Inside Out: Climate Action and Ecological Emotion

Featuring world-leading experts on ecological emotion, this panel will explore how climate change is affecting us inside, and how our interior worlds are shaping the world around us and the world to come. Emotion is what moves us, as Glenn Albrecht writes in his book Earth Emotions: New Words for a New World. The panel will help us see and understand the feelings and emotions about climate change which are moving us to grief, dread, anger, and paralysis – and, sometimes, to action. It asks how we care for each other as conditions deteriorate, and how better understanding what is happening inside us helps to build the strong, resilient selves and communities required for transformative climate action.

Speakers:

• Dr Glenn A. Albrecht is an Honorary Associate in the School of Geosciences, The University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He retired as Professor of Sustainability, Walter Murdoch University, in mid-2014. He continues to work as an environmental philosopher and published a book, Earth Emotions, with Cornell University Press in 2019. 
• Yehansa Dahanayake is a volunteer with the Australian Youth Climate Coalition and a youth co-researcher at the Young & Resilient Research Centre. She is interested in using the arts to enhance climate conversations and relieve climate distress.
• Dr Sally Gillespie, researcher, writer and workshop facilitator in the climate psychology and ecopsychology fields. Her book Climate Crisis and Consciousness: Reimagining Our World and Ourselves explores the psychological challenges and developmental processes of climate engagement for individuals and societies.
• Christie Wilson, Psychotherapist and Regenerative Practitioner, Climate and Mental Health manager for Psychology for a Safe Climate and core team member for Regen Sydney.

This event is hosted by Dr James Dunk and moderated by Dr Chloe Watfern and supported by the Ecological Emotions Research Lab and School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney, together with Psychology for a Safe Climate.

• Dr James Dunk is a historian and interdisciplinary researcher in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Sydney, exploring how concepts and practices of self and community are changing in the face of planetary crisis. He is co-director of the Ecological Emotions Research Lab.
• Dr Chloe Watfern is an artist, writer and researcher focused on the connections between climate change and mental health. She works at the Ecological Emotions Research Lab, University of Sydney, the Black Dog Institute, UNSW and Maridulu BuydariGumal SPHERE.