To speed up or to give up

The IPCC scenarios are dire, and the likelihood that mankind is able to reach the 1.5 degrees target (or even the 2.0 degrees target) are getting smaller every day. At the same time, scientific knowledge about how grim the future with climate change of more than 2 degrees will look like is growing, and more and more people around the globe are aware of this threat. For many, it is more and more difficult not to resign and give up the fight, and instances of substantial climate worry, which impairs the quality of life, are getting more frequent. In this workshop, we will explore how being confronted with one of the most substantial threats in human history affects people emotionally, how to deal with this state of emotional alarm, and – maybe – how to not give up.

14:00     Welcome and introduction – Christian Klöckner / Magnus Korpås
14:20     Leonore Zutter  – engaged activist from XR speaking about the motivation to speeding up the fight 
14:40     Sigrid Steen Haugen (from «når det rakner» - blog speaking about “giving up fighting against climate change”)
15:00     Susan Clayton speaking about emotions and climate change based on her research 
15:20     Panu Pihkala from the climate change and happiness podcast
15:40     Dominika Zaremba reporting from the Climate-Change-Emotions project / Nencki Institute, Warsaw, Poland 
16:00     Group work with the audience about the dilemma between speeding up and giving up
17:00     End of workshop 

About the presenters

Leonore Zutter is a 24 year old environmental activist. She began activism in 2018 after her experience in international climate policy as a United Nations Youth Delegate for Luxembourg confirmed the suspicion that political decision-making and international policy do not embody the urgency of the climate emergency. Alongside her undergraduate degree of law in the United Kingdom Leonore began organising climate strikes under the movement Fridays for Future with youth from the local community. With the sudden rise and popularity of Extinction Rebellion (XR) across the UK, Leonore set up a student group in her university and mobilised students to part take in civil disobedience both against the university and against the UK government. Today, Leonore is working in Trondheim and active with the local XR chapter. 

Sigrid Haugen has been working together with Mari Bremnes Ese on the project "When Things Unravel" for several years, where they abandon the idea that we can "fix the climate crisis" within our current system, and rather look at different ways of approaching and adressing the predicament we're in.  Sigrid has a MA in Religious Studies (NTNU 2016), and a BA in Counseling and Adult Learning (NTNU 2019). She wrote her bachelors on the topic of counseling in the era of climate crisis, exploring grief and acceptance, adaptation and resilience. Her main practice is working with embodying the concept of becoming a good ancestor.

Susan Clayton is the Whitmore-Williams Professor of Psychology at the College of Wooster in Ohio and a visiting fellow at the Paris Institute for Advanced Studies, 2021-22. Dr. Clayton’s research examines people’s relationship with the natural environment, how it is socially constructed, and how a healthy relationship with nature can be promoted. She has written about the effects of climate change on mental health, and has developed a scale to assess climate anxiety. A fellow of the American Psychological Association, she is a lead author on the forthcoming Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Panu Pihkala from the University of Helsinki is a leading expert in interdisciplinary eco-anxiety research. Pihkala has published monographs in Finnish about eco-anxiety (2017) and ecological emotions (2019), and his research articles in English are often cited by scholars from various disciplines. Among other positions of trust, Pihkala serves as a leading advisor for the Finnish national project on social and health sector responses to eco-anxiety. He hosts the podcast Climate Change and Happiness together with Dr. Thomas Doherty.

Dominika Zaremba is a PhD student at Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology in Warsaw, Poland with a background in cognitive science and psychology. She is currently working on a research project “Understanding patterns of emotional responses to climate change and their relation to mental health and climate action taking”, where she conducts research with people experiencing intense emotions related to climate change. In her research, she wants to discover how to better communicate information about climate change to promote adaptive responses and motivate pro-environmental behaviour. 

Christian A. Klöckner is a professor in social and environmental psychology at NTNU and is interested in studying individual, social and structural drivers of environmental behaviour, as well as environmental communication. Recently, he became more interested also in the emotional component of being confronted with global environmental crises such as the climate crisis. He leads the research group for “citizens, environment and safety” at NTNU and is involved in many national and international research projects.