Can Climate Cafes Help Ease the Anxiety of Planetary Crisis?

In a small room in Lower Manhattan, a group of eight New Yorkers sat in a circle sharing kombucha and their climate fears against the background of pattering rain and wailing sirens.

In Champaign, Ill., a psychotherapist facilitating a meeting for other therapists held up a branch of goldenrod, asking the half-dozen participants online to consider their connection to nature.

And in Kansas City, Mo., a nonprofit that runs a weekly discussion on Zoom began its session with a spiritual reading and a guided meditation before breaking into groups to discuss topics like the ethics of childbearing amid a fast-rising global population and concerns of resource scarcity.

All were examples of a new grass-roots movement called climate cafes. These in-person and online groups are places for people to discuss their grief, fears, anxiety and other emotions about the climate crisis.

They are springing up in cities across the United States — including Los Angeles, Seattle and Boston — and around the world. It isn’t clear how many exist, but Rebecca Nestor of the Climate Psychology Alliance, a nonprofit that trains facilitators, said the number of cafes had greatly increased in the past three years. The group has trained about 350 people to run climate cafes in the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and its North American branch lists 300 clinicians in its climate-aware therapist directory.

The alliance examines how mental health is affected by ecosystems — extreme weather and disasters; tainted air and water — and how that intersects with other forces, like racism and income inequality. Psychologists say that such groups help people face the unsettling realities of the climate crisis.