As we begin to experience the effects of a rapidly warming world, from historic floods to suffocating heat waves, people across the U.S. are coming together to talk about their fears in what are being dubbed as "climate cafes."
The New York Times reported on this trend, which is growing in popularity from Kansas City to New York. The publication spoke with Rebecca Nestor of the Climate Psychology Alliance, a nonprofit that trains facilitators, who said the number of cafes has greatly increased in the past three years. So far, her group has trained around 350 people to run these groups in the U.S., Canada, and Europe.
A June 2024 survey found that 53% of Americans feel the effects of our changing climate are having an impact on their mental health — this was up from 5% in 2022. Climate cafes are a way for people to deal with the anxieties they may feel.
For instance, the Times article described one Black woman at a New York City climate cafe who wept as she voiced her difficulty in accepting that people of color will be disproportionately affected by a warming world.
In Kansas City, Sami Aaron, who founded the Resilient Activist, said her group tries to instill hope in participants. Aaron lost her son, a graduate and student at Berkeley, to suicide after he expressed feelings of hopelessness about the changing climate.
The concept of climate cafes is nothing new, the Times explained — environmental activists have organized similar meetings since the 1970s, and Native American communities have long convened to grieve the loss of land. Meanwhile, a parallel movement for climate optimism has been encouraged by some Gen Zers like Zahra Biabani.
But the question remains: do climate cafes actually work? That's hard to say. While there's no data on mental health outcomes, it appears to be a good first step for many.
"The dread, the hopelessness is getting exiled in all of us, and that's why we're not talking about it, because it's too painful," Lauren Bondy, a participant in an Illinois cafe geared for therapists, told the Times. "If we can't heal what we're all feeling, we can't heal our planet either."
Meanwhile, it's important that we act to help curb the overheating of our planet. You can help by voting for pro-climate candidates, changing the way you get around, and greening up your home.
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