Climate change is not a problem waiting to be solved. It is a paradigmatic challenge to a system driven by fossil fuels and consuming life styles. At the deepest level, the psychological/cultural challenge is to the belief that, as a species, we are different and special compared to other species; that nature is a resource for us to use. Psychological understandings have a significant part to play, with other disciplines, in addressing this challenge and secure a future for generations to come.

Climate psychology seeks to explore:

·       the defences, such as denial and rationalisation, that we may all use to avoid facing these difficult feelings – and how such defences have become integral to sustaining our exploitative relations with both the non-human and human worlds

·       the cultural assumptions and practices (e.g. the sense of privilege and entitlement, materialism and consumerism, the faith in progress) that inhibit effective change

·       the conflicts, dilemmas and paradoxes that individuals and groups face in negotiating change with family, friends, neighbours and colleagues, and

·       the psychological resources – resilience, courage, radical hope, new forms of imagination – that support change.