 Yes, good morning everyone and thank you Sarah also. Thank you to the UK CP when I First got this invitation It was surprising and a bit daunting because I've someone who's never actually touched a book on psychology and I only Visited a counsellor for the first time in my life earlier this year. So being here is For me it's part of my own journey in learning about Psychotherapy and exploring how psychotherapists can actually help our the predicament we find ourselves in now and Yes, you mentioned extinction rebellion So it's important. I think to note that we're gathering today after two weeks of action across across London and I I was I'll come to why I wasn't able to be involved in a moment But it was quite amazing to see a whole range of friends For example, Jeffrey Newman a 77 year old 77 year young rabbi Sitting in front of the Bank of England and being arrested and for those of you who don't know anyone who's taking nonviolent civil disobedience It's I'd say to just take a moment to think what is it that is moving people to decide to actually risk Rest and potentially a painful arrest In order to communicate how now climate change is such an important thing in their lives And I think that's what extinction rebellion is doing through taking nonviolent direct action is Helping us see that for some people increasing numbers of people. This is becoming so important that they put the rest of their lives on hold Now I I think I've had my eyes on a opinion polls for a while Because I'm interested to know the extent to which people in different countries are Waking up to climate change. There was a you gov poll in July Of 28 countries and in all but four of them the majority of people asked Said that they thought climate change would have a fair amount or great deal of impact on their own lives so We are seeing a shift in in in awareness and therefore anxiety about that But I'm not here because of the growing numbers of people who are presenting And well asking for counseling because of eco anxiety I'm here because I'm interested in how psychotherapists Can play a role in communities and helping Communities actually understand how to support each other in the anxieties associated with this Which are I believe only going to to get worse And I I've been witnessing a social phenomenon since just over a year when my deep adaptation paper came out Which is that that people are In in response to this information about climate change Are rebelling in a different way they're rebelling in terms of the norms of our society in terms of what emotions are Somehow allowed or invited to be expressed publicly. I'm seeing people engaged in public grieving and Sharing despair together And I think that's really important Because otherwise keeping those emotions suppressed can lead to other emotions which will create perhaps More troubles ahead So I'm interested in how this shocking news about the climate is actually acting as a catalyst for people to transform and I think it's because there's something really important in when you're faced with a An impossible difficulty something that you can't immediately see a way out of there's something really important there it really challenges who you are and In that context, then a lot of stories of self can can fall away and you're left with You're left with a greater attention to what's most important to you so often that's For nearly everyone then it's about it's about love. It's about love of people around you And it's about love of nature, and it's about being fully present in in the current moment And I wasn't able to rebel myself because I was with my dad In Devon for a week Working with him looking at all the different treatment pathways for his bladder cancer and We were looking at I was going online and looking At research papers and we were comparing what he'd been told by the doctors We were basically comparing Treatment pathways, which would give him a one in three chance of living beyond five years and A one in two chance of living beyond five years But with many worse side effects in the treatment process some of which could could last beyond that and That was probably the best week I've ever spent with him in my life Left tenant commander of the Royal Navy someone who was away at sea a lot when I was a kid I Don't remember that we ever really connected emotionally as we were motions We played cricket together. We talked about career and money and stuff But not really about what was on our hearts and so For me, I mean for example At one point I cried and dad got off the bed and gave me a hug and this this was for me as Yeah, a shift and I think a shift Not just in our relationship, but I think a shift in how we both of us are experiencing life being much more focused on the present moment because of that sense of Yeah, but we're not in control that we don't know what's ahead that life seems more fragile and more precious Everything seems more impermanent and so that really then means that we drop all those stories of postponing Having conversations or postponing making those choices to put what's most important front and center in our lives so I I Think that's relevant for us Because A few times people have said to me that We would never tell anyone with cancer to give up and Therefore why are you Jim telling people or implying people that we should give up on climate? So I'm not telling anyone to give up on trying to curb carbon emissions to try and slow down Climate change and I'm going to come back to that But I think that comparison I often hear there's quite a few people who are saying this to me I think it reveals something that's problematic Helping a loved one explore what they want from their life To make conscious decisions not arising from either fear or all denial seems the right thing to do and my dad's doctors first Advocated treatment pathways, which were purely focused on longevity and they were quite surprised when he then said well I'm interested in quality of life as much as as anything And so I want you to support me and looking at all options I Think it's quite in the same way it would be quite normal to when we're faced with a shocking situation of climate To actually we try and support each other with open minds and open hearts to work out. What are the options? and allow a breadth and depth of conversation about our predicament and I think it's only then we're going to have meaningful dialogue about all the options Now I recognize that to some unish some people That can all sound a bit bleak and melodramatic to make that comparison. So what I'm going to do now is Summarize some of the the climate science and I I should note that Nothing I'm going to say means that any of us here are in any imminent danger However It is terrifying stuff and I I Don't want to numb myself From this information. It's often why I don't give many talks now because if I was to do it it would be quite numbing but Climate change is is worse than we were told It's already one degree warmer globally since 1850 or near 1.5 degrees warmer since 1750 That doesn't sound much, but that's about 11% more energy in the atmosphere Since the beginning of the industrial revolution and that makes our weather more extreme floods droughts Storms heat waves and so on and that affects our agriculture and settlements and our climate is changing faster than what was predicted a Recent study found the Arctic permafrost is rating at a melt melting at a rate That was that is 70 years ahead of the worst-case scenarios When I say worst-case scenarios that's based on business as usual emissions a geophysics paper published this year estimates We could lose the Arctic summarized by 20 30 Now that matters because of the self-reinforcing Feedbacks that exist for example melting permafrost releases methane, which is very strong greenhouse gas And another feedback of course is the loss of the reflective power of white ice and so one top British polar scientists Has calculated that if we lose all of the Arctic summer ice that will be Give a heat-forcing effect equivalent to half of all humanities emissions ever And of course other feedback loops come from our soils drying and releasing carbon dioxide or wildfire spreading Into places that are very unusual like the Arctic and releasing carbon dioxide So we should do all that we can to cut emissions now But we should not ignore where we're at whatever we do For example There's about a 40 year lag in the full warming effect of carbon dioxide emissions 40 years after it's released And also one study found that about 90% of all energy that's been trapped by additional greenhouse gases has warmed the ocean 90% so that means that that heat is there to further warm the air over the coming decades So one peer-reviewed study Said we have a one in 20 chance of going extinct by the end of this century because of climate change now that paper was unusual But the latest models on climate change the very latest ones that the IPCC will be using next year for their reports They've been predicting up to seven degrees Tempered by the end of this century Now these are merely models and projections what that shows is That some of the best research and best minds are Seeing a future which really does threaten the future of our species And it's why the name of extinction rebellion although they've been criticized the last two weeks on the on the science Actually for that reason that a human extinction now seems possible Because of our own actions. I think their names warranted Now hearing such astonishing information Many people would say well. Yeah, but why didn't IPCC the intergovernmental panel on climate change say we have ten years to Dressedly cut emissions in order to avoid the worst. Yes, they did and it's still important to cut emissions And to draw down carbon from the atmosphere both naturally and to try artificially But to make their figures seem less scary to policymakers in their 1.5 degree report last October The IPCC had to imagine negative emissions technologies which don't exist yet at scale stripping 250 gigatons of carbon out of the atmosphere And then with all the other things they recommended it would give us only a 50-50 chance of staying on one under 1.5 degrees However, as Sarah mentioned our emissions are going up And if mapped on a graph since 1850 along with land use change emissions It's near exponential matches to an exponential curve So Dr. Wolfgang Noor who produced this graph Calculates the current rate of emissions mean that we'll have used up the planetary carbon budget by 2025 So there's strong evidence That we're heading for more climate chaos and Societal disruption from climate change is already here the UN Secretary-General Said last month in a speech that was pretty much not hardly reported at all That climate this is a quote climate disruption is now and everywhere So climate changes are leading to increased hardship and water and food shortages and hunger in many countries disease and worsening natural disasters as Well as migration and conflict and last month the Red Cross Reported that two million more people each week need humanitarian aid because of climate chaos two million people each week Now I realize that many of you who are new to the topic of climate change Maybe thinking well What does this mean to our daily lives and I hear a lot of people who are waking up to climate change were saying so well Can we not turn down the thermostat? Switch off lights stop flying By more local by solar panels and so on and they're all really good things But they really don't make much difference and can within an industrial growth Society that bans fossil fuels for everything huge amounts of fossil fuels are used for Everything that we interact with Every day, I mean if you look at all the food in the supermarket for example Burning fossil fuels is involved in the production processing packaging distribution refrigeration Advertising retail cooking and waste processing And for 30 years people have tried within this existing system to curb carbon emissions That graph shows all the different types of policy interventions over that time And so that graph suggests that we've completely failed So the risks of climate change are now finally coming to haunt our own lives So last year production in UK and Europe of Fruit vegetables and grains slumped by about 20% because of the drought and In Britain where we import some estimates are about 60% of our all our food we import Finally the UK Parliamentary Committee admitted that we are facing a food security crisis For example because 20% of our food imports Come from places which are being severely affected right now disrupted by climate change So we're no longer immune to the climate that we've been destabilizing And so I think it really is relevant to start asking what would we do if our society begins to break down It's a shocking question and many people don't want to even allow such a discussion But I think in resisting that conversation means we're actually wasting some time to explore and prepare for what may be arriving soon If not already underway Now of course many experts in many different fields debate whether it's right or wrong to talk like this But as I mentioned that you got pole It even asked people whether they thought humans might go extinct and a Majority of people in Asia polled by you gov thought that humans may go extinct this entry Because of climate change a majority in general in 28 countries said that they thought climate change would trigger war so It's out there in some way, but the connection to How we you know how we process that or how we talk to each other or what we do about I think is still beginning to be made Um, yeah, so asking people to be less pessimistic about the future I think It's probably a weak response either intellectually or emotionally and although I don't know I would say it's probably a weak approach therapeutically So I'm gonna share it share with you a little bit of my own journey with this stuff So for years, I believe the argument the most we not we must not give up hope For a better future as otherwise we would stop trying to create change But as I looked at the latest science and measurements in 2018 It seemed dishonest to let that attachment to hope prevent me from processing what I thought I was seeing So I began to consider privately the idea that it's too late to stop this And I discovered many personal fears to do with my own identity I was scared that losing hope of having a positive impact through my efforts on the environment would mean that I would see My past efforts and struggles as pointless I worried it would mean I had no idea what to do next I Worried that without an idea of how to be useful I would feel pointless And I worried that if it could be unbearable to live with such a bleak outlook on the future But after a time I allowed that shock Grief and fear I regret and confusion to all sort of Unravel into despair and the paper I wrote on deep adaptation looking back on it now. I think it was part of my process because it was partly a scream of anguish With not really knowing what to do but an invitation for people to to start talking with me and with each other about what to do But I think looking back I've discovered that allowing that despair can let many other things begin It meant that I could no longer work on the environment as I've done for the previous 20 years I gave up the idea that we could reform this system And I don't just mean capitalism. I mean the whole industrial growth society and the assumptions of progress and Human dominion that it's all based on I also gave up the idea we could change things to another system in time to prevent Devastating client consequences from what we've done to the climate So I started to ask deeper questions about meaning and the meaning of hope and what we could hope for and work towards now And because it's Something that I hear so often hope we must have hope. I thought I'd talk about it today Because yeah, I've been told by a lot of people generally must have hoped over the past year I've also been told that people like me should not be undermining people's hope And such views are often stated as if so obvious that they don't need an explanation But I think unthinking Allegiance to hope is part of the way our culture invites us to be averse to emotional pain and to uncertainty And I believe that it needs to change for us to try to reduce harm from now on So I'm going to unpack the notion of hope in our time of climate crisis But I was wondering if it was going to be possible to do that in a speech in this format Because I've actually found that I only get somewhere on this topic in one-to-one conversations On a retreat I was co-leading One of the male participants he said but Jim people need hope and Society needs hope it's important for society and I asked him if Because of the way that we were working on that retreat I asked him to own that statement for himself So then okay. Yes. I need hope and Then to explore in a conversation. Well What does that mean? How does he feel about that? So what what what when he says I need hope? What's the nature of the hope and what's the nature of the need and to consider perhaps that might not be so And so in that conversation We ended up in a very different place Where he realized that he thought that with him not having hope of a better materially better future would be emotionally unbearable and But in conversation he realized that well, that's an emotion. That's not him It's an emotion that's happening and that actually It wouldn't mean That he couldn't go on it would mean that he would ask different questions About what to do next and what he believes in so dropping those stories of hope would actually mean that he would think about What is most important to me in my life right here and right now? And then he said he discovered that the story of hope was actually disempowering in terms of what he should be doing right now and also sort of in displacement as a Displacement into some vague sense of the future about when he would fully live according to his perspective and his values so as I'm in an academic I'll try and Not just tell that tale but actually try and offer you a step-by-step breakdown of the concept of hope in a time of climate chaos So first we can explore what we mean by the word or concept hope Then we can explore what the vision or goal being hope for actually is a third We can explore why we think hope is useful for ourselves or people more generally So starting with definitions many people who tell me that we must not lose hope Do not say what they mean by the word some people mean their wish Some people mean their expectation and some people mean their plan that it's actually quite specific For each of those forms of hope it seems they're not things That we should not give up on because learning about ourselves and our situation often involves giving up on certain wishes certain expectations and certain plans so perhaps When people say we mustn't give up on hope what they're really saying is we must not stop being positive And I think this reflects the as Sarah said this sort of habit of positivity in our culture Means we're averse to difficult emotions and to impermanence and in the face of climate chaos Many people like myself have come to in a quite different place Which is positive now But it's not through being attached to being positive So a second unpacking of this concept of hope Explore involves exploring what the vision or goal that we're hoping for it is People who like me say that a climate induced breakdown of our way of life is now likely or inevitable Begin to explore new goals and vision visions, which then inform our lives So I am hoping for a livable planet and a more lovable world one that maintains life support systems including for us And where more of us are living presently and lovingly With each other and with nature and I wish for that and I work for it, but I'm not expecting it And for me accepting that it's too late to stop climate chaos wrecking our way of life is Not giving up but waking up to a wider and a deeper agenda an agenda that includes Questions of how we reduce harm save what we can Learn how this tragedy came to be and seek meaning and joy in the process no matter what's ahead a Third unpacking of hope is to explore why we think hope is useful for ourselves or people more generally Whereas some people seem to be encouraged by believing a story of a preferred future others are helped by dropping such stories even if painful for a time and Then gauging engaging fully in the moment with a passion for living their truth and yet Equanimity with whatever's ahead in this sense for some people Accepting that there is much suffering to come from climate chaos Doesn't mean that they feel helpless, but they feel powerfully hope-free and newly engaged in life Now this allegiance to hope and positivity in our culture also means that we don't allow as much as we might the public sharing and discussion of our emotions of sadness confusion and grief in the face of climate change Nor our longing to connect and to experience wonder at life Rather in public and professional life. We invite each other to be happy positive and capable Of course, that's only half the picture In the in the mediated while we live in the news tells us to be fearful or to scoff or sneer or to hate people and Of course the advertising media tells us to feel inadequate unless we have the the latest brand or experience But none of this is helping us to open up to each other Vulnerably about whatever's inside and that therefore means that we in the normal culture are Dulling a certain form of knowing So that's why many people talk about they sort of insure it that something's really wrong with our society and where we're headed But we're sort of numbing that And so in my work, I'm sort of encouraging people to connect with that To actually validate that in each other and have conversations from that in a knowing So most people Having those emotions are not seeking psychological support like I didn't for a long time Like me, I think many people are suppressing those emotions of Sadness and fear and grief and of course that can then lead to the secondary emotions anger and blame and hatred And those may offer a sort of a distraction for a time, but my fear is they're gonna make matters worse So I think it's gonna really be helpful to support each other in allowing and exploring those suppressed emotions of sadness and fear and grief And it's why In April when I spoke at the launch of the international rebellion for extinction rebellion I said that we're scared, but we're proud enough to say so We're traumatized, but we're open enough to say so But I'm here today because I'm interested in what psychotherapy may be able to do to help in this age of climate anxiety And I'm I'm new to the to the profession Entirely as I said earlier So I've been playing catch-up and been reading a bunch of things all the different articles that journalists are putting out on On climate anxiety or eco anxiety And I read the website patient info which tells me it publishes clinical information certified to me NHS England's Information standard, so I was interested to see them write about my paper on deep adaptation. I'm going to quote In one case a viral academic paper scared people so much that it reportedly caused people to go into therapy Quit their jobs and move out of the city With seemingly nothing but bad news coming our way How can we feel more positive and care for our mental health in the age of climate anxiety? End quote well, perhaps one way way might be to go into therapy quit your job and move out of the city. I Think that sounds like a great idea And the people I know who've sought therapeutic support quit their job or reduced hours and moved out of the city Are telling me that they're having the best time of their lives So the article listed a range of useful things for emotional well-being such as taking some exercise and having some fun But it also talked about a sense of helplessness some of us have in the face of climate change Where we sense that we can't do much about the problem The author used the theory of learned helplessness to suggest that a lack of self-efficacy could lead to depression Now I'm new to psychology, so I should be cautious here But it may I tentatively Suggest my provisional view is that it's bullshit Now the theory of course has horrible origins in electrocuting dogs But leaving that aside citing theories like this Maybe an unconscious attempt to protect the author and the intended reader from their own difficult emotions as a professor I know well that impulse to seek refuge by feeling a bit more knowledgeable than others and as such it can be a narcissistic defense mechanism that's going to impair the usefulness of psychotherapy in this time of climate chaos Instead I would recommend psychotherapist dialogue with people who are experiencing anxiety about the state of our environment To discover the myriad ways that people are being affected But if psychologists talk with people expressing anxiety about climate change from an assumption that they have a problem rather than Humanity having a problem then we're not going to get very far Faced with the latest climate news anxiety is natural more over looking at the future. We face despair is natural Despair is valid despair Can be and should be Transformative in this context therefore. I wonder whether psychotherapists will offer that much on climate anxiety at first They haven't allowed themselves To go into despair themselves and to learn from that I Think of the sort of the archetype of the wounded healer in this context So we need to be in this together because therapists are in danger from climate change now just like anyone Now at a top conference for psychotherapists today. I'm not going to recommend people get depressed And I'm not experiencing and I haven't experienced depression myself But I know people who have and I've witnessed how tough and painful it is But I've been told by some therapists and some people who have been depressed that In the society where they live and now it's quite a natural response It's quite a valid response and it's often transformative And I hear from people who've been in depression that it was a crisis of purpose and actually looking back It seems like some kind of spiritual emergency that actually transformed the way they then would live from then on They found themselves to be more gentle more loving to both themselves and others But some have told me that there was a lack of guidance for them to support them in that aspect that potential of their depression So I'm wondering in a time of climate crisis Could we begin to see depression as a rite of passage a horrible but useful means of positive Disintegration of our old stories of self in the future a means by which we can discover forms of meaning and well-being Which do not depend on fitting in better with this society one that after all is committing a massive destruction of life on earth So if so how might we support each other if and when people experience it and I don't have any answers on this But I know that if you focus on helping people function better in this destructive society Then I'm not going to mourn psychotherapy if it collapses along with everything else So what can be done the future is looking really tough Humanity risks making matters worse as our fear Drives us to uncooperative and sometimes even violent behavior Part of the reason for such a response may be those unrecognized suppressed emotions That by covering up then lead to anger to blame and to hatred As a layperson I think it important It's important learning to not react from those unconscious emotions or from our aversion to those of emotions So it's going to be useful to help make conscious some of those emotions that are being suppressed In my experiences outside the mainstream psychotherapy I've I've discovered things that um that have worked for me authentic relating and circling the passenger or insight meditation But also practices which helped me experience a sense of self beyond a limited separate one They involve non-ordinary states of consciousness and those included for me breathwork shamanic journeys and spiritual dance So I wonder if the power of these conscious expanding practices is Perhaps helping or could help address one of the deepest traumas that we all have Which is the trauma of existing as a separate life form that will die So with the right guidance these conscious expanding practices could invite people towards their undiscovered unself By transcending a sense of separation one might be free of all kinds of anxiety including eco anxiety So I would recommend that psychotherapy explores these practices more in future and of course I'd recommend you start with yourselves Now I hear that good psychotherapy is not available to many people And not available often unless you're quite wealthy And it's also something that many people don't look for so I didn't look for psychotherapy counseling until 46 years of age And of course people who don't seek it suppressing those emotions could then experience Well anger blame hatred and so on as a means of escaping their pain and that will obviously make matters worse So to help reduce harm In our societies there's a need somehow for these psychophysicotherapeutic support to be offered in community Across the whole of society without request. It just becomes a natural way that we help each other And I wonder how that could happen to scale it will need to be done through intermediaries Through people who are supported with approaches to host gatherings in settings that are accessible to lots of people Facilitators offering processes through schools universities faith organizations trade unions professional bodies and activist groups now psychotherapists could advise on the processes in those Meetings and gatherings could provide counseling for facilitators and hosts of those and also be available at those events for those people who are Most affected and need that support Because the need and opportunity for helping people come together on the climate emergency to explore difficult emotions and future choices is Key and is now central to the work of the deep adaptation forum, which I launched earlier this year And we're discovering and developing ways of providing Training and advice online for people to then host spaces in person in multiple locations So our hope in a time of climate crisis is promoting other ways of responding than fear and anger Our hope in a time of climate crisis is that experiencing the fragility and impermanence of life Can lead more of us to greater gratitude For the present and less involvement in all the judgments and tactics of our minds We can be freer to love and to forgive each other and ourselves and do Whatever we can to help whatever may come Thank you