These guys are fabulous. Cafe Disruptif members in Cornwall will remember Professor Paul Hoggett, who helped us launch our network back a few years ago, and Professor Caroline Hickman who has worked with Helston Climate Action Group. Wise and insightful and helpful. An amazing resource. Their website says:

So what is Climate Psychology? Five key principles …

Climate change is not a scientific problem waiting for a technical solution. It’s an urgent, frightening, systemic problem involving environment, culture and politics.

It engenders fear, denial and despair amongst individuals, evasion, indifference and duplicity amongst the powerful.

It forces uncomfortable dilemmas about justice, nature and equality into consciousness. It challenges all of us in modern societies both personally and politically.

To work with these dilemmas the CPA draws on a broad range of perspectives including philosophy, the arts and humanities, ecology and systems thinking.

Our core focus however is in psycho-social studies and the psychotherapy field, approaches which help us to understand the unconscious processes and emotions which control our thoughts, beliefs and behaviour and which manifest in mutually reinforcing systems of defence in society.

Anxiety, guilt and shame make it very difficult for people to face the reality of climate change and lead to denial and disavowal while the norms and structures of everyday life validate and reinforce these responses.