Live. Well. Green‪.‬ Kristina Hunter

The books and articles on environmental hope and optimism still seem few and far between - too few for me to actually feel hopeful on a daily basis, that’s why I looked for ways to actually find a lasting sense of hope and even optimism despite the dire environmental circumstances that we find ourselves in. The research is pretty clear, we can find hope and even optimism, if we use these techniques to allow our brains to feel calmer about the circumstances.That is what I get into in this...

Feeling like you are a hamster on a wheel, not making an impact, not able to make substantive change to environmental and social justice issues can be depleting. Sometimes doing the work itself is not enough - it can feel like a drain on your energy and mental health. So you need to change what you are doing and how you approach the problem to get the gains you want. In today’s episode I talk to someone who has overcome exactly this when it comes to taking environmental action.Pauline is...

I was walking in the woods and it came to me as clear as day. The pieces came together and I understood how to move forward. This was my epiphany moment that came after a long, difficult period where the eco-overwhelm just seemed like it was too much.But what came to me in the woods changed everything for me, and it is what I still rely on myself and teach to this day.It turns out that part of what I was facing was a misalignment between my values and how I was living my life. Even though I w...

Wicked problems: isn’t that a great term?Wicked problems are complex and difficult to define, they cannot be separated from their context and there is no one definitive approach to solving them. Climate change, pollution, loss of biodiversity, plastic pollution, environmental racism, and the effects of colonialism are all examples of “Wicked” problems. You have likely been reading about or pondering how to address a Wicked problem recently in your own life. Something like, Why your ...

“I am worried about burning out.” is something I hear often, and this is a completely valid concern. After all, environmental and social justice work can be taxing both emotionally and physically.So, how do we tackle this very important, and necessary work without putting our own physical and mental health in jeopardy? Well, it turns out there are proven tactics with plenty of medical literature to support that it truly works.Now, these things do fall into the broad category of “self-care”, b...

There were certain environmental issues that I could barely talk about in my classes. Topics like animal suffering were simply too difficult for me to cover. I remember showing a video in class almost 25 years ago now of emaciated whales who were starving due to human over-fishing.I sat in that darkened classroom with tears rolling down my face. Yes, these emotions made me want to focus on solutions, but they also made me feel ashamed of my reaction. After all, I was the professional, and the...