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A 2021 survey of young people ages 16 to 25 in 10 countries published in the British medical journal The Lancet found that 59% of those who responded said they were “very or extremely” worried about climate change while 84% said they were at least “moderately” worried.
More than half said they experienced strong, negative emotions about it, whether sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless or guilty. Another three-fourths of respondents said they were frightened about the future.
So, how do you address concerns about the climate without triggering paralyzing anxiety?
Climate cafes may provide a solution.
Begun in Scotland in 2015, climate cafes provide informal get togethers in which attendees intentionally discuss topics many find too inconvenient or troubling to discuss in larger, more formal venues. Some climate cafes meet regularly. Some meet online. Others just pop up for a couple of sessions and then disappear again.
Jess Pepper, the person credited with holding that first climate cafe, told the Guardian newspaper in 2021 that she hosted her first cafe in in Dunkeld and Birnam, Scotland, because, “It just dawned on me that people needed to be speaking with each other, and not just in a one-off kind of session.”
The result was both political and therapeutic. Climate cafes provide a forum where information is shared, but in a way that is not overwhelming. Too often these days what you want is a glass of water, and instead you get a blast from a firehose. One participant in a climate cafe told a reporter at the Guardian that she had “shed a lot of tears, and gotten in touch with some powerful feelings” that came from sharing her anxieties with like-minded people.
All politics is local, and you can’t get much more local than a group of people getting together to discuss the issues. Participants in climate cafes have reported they feel relief from anxiety and numb helplessness.
One of Chicago’s first climate cafes, held last December at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park, was organized by a Chicago-based psychotherapist and clinical social worker, Libby Bachhuber. Her climate cafe also was part of an ongoing program of climate cafes associated with the Climate Psychology Alliance North America.
The Climate Psychology Alliance’s online answer to the question “What is a Climate Café?” sounds as much like a group therapy session with snacks than a political action committee: “a gathering of people meeting with facilitators to share their responses to the climate crisis,” “a confidential, warm, friendly, hospitable occasion – involving cake, hot drinks, maybe a glass of wine or beer,” “the focus… thoughts and feelings about climate change, rather than what we’re doing about climate change.”
Bachhuber’s climate cafe at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum definitely had a group therapy feel. As she told a Tribune reporter in a December 28, 2023 article: “Unless we can process our internal responses to climate change, we are not going to be able to respond appropriately to it.”
The Chicago-based Climate Psychology Alliance, North America, hosts a virtual climate care the fourth Tuesday of each month, 6 to 7:30 pm Central (https://www.climatepsychology.us/climate-cafes/climate-cafe).
Those interested in the international climate cafe movement can also visit the Climate Cafe Network Hub (https://www.climate.cafe/).
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