Finding Reasons for Hope in the Climate Crisis
March 23, 2022Featured image: ‘Sewing Up the Past for a Holistic Future’ by Khuyen Nguyen
“How are you feeling about climate change?” This is what Elin Kelsey, PhD, asked us at the beginning of her webinar ‘Why Hope Matters’ as part of Bow Seat’s Deep Dive Series. So we discussed: we are scared, we find it hard to feel optimistic about the future, and we do not have faith in our ability to turn things around.
This makes sense. It’s easy to pay attention to the bad news, doomscrolling our way through reports of natural disasters, record temperatures, and failed environmental policies. But Elin shared with us the importance of hope in the climate movement, and gave us reasons to feel optimistic: “Hope and despair mute our ability to find creative solutions.”
Elin shared with us a list of resources for staying up-to-date with hopeful environmental news. She also asked for audience members to share their favorite organizations, podcasts, books, influencers, and more. We have compiled all of these resources below. If you are feeling overwhelmed by the climate crisis, check them out. There is a lot of good environmental news, too.
Thank you to Elin for creating a space for us to express our emotions. If you were unable to attend, would like to rewatch, or want to share – you can find the recording here.
Elin is a faculty member at the Redfish School of Change, author of Hope Matters: Why Changing the Way We Think Is Critical to Solving the Environmental Crisis, and leader in the evidence-based hope and climate change and environmental solutions movement. She is the co-creator of #OceanOptimism, a Twitter campaign that crowd-sourced marine conservation solutions and has reached more than 100 million shares.
Elin has spent the beginning of 2022 in Finland as a Kone Foundation Fellow, working with climate science researchers, the Climate and Environmental Communication Science Association, and children’s book writers in Finland on the ‘Developing Climate Change Communication with Emotional Awareness’ project.
Hope-Based Resources
| Websites and Organizations |
| Project Drawdown | Seeds of Good Anthropocenes |
| Atlas of the Future | The Center for Behavior and Climate |
| Work That Reconnects Network | US ACE Coalition |
| Climate Interpreter | Save The Waves |
| News |
| Solutions Story Tracker | The Grist |
| The Washington Post Climate Solutions | UN Sustainable Development News |
| Conservation International | |
| Books |
| Podcasts and Videos |
| People Fixing the World Podcast | Climate Change and Happiness Podcast |
| Climate Talks Podcast | TheJuiceMedia YouTube |
| Social Media |
| Events |
| National Adaptation Forum – October 25-27, 2022 | The Inspire Project – Project Earth |