The takeaway? Understanding climate-related distress as a form of grief may foster wellbeing and climate action by helping people process difficult feelings in ways that increase access to positive emotions while connecting them to personal values that motivate climate action.

3) Framing distressing climate emotions as grief helped interviewees’ reframe difficult feelings as reflections of their love for the world and their desire for positive change.

2) There was a multi-directional relationship between grief and positive emotions wherein processing climate grief increased access to positive emotions like love and joy, and in some cases positive life experiences were accompanied by climate grief.

1) Climate grief emerged from personal, ecological, and collective loss and vulnerability, connecting interviewees personal emotional lives with broader social-ecological issues.

We found that recognizing and honoring grief for climate-related loss can support well-being and reveal personal values that inspire climate action.

Three key insights emerged from our interviews. 👇👇👇

The takeaway? Understanding climate-related distress as a form of grief may foster wellbeing and climate action by helping people process difficult feelings in ways that increase access to positive emotions while connecting them to personal values that motivate climate action.

3) Framing distressing climate emotions as grief helped interviewees’ reframe difficult feelings as reflections of their love for the world and their desire for positive change.

2) There was a multi-directional relationship between grief and positive emotions wherein processing climate grief increased access to positive emotions like love and joy, and in some cases positive life experiences were accompanied by climate grief.

1) Climate grief emerged from personal, ecological, and collective loss and vulnerability, connecting interviewees personal emotional lives with broader social-ecological issues.

We found that recognizing and honoring grief for climate-related loss can support well-being and reveal personal values that inspire climate action.

Three key insights emerged from our interviews. 👇👇👇

The takeaway? Facing the climate crisis means withstanding grief for what’s lost. Our study shows collective grieving protects mental health & builds capacity for sustained, transformative action—highlighting the need for community spaces to process climate emotions.

4) Collectively mourning ecological grief supported capacity for collective action by reminding interviewees that their troubles are shared and the solutions are collective.

3) Collective practices for mourning ecological grief also helped interviewees cope with personal loss and hardship.

2) Collectively witnessing ecological grief was cathartic and improved wellbeing.

1) Collective grieving practices helped destigmatize difficult emotions about climate change and reconnected interviewees to personal values that motivate action.

We found that collective practices for mourning climate change-related grief improved both individual wellbeing and capacity for individual and collective climate action.

Four key insights emerged from our interviews. 👇👇👇