Communicating the Effects of Climate Change with Britt Wray

By Olivia Hamilton

Britt Wray is the director of Community-minded Interventions for Resilience, Climate Leadership, and Emotional well-being (CIRCLE), a research and action initiative in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of Stanford Medicine, the author of two books, Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis and Rise of the Necrofauna: The Science, Ethics and Risks of De-Extinction, and the creator of Gen Dread, a popular newsletter about building courage and taking meaningful action on the far side of climate grief.

She is also a 2023 top award winner of the National Academies' Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awards for Excellence in Science Communications, which honor exceptional science communicators, science journalists, and research scientists who have developed creative, original work to communicate issues and advances in science, engineering, or medicine for the general public.

In celebration of Earth Day this year, we asked Wray about her experiences communicating the mental health impacts of climate change.