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Book giveaway!
Friends, today is a big day in gen dread land because my book baby Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis was born just a few hours ago, after 4 years of labour no less! (Thinking, researching, field testing, writing, and editing a book sure takes a long time when done outside of other work). Thank you so much to those of you who have pre-ordered the book, I hugely appreciate it!
To celebrate pub day, I am doing a book giveaway here! Specifically, I am going to send a free copy of Generation Dread to three newsletter readers who respond to the prompt below in the most surprising or moving way. Who’s to judge what surprising or moving is? Good question. I’m going to field a vote on Twitter to at least try and make it a bit more democratic than what I can muster with my own biased thoughts.
So here goes:
Tell me about a person in your life who you think could benefit the most from a book about the rise of eco-anxiety and how we can responsibly and compassionately respond to it, both individually and collectively. Maybe they’re in some kind of soft denial about the climate crisis. Maybe they’re in such a spiral of doomsday thoughts that they believe action is futile. Maybe they’re losing motivation for their work because their place of employment is a massive polluter. Maybe they’re spit-fire angry about what they perceive to be apathy all around them. Maybe they need to know that they are not alone…
Whatever it is, tell me about this person (you don’t have to identify them personally) and why you want to use a book as a device for deeper conversation with them about the emotional aftershocks and psychological barriers that the climate and wider ecological crisis conjures.
You can comment below or respond to this email to get your submission for the giveaway in.
The winners will be gifted a free copy of Generation Dread. If you win, you may then choose to ask me to mail it to you directly, or mail it to the address of the person you described in your submission. If you choose for me to send it to the person who you think needs it most, you can suggest that I write a personal note along with the book to contextualize why they are receiving it with as little or as much information about this background book giveaway and the motive at play here, as you please. It can also just arrive mysteriously at their doorstep out of the blue. Up to you.
I look forward to reading your thoughts!!
Where to order the book
If you’d like to order a copy of Generation Dread now that it is immediately available in bookstores, as well as in e-book and audiobook formats, you can do so here.
If you’d like to read an excerpt, one appeared in Sunday’s Toronto Star, called The next global mental-health crisis is about climate change.
Might you be able to meet me on my book tour somewhere virtually or in person? Dates below! Interactive PDF of the image below (with registration links) available here:
Other climate emotions and action offerings from friends of Gen Dread
Meet a legend.
The revered Buddhist eco-activist and Earth Elder, Joanna Macy, is giving a rare public council on Zoom on May 10th. She is 93 years old and incredibly sharp! In the council, Joanna will hold space for our grief and care, rekindling our connection with the earth and with our calling to serve at this time. I'm writing to invite you to join this council (or to listen to the recording) and share the poster if you wish.
Register Here: bit.ly/climatewithjoanna
Let’s get together.
We all want to do more for the planet. New technology and new thinking is allowing us to have more of an impact. Join us virtually on May 12, 2022 at 12:00 PM PT for some fast paced presentations and discussions with climate leaders and tech innovators to learn about what actions you can take.
Facilitated by Jason Rissman, IDEO & Invested in Climate
Topics and presenters include:
Every job must be a climate job - Jamie Beck Alexander, Drawdown Lab
Solar is confusing AF. Wildgrid is here to help. - Krystal Persaud, Wildgrid Solar
Green your 401k - Alex Wright-Gladstein, Sphere
Climate positive banking - Ravi Mikkelson, Atmos Financial
Take care of your emissions - Sanchali Pal, Joro
Learning for action and community for climate work - Anshuman Bapna, Terra.do
Thursday, May 12, 2022 12:00 PM New Opportunities for Climate Action
Register
Express yourself.
Gen Dread reader Eve Rydberg shares her short film Almond Joy, which she says is “an absurdist look at what happens when we try to comprehend the vastness of the climate crisis.”
Recent conversations
The great climate psychology researcher and therapist duo Panu Pihkala and Thomas Doherty had me on the Climate Change and Happiness podcast for an intimate discussion. We explore what I’ve noticed about becoming a mother with significant eco-anxiety.
On that note, I am honoured by this profile in Macleans Magazine that very thoughtfully captured the complexities of my story and how I came into this work.
Vice News created a great podcast episode about climate anxiety by weaving the voices of two amazing women who’ve been featured on Gen Dread before together with mine. They are climate-aware psychotherapist and researcher Caroline Hickman and activist/researcher Jennifer Uchendu.
YaleE360 sharply honed in on the burden that the climate crisis puts on the mental health of Gen Z in this Q and A.
Lastly, I was happy to be in conversation with wonderful Gen Z activist Maya Penn and passionate Founder of One Green Thing Heather White at The Power of Service: Moving from Anxiety to Action for the Planet, hosted by Plastic Pollution Coalition.
That’s all for this edition
As always, you can reach me - and each other - by commenting on this article below. You can also reach me by hitting reply to this email or following me on Twitter and Instagram.
xo Britt
Mine just arrived here today in Ottawa. I’m both excited and terrified to read it but mostly excited. Congrats.
She is a self described bird nerd, but her first love is plants. She feels safer sleeping in nature than in a hotel. She tends a plot in a community garden to grow her vegetables, and tends to flowers and medicinal plants in the small plots of soil in her duplex's backyard. She is 31 and nervous about becoming a mother in times like these, but aches to become one. When she was a child, her father told her that her generation would be the one to get us out of this "global warming mess." So, she majored in Environmental Studies at the University of California Santa Cruz and intended to become a teacher. She wanted to spread hope to the children of her community and instill a love of nature. She worked in Environmental Education for 4 years before deciding to become a massage therapist. Teaching proved to be too stressful on top of managing her Bipolar Type 1 diagnosis. Climate Crisis events trigger mania in her. In her last bought of full blown mania, she blocked traffic with an Earth Ball and dropped yellow rose petals in the road. The hospitalization from that episode left her with pain in her right hip from the Haldol injection she was forced to receive because she was so physically resistant and borderline violent. It took about five medical professionals to hold her down because she is a very strong and muscular woman. This woman needs to learn about Climate Anxiety, because she experiences it. When she was 12 years old in San Diego, CA, she lived through evacuations during the Witch Creek Fire. When she was 16, she went through evacuations again due to another fire. And when she was 29, while moving back to Santa Cruz, her community experienced the worst wild fire in recent history. Almost 1,000 homes in the Santa Cruz mountains were lost. How many animals lost there homes, she will never know. She knows the taxidermy collection at Big Basin Headquarters turned to ash. She hasn't returned to it because her heart is still aching over the loss. This woman is resilient and strong. She started an All We Can Save Circle and intends to do an Environmental book club after this circle concludes. Generation Dread is at the top of her list.