 Welcome everyone, my name is Mahio Ghaz, I'm based in Turkey, I'm also one of the resident climate science and policy wants at 250, we do have a few of those. One aspect of closely following climate science and policy is often the anxiety that brings it's not uncommon to see scientists, activists, or even people only casually following developments in those two spaces lose their grip and burn out and drop out of the movement. Today we're going to delve into these issues in our panel called grounding ourselves science updates and our mental health. We have four illustrious panelists to help us navigate through this conversation and I'd like to briefly present our panel on this to you, this is in no particular order by the way. Co-Barrett is the Deputy Assistant Administrator for Research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOVA. You might have also seen her name in relation with IPCC because in 2015 she became one of the first women elected to serve as a vice chair of the IPCC. George Marshall has in excess of 30 years of experience at all levels of communication and advocacy. We have senior positions in many international NGOs, at many advisory roles for governments, businesses, and international agencies and his book from 2014 was called Don't Even Think About It, Why Are Grants a White People Climate Change. Luisa Neubauer is a German climate activist. She is one of the main organizers of these food sites for the climate movement in Germany, among her many indigenous people, multiple NGOs, and many accomplishments. And Rene Laxman is a pioneer and leader at the intersection of psychology, climate and environmental. She translates psychology and social science based practices into tools that unleash the potential for creativity and courage. Rene is also regularly commissioned to and produce research for a range of institutions and agencies. So thank you so much for agreeing to be here today on this panel. We are going through difficult times, our climate anxiety which had been climbing for many years now has been compounded by the pandemic last year. We lost many of our usual coping mechanisms and in this panel we're going to be talking about what latest both in terms of science and just how well and also how we can take all of that in stride and stay active in the climate. So welcome once again. I do have a warm-up question though before we jump in. It's a very short one and I can start by answering mine. It's a is there a piece of music that boasters your courage? Huge listener. Mine is a not very well known bodilent song. It's called Let Me Die In My Footsteps Which I Like. George, do you have one yourself? I'm a huge fan of old jazz and I actually have a wind-up record player which I when I get sick of my endless zoom calls I go and I wind it up and I put on a record and I have a set of Louis Armstrong's Hot Fives from 1938. I put those on the map. Good choice. Gosh, that's George I can I think we just got a preview of you on Desert Island so good warm-up I've been preparing for it for years. I can tell you've got it down. Um gosh you know um for me it's I turn to Kierchler and I really love putting on like Devil Come All or um Chris Doss and I'm going to have to happen it if there's some wind in my sail oh boy you're diving right into the differences you can see. We've already seen the differences or differences between them. I really like to listen to some rock music like The Beers of Grateful Dead and this kind of music and what I love about it is the true improvisation on the chair um the way that they have put some jam in the middle of a song they're probably going to be between songs and you know as a listener you don't know really what they're going to do. I just want that to be a definitely way to improve. I'm talking of differences um but I personally I like to listen to the um I might start to play the guitar or play the piano or something like that so I'm going to be more relaxed. You know I sometimes when I want to be big I'm going to have a headache or I'm going to be nervous but when it comes to music I'm going to be more relaxed. I I'm talking more about classical music and I have a lot of friends I have a couple of friends called rock bands and I love listening to their music. I listen to their music and I laugh out loud and I feel very happy. I listen to their music and I think of what they wrote that song and what they were thinking. I think all the people's singing is a specific time and a moment. I think it's very interesting. That's good. That's your way of resting. So that's it for this video. So let's start with Ko, your work on the IPCC, etc. How much use is there in science? Is it a useful tool? I think it makes sense for me to feel the question like that because I am a scientist, and a lot of people don't. Of course, science is a very important aspect. For climate change, it is very important. 30 years ago, climate scientists thought it was this problem. In the last decades, we have been more and more understanding of this aspect of science. At first, we were wondering if climate change was causing it. And now, what does this mean for me in my background in my life? And now, we are wondering if climate change has any impact on me. Of course, science is a very important aspect. But at the same time, I have been thinking about it, especially in terms of what we are going to talk about today. And you know, it is just a piece of the puzzle. It is an important piece. And science is not really something that the loose movement has really been doing with science. But they have something really, really important in the conversation. And that is, sometimes, human science can be a very logical thing. Sometimes, science can be too logical. But young people and other scientists, it brings us into the question of climate change. And then, you know, they are thinking, how can we cooperate with one another? And I recently saw, I guess it was the Secretary General of the UN, the Secretary General of the UN, who wants to COVID. And what do we want to do? We are saying that we need science, and we need solidarity. We need that. We need that. We need that. We need that. And we need the science. And all the climate change is the same. We need to cooperate, we need to be putting the human needs on issues. We need that. We kind of all need to go together, we are going to get it together. And we need to think about it. So, you know, and it is an interesting thing to think about. And all the science, you know, kind of, you know, there's a friction between those who are not actually working hard on finding things, or maybe we just have to understand what science might have to say. But I think only we believed in the silence. So, you know, that we can all work on this time. But in science, it is important to be a search engine. But in research, it is not actively working on climate solutions, it is not that there is any kind of action on the field. But some are very hard to understand, and some people are very hard to understand. There's more actual action issues from a value place. Most of them will be based on their own values. And they may be interested in that. They may be interested in that. They may say, you know, I think it's important for us to be compassionate and compassionate. And we are not kind of an antagonist, right? But how do we bring people together to work on parts of this that are actually solving the problem with respect to that. And I think, you know, we need to focus on solidarity and realize how we need to work together. This is a very important part of that. So, I think that's all for now. I hope that you have some companies that are interested in this topic. Thank you. Speaking of science, I think our tendency or that kind of thinking is that why do we ignore these kinds of experiences? You had this question of when you first moved to this city in 2014. Why do we ignore the importance of this context? How do we solve this problem? Since you first moved here it has been 7 years. How do you change your thinking? I really like the fact that we need to look at social and cultural factors, not just looking at data and science. Of course, science is important, but just like what I wrote in the book, now you can save the most information from the people around you. Of course, science has facts, but we also have other facts in exchange. Of course, climate change is something that people can't accept. If we have challenges, or if we feel like something is wrong, we will ignore it. But if we have something to do with our identity, we will start thinking about these issues. If we feel that these are facts, for example, I keep drawing my own eyes, I draw my own eyes. So, although I am very clear about this, this is a dangerous behavior, but my friends around me draw their own eyes, so I won't take my eyes off. Climate change is the same, we don't like to hear the news. So we need to understand the relationship between us and others. This is a huge motivation for us. Climate change, the reason why we can't accept it is that the relationship between us and others has some impact. If we have a more detailed attitude, we can work with others. That may be different. First, we need to understand how to deal with these topics. I've heard a lot of scientists say that they will share a lot of terrible information. But they will share a lot of data in a very difficult way. They won't talk about our feelings or emotions. I think scientists don't like to talk about their emotions. Of course, we have a similar situation. Of course, some people like to talk about it. I often say that this is a matter of the future. But we find that a lot of people will talk about climate change. They won't talk about it. Of course, since I wrote this, this situation has been changing. But a lot of people don't talk about it anymore. If we don't talk about it, it won't affect the relationship between us and others. It's a very terrible thing in the future. It's like we're going to die one day. We feel like there's going to be climate change one day. But if we keep talking about this, it's very important to us. We talk about these things with friends, relatives, and family. We are very active. This is more important than talking about it. The most important thing is to talk about these things with your family and neighbors. I just said a lot. I now want to ask others to share your thoughts and emotions. And how do you deal with these things? I feel happy when I work. I really like my colleagues. I really like my work. When I go to work, I feel that my life is meaningful. That's how I keep going. Even though I feel that it gives me pressure. When I work with others, I feel that it's more meaningful. This is the only way I can solve this problem. I also want to share my thoughts. But in the end, I want to say that all of us are responsible. We have to think about how to communicate with others. We are the person that will say something. But we are already the person that will say something. If we have a very pessimistic attitude, or we are very upset, then they will say, if we listen to what we say, they will feel more upset. If we are more anxious, then maybe more people will participate. This is the best way for us. There's so much to respond to in what's been shared already. We have a responsibility as change agents to be exceptionally mindful and intentional about how we show up and how we communicate. I'm 100% in alignment with George that the single most powerful thing we can do is to talk, to engage. I would actually reframe it slightly, less about how we communicate and message and talk to engagement, which is much more about the relationship and the dynamics of the interactivity, that we, as no matter who you are, as a change agent, whether you're a scientist or a communicator or a student activist, a board member, CEO, that if you are actually seeking to be driving change, that we now have a remit to level ourselves up and to skill ourselves up so that we can actually truly be effective at bringing people into this conversation. And I don't say that lightly because it's actually a very high, it's a high bar. It's almost like the ultimate human challenge, which is how do you, how do you navigate extraordinarily high stakes that raise our temperature in many ways? How do you navigate the high stakes and remain present and integrated and as a neuroscientist may say, regulated. How do we keep ourselves in regulation? Meaning that we're not taking our anxiety, our fear, and just simply triggering and spreading that around so that we're unintentionally having an impact. It's like, I heard Rosemary Randall say years ago, founder of Carbon Conversations, a pioneer in this work, she talked about the hot potato, where our emotional relationship with these issues can be almost like a hot potato where it's like, I'm having trouble tolerating what I'm seeing happening, that I can't help but just sort of spread it around. And that makes total sense, but it actually undermines our efforts. And so the project that you mentioned, Project Inside Out, which is, you can find it at projectinsideout.net, is a very new initiative that's an experiment funded by the KR Foundation to see if we can turn a lot of these best practices that Koa's referenced, that George has mentioned into tools and frameworks that anyone, especially activists, can use. And the essence of the Project Inside Out leveling up that I'm talking about is how do we be more guides and think of ourselves as guides versus trying to make people change and trying to motivate people. That's an old way. It's old. It's an old way of thinking about it. I have to motivate someone. I have to get them to care. They don't care enough. How do I make them care? So I'm going to have to be either inspiring and hopeful, or I'm going to have to be really, really clarify how real this is and break through the trance. And a guide is based on the work in the public health sector that George just referenced with, you know, whether it's smoking or diet or whatever where we, you know, people have to make hard changes. How do clinicians navigate that and how do we take that and apply it to the climate context? That is, I'm with you. I'm a partner with you. I empathize. I guess this is hard. I'm in this with you together. I'm feeling scared, you know, but I'm also feeling hopeful. How are you feeling? And what that means behaviorally is there's a lot more listening. There's a lot more asking questions. There's a lot more, would you like to know more, you know, as an expert or a scientist? Because the thing is, there's a lot of people working in this space know a lot. We have a lot of information that we're holding. And it's a lot to hold that. It's a lot. And so we want to figure out how do we skillfully share what we know rather than kind of, you know, not the opposite of mindful approach to that, which is to give a PowerPoint, to give a talk. It doesn't reference the emotional dimensions of this work. So it's really exciting right now. Very exciting moment we're in right now, which I just, I never thought I'd see this happening as quickly as it is, is that we're starting to recognize that there's no separation between the content and the emotional tenor that that's, that's also old, old, you know, that's like so 10, 15, 20 years ago, you know, I'm looking at a... I didn't want to see me left out just like the two of you. But feeling like they're not alone. Do you think they're human beings? I just end with it. It's really important that we normalize whatever experiences we may be having. Thinking about these things right now It's no longer about hope or despair. It's actually a human moment right now. Existential change management. It's changed at an existential level. It's going to be overwhelming. Okay, it's overwhelming. But it's also a huge opportunity for us to see how we can get through this. We never thought of this before. We can work together and solve this problem together. Thank you. You said it was great. I want to ask you again, Luisa, if you have a chance to use some of these methods. How do you deal with this kind of anxiety? Just like I said, to make people pay more attention to this problem. Thank you. You said it was great. I'm still young. I used to be an active person. I'm back to my own life. I found out that I'm 24 years old. I'm 24 years old now. Five years later, things are almost impossible to predict. I feel it's unfair to bear all these things. As an active person, I know how complicated this problem is. I know that it's changing all the time. In fact, you'll find that these things are not reasonable. In the week, we're all in class, but in fact, we're facing this kind of crisis. So it's a very difficult decision for us. It's a very difficult situation. I think it's related to this age. We try to think in a good way. Of course, sometimes, we think very badly. Think about the difference between the 20th and 21st century. We have to do the best we can. After all, we see that everywhere is such a crisis. Obviously, many people are trying to be active. I think the most important thing is to act. Not to stand by others. I think I should act and try to change the situation. Keep silence. In fact, it's a kind of attitude. What we have to do is do what we can. Try to change the situation. As a young person, we have to know that it's really important. Your actions may also change. It's scary to think like that. Of course, you can do whatever you want. You can do whatever you want. But other people tell you to go to the world, to see the world. But no one tells you that maybe in the climate change, in the big action, you're actually very important. So we need to change the situation. We are very important in this process. We need to know what's happening. We need to know our own positioning. Not just anxiety. What's going to happen. What's not going to happen. I think the three aspects are very important. First, we talk a lot about natural sciences. We have a lot of discussions. You've talked a lot about natural sciences. I think you've talked very well. But not only about science, but also about natural sciences and social sciences. We have heard a lot of people's comments about the knowledge of science. But the teacher didn't say how we can maintain our humanity in this kind of difficult situation. What are the effects of these crisis on society? And this can help us to get closer to each other. I hope that in this kind of action we can understand more how to make a society, make a whole to deal with this problem. The most important about climate change is our feeling in last year's Marder League at the climate conference when you and the other member of the family made a speech and you mentioned a lot of important things. He said, I'm a father and I'm very afraid of climate change. This is the most profound part of my memory. Things are like this. We have to start from ourselves. We hope that something will happen. We are afraid of those things. I think this is very important in the end of the event. Finally, maybe this is a little experience that I learned from the epidemic. We are in this situation now. In the future, every stage is very important. We are in a way where we are in a very right way in which we are in a very right way. Our thoughts will completely change our position. I also try to put it into the epidemic in this position. In the epidemic, what role I am in not just thinking We often say that it is very difficult to change these operations. Two years ago, I told others that it is very difficult to change the operations. A small virus can spread from different countries to become a global epidemic. It is really impossible. And then we say that this simple method is easy. It is really stupid. We must understand ourselves. Understand humanity. We are in a crisis. What position should we be in? Who are we? I just said that it is very meaningful. This makes me very moved. I want to add one more sentence. You three just mentioned some things. But I should understand that I may not be able to solve this problem. Maybe things will be very bad. Then when will we come back? I hope that we can come back and think that we have done those things. We have worked hard. We need to cooperate. This way we can solve our problems. The most important thing is how we move. Not that we don't move. I want to respond. Louisa, I think you put a nice point on so many things that we have started to talk about. I just wanted to pick up on your point about the challenges and the opportunity that the coronavirus is putting in front of us. There are so many challenges. Many people have been devastated by this. Many people have been affected by the entire global pandemic. So we all need to change our way of working. This is a very challenging thing. But I don't think I'm running around my house. I don't have a child. So I don't have any pressure in my job. I have been working. So I don't have any pressure in the economy. But this is the first time in 30 years that I haven't made a plane in a year. I have been working on this for over 100,000 miles last year. And I have made over 100,000 in-litre planes. So this time I have provided a respite for me in terms of farming. But the important thing is that I am grounding myself in a different way. I found that because we are all working remotely, we are all working together. I found, especially with the colleagues who I interact with very frequently, that the line between our work lives and our home lives is completely blurry. I love the jobless dog. I'm in the middle of the meeting. I love the balance. But all of a sudden, my colleagues, people I work with, they are not just my colleagues. They are not just my colleagues. They are my friends who I really like. We come together to work on solutions. So I find that it's added to the humanity. I think we now have more humanity. Obviously, we had a reduction of around 7% of our greenhouse gas emissions during this time. This is not the way we see the spot. We knew about it in a more efficient way. But I think it has a big impact. We now realize that we can have some new ideas. We can imagine a more fair future. We don't necessarily need to work in this way. We now have more remote work. For example, IPCC, we are challenged because not everyone has the same level of technological because not everyone has the same level of technology. This is a big challenge. But there are more people who come to the IPCC. Not only are there two people who come to the IPCC meeting. I just want to say that we now have more opportunities if this presents us. So I think we now have a lot of opportunities. I hope we can seize these opportunities and create a better future. George, I'm going to quickly follow up on a few points of my candle. I know that a lot of people are discussing this 1.5-degree goal. I also want to say that everyone can feel scared. Luisa also mentioned this earlier. I think there's a lot of wider evidence to say that the first step towards overcoming is to learn to be able to find an emotional family. We have to have it there to learn to be able to find an emotional family. This is hard. This is scary. This is difficult. This is a lot. This is how I feel together. Together we can work together. We can only take care of each other. And the COVID-19 has brought this kind of effect. So we've collected some very, very new experiences. So I want to share this with you guys. Of course, I don't do the communication part of the work. But I think it's going to be fine. We have been very positive for many years. We have been saying that we can take action. We have a lot of good skills. But this is not helping. Because we have said that this is going to be difficult. We are going to tell you that this is very difficult. But we can do it. We have done a lot of research in this area. For example, in India, in North Africa, in Aipur, Canada. This is a very good place to work. But the way we communicate is very effective. So everyone will come to discuss. And then more people will join. Thank you, George. Let's do a quick lightning round. We are almost there. Let me quickly answer a question. First of all, what do you have been saying? I think it's very scary. Of course, we can be afraid. But we also have to be responsible. We shouldn't let everyone feel too scared. So everyone won't take action. But I think 1.5 is very scary. Can we achieve this goal? What kind of theme is very scary? Then why are we so careful? Can we do it? We do this by doing the best we can and ensuring that we would be doing as much as we can in whatever way we can, such as when we reach 1.61. How that will affect us? Why are we so focused? I will just point out again that I now represent psychology in this perspective. We all have our own perspective. From psychology perspective, we need to see how we approach the most effective human being and how we get attached to and fixated on that video. We will focus on why we tend to ignore the vague or uncertain information. If we always focus on one aspect, for example, 1.5 degrees, then we should feel better. Why are we so focused on this? We generally want to find certain factors. Then we feel more stable and we have certain factors. But these are very hard to find. So we should look at the positive mind and the same mind. We have to think about it every day. This question is very difficult. But we perform so well. We work so hard. Then how do we develop a normal way? Louisa just said this very well. We can solve these problems like this. I will say this question 1.5 degrees first. This is because some of the most vulnerable countries are talking about 2 degrees because we are already affected. So we have to focus on 1.5 degrees. This is very fast. 1.5 degrees is very fast. We are going to take action which is a very important problem. We will look at the scientific piece of what goes into 1.5 degrees. We need to look at the scientific aspect. Because we are going to take action right away. I am very happy to be able to gather with all of you today. We feel that we have received a lot. I think it is very helpful to all of you. I hope that everyone is healthy and safe. Thank you. Thank you.