A majority of people care about the environmental and health impacts of climate change, but struggle to act.

Structural, cultural and psychological barriers impede our ability to focus on the climate crisis.

Slightly modifying our lifestyles by allowing more quiet time, rest time, and emotional honesty is key.

Individual engagement drives collective action.

This summer, England's temperatures reached 99.9 degrees Fahrenheit, the highest June temperature on record in the UK. A heat wave triggered a "red heat health alert" at exactly the same time the city of London was hosting its 8th annual Climate Week. The irony here is obvious.

The British experienced cascading climate disruptions—nature's reminders to wake the heck up. The sweltering temperatures cut off vital transportation services, closed schools and businesses, and caused hospitals to restrict services as they struggled to cope with an influx of heat-related demands.

Beneath the immediate chaos, an urgent question looms: Can the British look up, notice, and care—even after these hot days finally pass? Can any of us?

As a psychotherapist working at the intersection of climate and mental health, I spend a good deal of time tracking emotional and behavioral responses to climate change across the globe. A new Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC) poll reveals that a solid majority of Americans (65%) say that global warming is personally important to them. Yet, there is a high level of cognitive dissonance (or conflicting thoughts, feelings, and behaviors) as people struggle to reconcile fears, worries, grief, and hopes with ordinary life.

What I see happening in England, and many other countries, is something the YPCCC has called the "attitude-behavior gap." This is the fancy term for the very real discrepancy between human concern and climate action engagement. As YPCCC research indicates, even amongst those most willing to act (51%), few actually engage in political actions to limit global warming (6-16%), such as contacting government officials, attending protests, and signing petitions. This attitude-behavior gap is deeply problematic because human behavior tilts towards complacency at a time when climate collapse is accelerating.

What if we could harness the collective energy of the 89% global majority—who indeed want their governments to act—and effectively intensify collective pressure on world governments, institutions and businesses?

Here in the U.S., America's natural resources—including air, water, and public lands—are in jeopardy under the Trump administration, which has rolled back environmental protections........

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