CWU to Continue Climate Anxiety Conversation Tuesday

Central Washington University will continue its conversation about ways the local community can respond to climate change anxiety Tuesday, February 8, when it hosts a follow-up discussion to last week's webinar with author Sarah Jaquette Ray.

Author and environmental studies professor Sarah Jaquette Ray spoke to the CWU community on Feb. 1. The conversation will continue Tuesday, Feb. 8.

CWU students, faculty, and staff who want to explore how to remain optimistic and work toward hope-based solutions in the era of climate change are invited to attend the in-person discussion from noon to 1 p.m. in Samuelson Hall, room 103.

Those who cannot attend in-person may join the conversation on Zoom. Ellensburg community members are also welcome.

The conversation, sponsored by CWU Sustainability and CWU Libraries, will center around the ideas presented in Jaquette Ray's book, A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet.

Jaquette Ray, an environmental studies professor at Cal Poly Humboldt, wrote the book after recognizing that many of her students were experiencing a sense of grief, hopelessness, and anxiety due to the magnitude of the climate crisis. Tuesday's follow-up discussion will cover these topics and more:

• Strategies to cultivate personal and collective resilience in the face of climate anxiety, eco-despair, hopelessness, and dread.
• Tactics to shift the doom-and-gloom discussions of climate change.
• How to identify your spheres of influence and cultivate emotional resilience.
• How to find positive stories of change, build communities of change and cultivate compassionate curiosity.

If you would like to read a free digital version of A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety, visit the CWU Libraries website. More information about Jaquette Ray and her work is available on her website.

If you have questions about Tuesday's conversation, email CWU Sustainability.

Media contact: David Leder, Department of Public Affairs, 509-963-1518.