image credit | Kristopher Roller

In this episode, Thomas and Panu spoke with their 23-year-old colleague Isabel Coppola, a recent graduate of the University of Vermont and a Fulbright Scholar who has studied with Panu in Finland. Isabel has been an intern on the Climate Change and Happiness podcast over the last year and has been intimately involved in the creation of episodes and transcripts, and in answering listeners’ email messages. Isabel shared lessons from her thesis “Ecoanxiety in the Climate Generation: Is Action an Antidote?” She discussed her favorite CCH podcast episodes and her future plans. Isabel also reflected on her own lived experience of coping with her “unhinged anxiety” about climate change in her teenage years, and recognition of her relative privilege growing up in a picturesque forested town in New England in the US. Panu added insights about climate emotions and Thomas about environmental identity. Join us for a discussion of a young scholar’s early journey. 

• Isabel Coppola (2021) Eco-Anxiety in “the Climate Generation”: Is Action an Antidote?

• Thomas and other experts spoke on BBC Radio’s Bringing Up Britain on "How should I talk to my children about climate change?"

• Panu is an author of the recent Lancet Planetary Health Study "Climate anxiety in children and young people and their beliefs about government responses to climate change: a global survey" 

• A 2019 national survey in Finland about climate emotions

Forthcoming