Most people have strong negative feelings about climate change and environmental destruction.

But anger, frustration, guilt, and anxiety can lead us to feel hopeless rather than triggering action.

A new book suggests the key to saving the world might be making small choices that make us happy.

The majority of North Americans have strong feelings about climate change, but those feelings are mostly unpleasant—anxiety, sadness, anger, confusion, frustration, and guilt. Well-intentioned attempts to spur action often amplify those negative feelings with alarming statistics about how much worse things are getting. This can lead to a sense of helplessness, and research findings suggest such approaches can actually make things worse (see Cialdini et al., 2006).

Is there a happier path to a healthier planet?

Maybe there is a better way to go. In an engaging new book integrating insights from positive psychology and the science of sustainability, UBC psychologists Liz Dunn and Jiaying Zhao suggest we focus on green choices that make ourselves feel happier (rather than guiltier or angrier).

Liz Dunn is a positive psychologist, who found that spending money on other people makes us happier than spending on ourselves (see "Are you spending money in ways that make you unhappy?"). Jiaying Zhao is an expert on the psychology of sustainability. Their book Leave the lights on: How joyful decisions can save our species is full of research-based hints about how to make yourself feel good while acting to save the planet. It's also full of facts about the shockingly high carbon impact of some everyday choices, such as buying new jeans, or choosing beef over tofu for lunch (you can also check out Wynes and Nicholas 2017, and this website from University of Michigan).

Here are a few suggestions for saving the........

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