Comfort with discomfort -- my theme for 2015

A great start to a snowy California winter on the Truckee River. Photo by me.

I've got a new article up at The Conversation on working with conflict and emotion around climate change issues (thanks also to New Republic for picking it up!). It's basically all around the idea of getting comfortable with being uncomfortable during a time when things are changing pretty rapidly. It has been a really interesting time to try to write about climate change -- I finished the article before the Paris climate talks started, but it just came out today, which might be even better timing, even though trying to keep it relevant as the talks progressed was a challenge.

The article comes out on the heels of a related presentation that I gave yesterday at the American Geophysical Union meeting. It was a super early, but very fun talk to give. Even though it can be really stressful to prepare for talks, it always pushes me to articulate my ideas just a little better (I hope!), and so I appreciate the opportunity. There were some great talks in that symposium, particularly by Kari Norgaard, Stephen Siperstein, Elizabeth Allison, and Scott Slovic. Really inspiring work by so many great people. Many thanks to Scott Denning and SueEllen Campbell for organizing.

And finally...both yesterday's talk and this article were based on work that I did for a chapter in a book that is also out today on teaching climate change across the university curriculum, edited by Eric Fretz. I'm so happy to have been able to be a part of that effort, conceived of by Eric, to find ways for faculty outside the natural sciences to engage with climate change issues.

I've been plugging away at this idea of a relational approach to environmental issues for over five years at this point and am excited to still have so much room to grow and expand, even if it's sometimes frustrating to not always be able to articulate my thoughts as well as I'd like to be able to.

Phew, what a year. Hope everybody can enjoy a quiet end of December -- I know I plan to!

Related posts:

• On Being: Stepping Stones of Integrating Emotions into Practicing Science
• Relationships, listening, conflict (and an actor) in science & communication
• Contemplative practice in the sciences