulExcited
Opti-
mistic
Deter-
mined
Ready to
fight

6. When someone talks about climate
change, how do you feel?
Angry
Frustrated
Bitter
Happy
HopefulExcited
Opti-
mistic
Deter-
mined
Ready to
fight

7. When someone talks about climate
change, how do you feel?
Angry
Frustrated
Bitter
Helpless
Don't
Know Enough
Scared
Happy
HopefulExcited
Opti-
mistic
Deter-
mined
Ready to
fight

8. When someone talks about climate
change, how do you feel?
Angry
Frustrated
Bitter
Helpless
Don't
Know Enough
Bored Scared
Disbelief Happy
HopefulExcited
Opti-
mistic
Defeated
Deter-
mined
Ready to
fight

9. It can feel very confusing
Angry
Frustrated
Bitter
Helpless
Ignorant
Bored Scared
Disbelief Happy
HopefulExcited
Opti-
mistic
Defeated
Deter-
mined
Ready to
fight

10. Problem #1:
Climate change is no fun at all!
(Easier to avoid it than deal with it)
Is this what people are doing?

11. “Dissonance”
Cultural
Dissonance
Cognitive
Dissonance
Emotional
Dissonance

12. “Dissonance”
Cultural
Dissonance
Cognitive
Dissonance
Emotional
Dissonance
Might help us
understand
ourselves better
Might help us
understand
others better

13. Cultural
Dissonance
Unconscious view of the world through
the lens of 2 questions:
● What does my social/cultural group believe?
● Will I still fit in if I believe or act different?

14. Cultural
Dissonance
● This is why more facts and figures
won't really work
● They value their social ties too much to
risk not fitting in
Source: Cultural Cognition Project at Yale Law School,
2012
Unconscious view of the world through
the lens of 2 questions:
● What does my social/cultural group believe?
● Will I still fit in if I believe or act different?
--> Choose to believe or act
in order to fit in with social/cultural group
Fear of losing
social group

15. “The mental stress experienced if you:
● Have two or more contradictory
beliefs at the same time;
● Do something that is contradictory
to your beliefs; or
● Learns something new that contradicts
existing beliefs.”
Cognitive
Dissonance

16. “The mental stress experienced if you:
● Have two or more contradictory
beliefs at the same time;
● Do something that is contradictory
to your beliefs; or
● Learns something new that contradicts
existing beliefs.”
Cognitive
Dissonance
“I am a good person / I care about the planet
BUT I <insert lifestyle choice here>”
--> Reduce mental discomfort – HOW?
--> Rationalize it away
--> Avoid thinking about climate change
Fear of losing
Lifestyle

18. CULTURE
FAMILY TRADITION
SOCIAL NORM

19. Why don't people #ActOnClimate?
● Fear of losing social ties and social standing
● Fear of losing lifestyle they are used to
● More facts and numbers won't work
--> So what can be done?

20. #1: Hear it often, from different sources

21. #1: Hear it often, from different sources
At Work

22. #1: Hear it often, from different sources
family

23. #1: Hear it often, from different sources
Friends

24. #1: Hear it often, from different sources
Books, Songs,
Movies, Plays,
Operas?

25. #2: Hear it from sources we identify with

26. “First of all, we are changing minds,
not hearts.
We’re starting with the assumption
that someone’s heart is in a good
place. Someone’s heart has good
values.
We’re just trying to show how the
values already in their heart connect
with the issue of climate change.”
Dr. Katherine Hayhoe, Texas Tech
University
#3: Hear it discussed based on values

27. #3: Hear it discussed based on values
Stewardship

28. Climate change is so big --> can’t
understand it --> can’t do anything about it

29. Climate change is so big --> can’t
understand it --> can’t do anything about it
Cultural
Dissonance
Cognitive
Dissonance
Emotional
Dissonance

30. Climate change is so big --> can’t
understand it --> can’t do anything about it
Education Fun
Actions

31. Start with little actions
Actions

32. Why I set up Little Climate
Education Fun
Actions

34. The More I Drew...

36. The More
Empowered I Felt!

37. 3 minute doodle!
Pin up on strings, best one gets stickers!
(write your name)

38. 3 minute doodle!
Draw what is important to you
in this world, in this life:
what you want to give time to
what gives you fulfilment
what gives you peace
what gives you joy
what you would protect
what you would fight for

39. 3 minute list!
Look at your doodle:
"How will climate change affect this?"
On the other side of the paper, write down
as many points as you can think of.

40. Drawing and talking were not enough!

41. Still on this side:
Angry
Frustrated
Bitter
Helpless
Ignorant
Bored Scared
Disbelief
Defeated

42. “Intolerable Emotion”
● Too much to bear
● Too many feelings
● Too easily outraged
Emotional
Dissonance

43. “Intolerable emotion...leads people to avoid the thing that upsets them.
(For these people), it’s a mistake to assume that outrage is low; their
outrage is intolerably high.
To reach them, arousing more outrage isn’t what’s needed; instead, we
need to help them bear the outrage they’re already feeling.
Source: Climate Change Risk Communication: The Problem of Psychological Denial
http://www.psandman.com/col/climate.htm#emotion
“Intolerable Emotion”
● Too much to bear
● Too many feelings
● Too easily outraged
--> Avoid thinking about it,
looks like apathy
Emotional
Dissonance

44. B E E T T S

45. B E E T T S
What
you Buy
What
you Eat
Energy
you use
How you
Travel
Talk
about it
Support
each other

46. B
● Sustainable cutlery set?
● Lunchbox?
● Waterbottle?
● Eat less meat
● Cut out beef, reduce pork
● Grow own produce
● Take cold showers
● Switch off lights
● Energy efficient appliances
Start with little actions
E
E

47. Actually, household decisions make
a huge difference
● “We highlight the importance of environmental
pressure arising from households with their
consumption contributing to more than 60% of
global GHG emissions and between 50% and 80% of
total land, material, and water use.”
● “Mobility, shelter, and food are the most important
consumption categories across the environmental
footprints.”
Source: Ivanova et al., Environmental Impact Assessment of Household Consumption, 2015, Journal of Industrial Ecology

48. 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
India
Indonesia
China
South Africa
Russia
Taiwan
Sweden
South Korea
France
Japan
Italy
Norway
Switzerland
Netherlands
Germany
Denmark
United Kingdom
Canada
Australia
United States
Carbon Footprint of household consumption per person per year
(tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent)
Selection of countries:
Consumption emissions/pp/yr
World average = 3.4
Source: Ivanova et al., Environmental Impact Assessment of Household Consumption, 2015, Journal of Industrial Ecology

49. 50
200
266
11
43
22
45
39
40 (35 - 45)
47
84.5 (56 - 113)
88 (80 - 96)
135 (96 - 174)
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Less animal protein (one meat-free day per week)
Shift to a healthy diet
Shift to a vegetarian diet
Optimised thermostat settings
Optimised ventilation behaviour
Reduction of room temperature by 1°C
Reduction of room temperature by 2°C
Virtual meetings
Teleworking
Fuel efficient driving style
Buying and using an plug-in hybrid
Buying and using a smaller car
Buying and using an electric car
CO2 Million tonnes (Maximum realistic mitigation potential in the EU)
Potential of Mobility, Shelter, Food Behaviour Changes
Source: J Faber et al., “Behavioural Climate Change Mitigation Options and Their Appropriate Inclusion in Quantitative Longer
Term Policy Scenarios”, Delft, CE Delft, April 2012
Carpool
Bike
Bus &
Trains
Less hot
water use
Optimize
aircon use
Less food
waste
Less food
miles

50. Thank you