Jennifer Atkinson featured in “Down with Doomscrolling”

IAS faculty member Jennifer Atkinson's teaching and research on mental health and climate change was featured in The Planet Magazine. The piece, titled Down with Doomscrolling, profiled young people and students in environmental fields who are struggling with emotional distress from engaging with difficult topics around our climate emergency.

Atkinson began teaching a seminar on eco-anxiety for IAS in 2017. As Planet Magazine journalist Annika Taylor wrote:

"She created the class in response to her students’ fears that a career in climate work would lead to heartbreak and drudgery. Some of her students are pursuing scientific fields which don’t leave room for emotional responses to environmental information, Atkinson said."

The class offers resources for addressing these existential dimensions as students prepare for careers where they will work to address our climate emergency. As Atkinson explained, they need these skills not just to survive the turbulence that lies ahead, but to do the work needed to mitigate the causes of the turbulence in the first place.