Britt Wray. Generation Dread - Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis. Alfred A. Knopf Canada. 2022.

Book Talk

• Author's Stanford book talk
• All author's talks - 1 hour
• Interview in Starfish Journal

Reviews

• Brian Rapske
• Ann Logan
• Embodied Climate Justice Fitness

Contents

Introduction

• italicized terms:
  brokenrecordrecordbreaking
  eco-anxiety
  we only have twelve years to avert climate catastrophe

Part One: Feel It All

• The Psychoterratic State

  • terms:
    natural
    reasonable
    normal
    appropriate
    logical
    understandable
    suitable
    humane
    fitting
    sensible
    right
    decent
    psychoterratic
    eco-anxiety
    ontological security
    solastalgia
    ecological grief
    Anthroposcene horror
    global dread
    emotional intelligence
    white fragility
  • Anthropogenic climate change
  • Key Takeaways (6)
• The Power of Denial
  • How does it feel to throw your own end-of-the-world party?
    • terms:
      hyperobject
      environmental melancholia
      outright climate denial
      catastrophic
      negation
      disavowal
      that cannot be reversed
      perverse states of mind
      targets
      accomplishments
      self-efficacy
      learned helplessness
      bubble
      executive functioning
  • Key takeaways (5)
• Degrees of Eco-distress
  • terms:
    schadenfreude
    cognitive dissonance
    climate vision
  • Eco-Anxiety Range of Feelings
    • Mild
    • Medium
    • Significant
    • Severe
  • Key takeaways (6)
• Baby Doomers
  • terms:
    the future has us in it too
    reproductive justice
    What do you do when the apocalypse is part of your family planning?
  • Civilization to learn how to live in ruins
  • Key takeaways (7)

Part Two: Connect Inward to Transform Oneself

• Standing in the Shade of the Camphor Tree
  • terms:
    warnings
    out of alignment
    grow up
    grow down
    internal activism
    bearing worlds
    trauma
    cultural trauma
    climate trauma
    challenges the very idea of a shared future and indicts our present identity as a species
    static guilt
    animating guilt
    window of tolerance
    pre-traumatic stress
    forest bathing
  • Key takeaways (6)
• Good Grief
  • terms:
    emotional methodologies for dealing with complicated feelings
    emotional reflexivity
  • Key takeaways (5)
• Balancing Hope and Fear
  • terms:
    What can I do? I'm only one person and this is all so baked in
    prospective survivor
    narrative foreclosure
    environmentalism as politics of desire rather than a politics of individual sacrifice and denial
    binocular vision
  • Key takeaways (6)

Part Three: Connect Outward to Transform the World

• The World Has Already Ended
  • terms:
    prepare for world without trees within our lifetimes
    it is too late to keep the world as it is today
    it is the beginning of something else
    anima mundi
    enchantment
    Great Turning
    kinship
    consensuality
    within
  • Kyle Whyte on becoming a better partner with the natural world
    • What can I do to impact or benefit that story that is unfolding?
    • What is it that my skill sets and knowledge, or things I could learn, can do to intervene in that story in a positive way?
  • Our intentions are far less important than the actual impact of our actions
  • Key takeaways (4)
• Communicate Wisely about the Crisis
  • terms:
    What can I do to fix this?
    being a guide
    motivational interviewing
    suppress the righting reflex
  • Key takeaways (7)
• The Potency of Public Mourning
  • term:
    a time out of time to open space for deeper conversations ("I'm not personally ok with this. I'm feeling absolutely devastated.")
  • Key takeaways (5)
• Stronger Communities for a Better Future
  • terms:
    social capital
    social climate
  • Key takeaways (5)

Afterword

Acknowledgements

Discussion Questions

Notes

Index