Activists Embrace Joy to Combat Climate Change

Wed Apr 22 2026 16:45:22 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

In a world facing the daunting realities of climate change, activists are fostering a movement centered around joy, laughter, and community as powerful tools against environmental despair.

At a recent retreat for climate activists in New York's Hudson Valley, participants found joy in their efforts to combat climate change. Led by speakers like Katharine Wilkinson, they are reshaping the narrative away from fear and sacrifice, and instead focusing on community, happiness, and connection. This positive approach encourages a shift from bleak discussions of eco-anxiety to uplifting actions that foster engagement and empowerment, demonstrating that joy can be a powerful catalyst for change in the fight against climate change.

When several different team-building groups shared space at a retreat center in New York’s Hudson Valley, one bunch of people stood out because of their constant laughter — so much that someone from another group eventually asked, “Who are you guys?”

They were activists meeting to figure out how to better fight against worsening climate change, a cause usually associated with failure, sacrifice and doom.

Across the world, groups of activists, teachers, and psychologists are tackling one of the planet’s most daunting problems with laughter, dancing, hugs, and most especially joy. With a heavy emphasis on what works psychologically, seminars, books, and college classes are trying to change how people approach climate change, by talking more about community and happiness than sacrifice. Earth Day, founded in 1970, has become a day of both protest and celebration, its founders say.

“I believe that joy is all the more necessary and maybe all the more holy in difficult times,” said Katharine Wilkinson, an activist who led the Hudson Valley seminar that got the other groups’ notice. “Joy is like, how do we take part in the shimmy and the shimmer even as the world lurches?”

Activists like Wilkinson aim to harness happiness to empower those fighting to curb the burning of coal, oil, and gas — the heat-trapping gases that contribute to global warming. In a recent speech at American University, Wilkinson described power and joy as “a really potent portal to the gifts that we want to offer in this time of immense trouble and yet also immense possibility.”

Psychologists describe a shift in thinking that embraces joy, suggesting it can be both healthy and beneficial. Jiaying Zhao from the University of British Columbia stated, “If we’re rewarded, reinforced by it, we continue doing it. We spill over. We become contagious. We get others on board.”

Additionally, discussions led by figures like Christiana Figueres, former U.N. climate chief, highlight the importance of acknowledging pain and suffering in a meaningful way. Figueres advocates for confronting reality to cultivate joy and agency, encouraging people to turn grief into action.

Ultimately, these movements suggest a new narrative in climate activism — one that emphasizes joy, connection, and the positive impacts of happiness to drive meaningful change.