Learning outcomes

By the end of this unit you should be able to:

  • name and describe your psychological responses to climate change;

  • understand how a range of feelings can block us from thinking effectively about how to take the necessary steps towards acting for life in the face of climate change;

  • understand and experience how emotional intelligence plays a part in empowering people to take effective action in our current ecological crisis;

  • appreciate why presenting people with facts alone is not enough to inspire action;

  • discover how to build psychological resilience, which can help individuals and communities endure crisis;

  • develop critical thinking into the psychological and cultural roots of climate change, and the larger ecological crisis of which climate change is a part;

  • understand what has brought about human destruction of the rest of nature, and how human-nature relationships can be revitalised.

1 Defining ecopsychology