At a retreat center in New York’s Hudson Valley, one group’s infectious laughter caught the attention of other attendees, prompting someone to ask who they were. The answer might surprise you: climate change activists brainstorming ways to combat environmental destruction.
Environmental advocates worldwide are revolutionizing their approach to one of humanity’s greatest challenges by incorporating joy, humor, and celebration into their work. This psychological shift moves away from traditional messaging focused on sacrifice and catastrophe toward community-building and positive emotions.
Activist Katharine Wilkinson, who facilitated the Hudson Valley workshop that drew attention with its upbeat atmosphere, believes positivity becomes even more crucial during challenging times. “I believe that joy is all the more necessary and maybe all the more holy in difficult times,” Wilkinson explained. “Joy is like, how do we take part in the shimmy and the shimmer even as the world lurches?”
These advocates aim to channel happiness as fuel for efforts to reduce fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. During a recent American University address, Wilkinson described power combined with joy as “a really potent portal to the gifts that we want to offer in this time of immense trouble and yet also immense possibility.”
Mental health experts endorse this approach as both beneficial and psychologically sound.
“Joy is what made our species survive in the first place,” explained Jiaying Zhao, who teaches psychology and sustainability at the University of British Columbia. “If we’re rewarded, reinforced by it, then we continue doing it. We spill over. We become contagious. We get others on board.”
Humor plays a particularly important role in this strategy.
University of Illinois-Chicago clinical psychology professor Julia Kim-Cohen emphasized laughter’s therapeutic benefits. “Laughter is really one of the best strategies for coping with stress,” she noted. “So there are physiological benefits to laughter. The science shows that it reduces blood pressure and relaxes people’s nervous systems. And so when we’re relaxed through laughter, I think that helps us feel our hearts open to one another. Sharing laughter I think is this ancient, evolutionarily wired thing that humans do to connect.”
However, maintaining connection to reality remains essential, according to Christiana Figueres.
As UN climate chief in 2015, Figueres helped negotiate the historic Paris climate agreement aimed at limiting global temperature increases. She credits her success to listening carefully to all parties with “an open heart and an open mind to what people are saying and especially what they’re not saying” while seeking common ground. Her team would dance in the evenings to maintain their sense of joy.
Figueres subsequently established Global Optimism, an advocacy organization whose name reflects its philosophy, and conducts worldwide seminars incorporating joy, dance, and realistic assessment of challenges.
“We cannot turn our back to the suffering and the grief and the eco-anxiety and all that family of emotions because they are very there,” Figueres stated. “Not to deny reality, not to deny the challenges that we have — that’s step No. 1.”
The key, Figueres explained, involves “anchoring ourselves precisely in the pain and the suffering, embracing the pain, and the suffering” before transforming those feelings into positive action. She compared this process to composting kitchen scraps to create fertilizer for a thriving garden.
This transformation involves accepting difficult emotions and converting them into “a sense of agency” that empowers people to work toward changing the world, she said.
Wilkinson, who leads Climate Wayfinding seminars and has authored a book with the same title, deliberately includes space for negative emotions in her workshops because “when those come in then we also open space for the pendulum to go to the other side.”
That’s when participants engage in laughter, storytelling, embracing, and dancing.
Traditional environmental messaging has long emphasized reducing consumption of energy, meat, and other resources to protect the planet.
“If we have to win the fight against climate change by getting people to give up the things they enjoy, I don’t think we’re going to win the fight,” said University of British Columbia psychology professor Elizabeth Dunn.
Focusing on sacrifice “is counterproductive,” added Zhao, who collaborated with Dunn on the book “Leave the Lights On.”
“Instead of asking people to sacrifice the things that bring them joy, our book is making the exact opposite claim: Do more of the stuff that brings you pleasure but also have a low carbon footprint,” she explained.
“We’re actually trying to get people to change their behaviors. And joy is the missing ingredient here,” Zhao continued. “All we’re saying is give this a shot.”
Using bicycle commuting as an illustration, Dunn observed, “If we enjoy doing something, it is a lot easier to stick with it.”
Despite her expertise in psychology, including teaching courses on climate psychology, Kim-Cohen admits she previously took the wrong approach to environmental advocacy.
“I was that person at the cocktail party bringing up, you know, have you have you heard about the latest wildfire? Have you seen the flood in Spain?” Kim-Cohen recalled. “It was such a downer. I was such a pooper. There’s actually a term called ‘eco pooper.’ I was that person. And it didn’t work. People would just shut down.”
After several years, she experienced burnout and anger, Kim-Cohen said. However, participating in Wilkinson’s seminar transformed her perspective: “I came out with my heart filled with love.”
Senior student Leah Glaser enrolled in Kim-Cohen’s course this semester expecting it to be depressing. Instead, she discovered the opposite.
“I leave every class feeling empowered to do something,” Glaser shared. “I definitely leave with a smile on my face. It just really uplifts me in ways that other classes really don’t.”
