Parenting in a Changing Climate: Tools for Cultivating Resilience, Taking Action, and Practicing Hope in the Face of Climate Change

by Elizabeth Bechard

Riederer explores a range of attitudes towards climate change. One is the “climate truth” approach taken by Wallace-Wells and Margaret Klein-Salamon, author of Facing the Climate Emergency, that offers no sugar-coating or optimistic frame to stories about climate change, choosing to report in brutal detail exactly how bad many scientists think things are going to be. Another approach, promoted by John Fraser, a psychologist who has studied burnout among environmentalists, recognizes the possibility that for many people, “doomsday reporting” tends to lead to paralysis and inaction, sabotaging our response to the very problem we desperately need to address. Fraser’s approach, Riederer explains, “takes a relentlessly positive, solutions-oriented attitude.” A third perspective, championed by climate psychologist Renee Lertzman, rejects the idea that there must be a dichotomy between doomsday reporting and manufacturing hope to avoid terrifying people too much. “What works really well,” Lertzman tells Riederer, “is when people feel they are invited and inspired to be part of something constructive, combined with having the safety to grapple with the magnitude of things.”