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…We have the technical solutions. What we don’t have are the infrastructures …The more I speak to people working in this area, the engineers, the researchers, the environmental scientists, what they tell me is we know more or less everything we need to know to really make an impact here. What’s holding us back is emotion.
Dr. Sophie Nicholls, Principal Investigator for Feeling Planet
In the hottest year in recorded history, extreme heat corresponded to several notable weather events and ongoing public health impacts in the Ten Across geography. Evidence shows warming ocean temperatures were behind an especially destructive Atlantic hurricane season for the Gulf. Nearly all states along this transect saw their rates of private insurance nonrenewal increase among the most at-risk communities, as a result of storms, wildfires and other extreme weather. Lastly, all but four US cities that saw the most significant jump in their number of extremely hot days last year are along Interstate 10.
It would not be unreasonable to feel some uneasiness and uncertainty as the new year begins. We are living in a fast-paced, highly connected period of volatility for humanity at large. And many of the decisions and actions taken now will have more immediate consequences here in the Ten Across geography, where the evidence of climate change is felt most profoundly.
A loss of insurance or homeownership; loss of recreation or thermal comfort due to extended heat waves; or loss of communities as we knew them from disaster, places a significant mental on those in the immediate and surrounding environment, as well as observers. However, a study by George Mason University finds most Americans (65%) ‘rarely’ or ‘never’ talk about the topic of climate change with friends or family.
In this episode, Ten Across founder Duke Reiter and Dr. Sophie Nicholls, principal investigator for the Feeling Planet research study, discuss the importance of naming and reflecting on difficult feelings about our environment. Sophie’s study seeks to demonstrate how this process is critical in tending to ourselves and others, and for generating action and hope for the future.
Related resources and articles:
Download Feeling Planet workshop materials and read more about the study HERE.
“LA-area wildfires taking toll on mental health of disaster survivors” (NPR, January 14, 2025)
What If We Get it Right?: Visions of Climate Futures, written by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
The Weight of Nature: How a Changing Climate Changes Our Brains, written by Clayton Page Aldern
Guest Speaker
Dr. Sophie Nicholls is associate professor at the Teesside University School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Law, and a best-selling novelist and award-winning poet. Sophie is also principal investigator of Feeling Planet, a research collaboration between Teesside University and the University of British Columbia, funded by the UK Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology. The study goal is development of a framework and toolkit to address the interplay of complex climate emotions and our ability to develop community, create hope for the future, and take purposeful action. She is also publisher of the WRITE! Club newsletter on Substack.
