For today’s college students, climate change can feel both impossible to avoid and impossible to solve. On campus and back home, heat waves, floods, storms and droughts are taking a toll on students’ health and well-being, and causing disruptions to families, livelihoods and communities. Meanwhile, the news is full of headlines about the escalating crisis.
So it’s no surprise that a 2021 survey of 16–25-year-olds in ten countries found that 84% of respondents were at least moderately worried about climate change and over half reported sadness, anxiety, anger, powerlessness, helplessness and guilt about it.
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. And if you’re a UC student, you might want to check out a new course that’s designed to help you explore and process your experience of climate change, cope with the strife and find effective ways to get involved and work for change.
New for Spring 2024: Climate Resilience hybrid course
The UC Climate Resilience course launches at eight campuses next month. Throughout the hybrid online/in-person class, students will watch short talks by proven climate leaders here in California and around the world. They’ll also meet weekly for small-group sessions co-facilitated by a professor and a mindfulness expert, where they’ll discuss course material and pursue a collective project focused on climate action. “It will provide a map and skillset for living with challenging existential stressors with more ease, purpose and even joy,” says Elissa Epel, professor and vice chair of psychiatry at UC San Francisco and course co-lead.
The deadline to register for the 10-week course is Friday, March 29.
“California is a leader in climate related mitigation and adaptation policies, and there’s movement at the federal level, but so many of us feel there’s so much more that needs to be done, obviously,” says course co-creator Jyoti Mishra. She’s an associate professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego and co-chairs with Epel the mental health council through the UC Center for Climate, Health and Equity.
“We acknowledge that there's a lot of anxiety on UC campuses about climate, and in some respects it makes sense that our students would have this perspective,” Mishra says. “With this course, we’re asking: how do we shift from being in a state of distress and anxiety to being part of the collective movement for climate action?”
Meet the faculty
Jyoti Mishra, associate professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego
The following faculty at eight campuses have volunteered to teach the first session of this new course (UC Berkeley and UC Merced will introduce the course for the Fall 2024 semester):
UC Davis: Amanda Frazier (sustainability), Philippe Goldin (nursing), Steve Wheeler (ecology) and Scott Fishman (medicine)
UC Irvine: Alison Holman (nursing) and Larissa Castillo (sociology)
UCLA: Jennifer Jay (engineering) and Vickie Mays (psychology)
UC Riverside: Juliann Allison (global studies)
UC San Diego: Jyoti Mishra and Dhakshin Ramanthan (psychiatry) and Cassandra Vieten (family medicine)
UC San Francisco: Elissa Epel (psychiatry) and Sheri Weiser (medicine)
UC Santa Barbara: Summer Gray (environmental studies) and Kenneth Hilter (English)
UC Santa Cruz: Magy Seif El-Nasr and Menatullah Hendawy (engineering)
Elissa Epel, professor of psychiatry at UC San Francisco.
