Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Anxiety

“Generation Dread is a vital and deeply compelling read.”―Adam McKay, award-winning writer, director, and producer (Vice, Succession, Don’t Look Up)

“Read this courageous book.”―Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything

“Wray shows finally that meaningful living is possible even in the face of that which threatens to extinguish life itself.”―Dr. Gabor Maté, author of When the Body Says No

When we’re faced with record-breaking temperatures, worsening wildfires, more severe storms, and other devastating effects of climate change, feelings of anxiety and despair are normal. In Generation Dread, Britt Wray reminds us that our distress is, at its heart, a sign of our connection to and love for the world. The first step toward becoming a steward of the planet is connecting with our climate emotions―seeing them as a sign of our humanity and empathy and learning how to live with them. Britt Wray, a scientist and expert on the psychological impacts of the climate crisis, brilliantly weaves together research, insight from climate-aware therapists, and personal experience, to illuminate how we can connect with others, find purpose, and thrive in a warming, climate-unsettled world.

Britt Wray is a writer and researcher on the emotional and psychological impacts of the climate crisis and is the Director of Stanford Medicine’s Special Initiative on Climate Change and Mental Health. Wray is also the author of Rise of the Necrofauna: The Science, Ethics and Risks of De-Extinction. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Washington Post, Guardian, and Globe and Mail, among other publications. She speaks widely on the mental health consequences of ecological disruption, has hosted several podcasts, radio, and TV programs with the BBC and CBC, and is the creator of Gen Dread, a newsletter about staying sane in the climate crisis: gendread.substack.com.

Adam McKay is a film director, producer, screenwriter, comedian, and climate advocate. His productions have been nominated for multiple Academy Awards and include Don’t Look Up, Vice, The Big Short, and Succession. In 2019 he founded the production company Hyperobject Industries, referring to the “hyperobject” of climate change, which explains why the crisis is so hard to identify the bounds of and intervene in at the scale required.