Need Help Finding Your Way?

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LISTENING: to the annoying drum of construction outside
FEELING: relieved at a slow couple of weeks
SEEING: a serious mess in this office (and apartment)

I cover climate news for a living, but I also am an advocate for mental health. One of my proudest projects is helping found the CARES Media Initiative. This project lives at the Climate Psychology Alliance of North America, whose co-executive director Rebecca Weston is my fellow co-founder.

CARES stands for Connecting Audiences, Reporters, Emotions, and Sources. We started this initiative some three years ago because climate and environmental journalists are suffering from burnout, anxiety, depression, stress. We know this now: Last month, we published the first-ever report to assess the training and mental health needs of journalists on this beat.

And journalists aren't alone. The public at large is suffering from feelings of overwhelm and grief. As of 2025, over half of Americans are concerned or alarmed about climate change. That number has increased by 10 percent over the past 10 years. It's not hard to understand why. Just take a look around: wildfires, heat waves, erratic snowstorms, tornadoes, and drought.

But what are people to do with these feelings? How do they protect themselves from the pain while sustaining their energy to make a difference? Climate expert and author Katharine K. Wilkinson has got the road map for you.

Her new book, "Climate Wayfinding: Healing Ourselves and the Planet We Call Home," is built on four years of research and experimentation to see what resources, prompts, guides, and meditations can help people look inward with care, outward with curiosity, and forward with courage. It's a powerful reframing — and one we are all in dire need of as the world continues to tremble and shake with war and genocide and climate collapse.

"Certainty is entirely too high a bar, but courage we can absolutely cultivate together," Wilkinson said.

I heard her speak at a book event in New York Tuesday, and she brought me to tears. She brought lots of us to tears as she herself shed her walls and shared her grief with us. She said it best: There's a lot of heartbreak in the climate movement right now.

Her book is super interactive and meant to be shared with friends and young people. We all need some guidance right now. And we all need more opportunities to be open and share our feelings. This newsletter is my weekly diary of sorts, where I get vulnerable about the news and how I'm feeling. My life has been full of lots of joy lately, but I'm also balancing that love alongside fear and anxiety.

Is another pandemic on the way? (Dharna Noor said it best: Ban cruises!!!) I'm seeing a hematologist soon because of an alarming test result. Is it cancer? Or nothing to fret? Spirit just shut down — are international vacations a thing of the past? Is this the world's climate karma? The war in Iran isn't over. When will people know peace? When will I stop waking up from nuclear war nightmares? Summer is nearly here. Will it be stormy and scary? Or hot and smoky?

This is what anxiety does. It sends us spiraling down the hole of "what ifs." It tries to paralyze us. We, however, bear the responsibility of fighting those voices in our head that want us to shop, eat, or sleep our way out of our sadness.

In the book, Wilkinson writes, "Each of us is a node of possibility for healing the climate crisis — whoever we are, whatever we’ve got to give."

She has offered us something really lovely with this book: a reminder that there's another way forward. A path where we lean on each other and on our own internal wisdom. A world where we stop asking ourselves "What can I do?" and, instead, ask ourselves "Who do I want to be?"

I want to be a lovesick writer. A mom (one day). A revolutionary. Una guerrillera. A believer. A lover. A dreamer. A fucking winner. 🌀

"Climate Wayfinding" is sold out on Bookshop.org. But maybe your local bookstore has a copy? Get yours now.

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Rest in Power

While we can't say for certain that climate change led to these specific weather events (we need attribution studies for that), we do know that the Earth's rising temperatures are already creating more frequent and/or stronger disasters like these.

Deadly floods hit northeastern Brazil over the weekend, leaving at least six people dead.

The death toll of Super Typhoon Sinlaku is now up to 17.

Malaysia is already seeing extreme heat kill: At least two people have died from heat expsoure this year.

* A gentle reminder that this section gets more intense as the summer approaches. Please take care while taking in this news. We should never grow accustomed to such levels of death and suffering.

Currently Reading

As a person who loves driving her car while simultaneously yelling at cars whenever I ride my bike, I really appreciated this comic by Lena Moses-Schmitt for Orion Magazine.

Bro, I never would have guessed this connection between guns and wildlife agencies. Benji Jones educates us in a piece for Vox.

Katie Myers is always doing such important reporting for Grist. Her latest — on the community of responders focused on addiction and sobriety after Hurricane Helene — is a must-read.

A team at ProPublica and the Texas Tribune goes deep into the way lawmakers failed the Texas communities that flooded last year. I love me some good accountability journalism.

Collage

- Yessenia