The Brief

“I feel hopeless.”

“I feel helpless.”

“How do I cope with constant sadness, grief, anger, anxiety, or fear when I’m just trying to get through a normal day?”

“How do I plan for retirement?”

“How do I plan for my thirties?”

“What kind of world will my children grow up in?” “Should I even have children?”

“Am I doing enough? Am I enough?”

These are the types of worries that came up at a recent "Climate Cafe LA,” a free, virtual support group that aims to provide an informal, confidential space for people to connect with each other about the painful emotions that come with living in the climate emergency.

A dozen or so people popped into the Zoom “Climate Cafe” being held on this Sunday morning. About half of them left their cameras off (that’s totally OK, though cameras on is preferred). After setting ground rules — only “I” statements, no advice or judging allowed — the conversation began. People shared about their favorite landscapes, their worries for their own futures or their children’s, the sense of sadness, anxiety, anger and cognitive dissonance they feel all too often, even in the most mundane moments like watching a neighbor mow a lush lawn or idle their car for too long.

With ceaseless headlines of climate disasters around the world and the escalating impacts to our own backyards here in the Southland, there’s a growing movement to address the intertwined crises of mental health and the climate emergency. The efforts range from community-based support groups such as Climate Cafes, to the practice of “ecotherapy,” to boosting training for therapists, psychologists and other public health professionals to better recognize the physical symptoms of climate-related psychological distress.

“The most widespread public health impacts of climate change are actually mental impacts,” said Wael Al-Delaimy, a public health professor at UC San Diego.

Holding space for climate emotions … and finding community

Maksim Batuyev first started experiencing depression when he was about 13 years old, growing up in Michigan.

“This was before climate change was even on my radar,” said Batuyev, who is now 25.

His depression improved with therapy and mindfulness practices, but once he got to college and started pursuing environmental studies, Batuyev said that progress was reversed.

“I went on to spend four years learning about all the different ways that humans were irreparably damaging the planet and poisoning communities,” Batuyev said.

Maksim Batuyev, 25, is the director of the Climate Cafe LA Initiative and a Gen Z advisor for global nonprofit Climate Mental Health Network.

(

Courtesy of Maksim Batuyev

)

By his senior year, his depression and anxiety were once again overwhelming.

“I realized I'd never been told how to navigate the grief that was coming with this,” Batuyev said. “The climate crisis was just this, like, intense backdrop to what was supposed to be a normal college experience in young adult life … and the normal hardships of growing up.”

After graduating, he moved to Los Angeles to work for a sustainable fashion startup. Now, he’s a Gen Z advisor for the global nonprofit Climate Mental Health Network and the director of Climate Cafe LA.

There’s no brick and mortar cafe, it’s simply people getting together in person or online for free, informal, 90-minute conversations about coping with climate-related emotions.

Batuyev initially piloted the conversations with student groups at UCLA and is now offering Zoom Climate Cafes he co-hosts with other Gen Z facilitators. Such gatherings are a growing trend worldwide.

“It's really about creating a container for us to bring these difficult emotions to the surface,” said Batuyev. “Because all too often we have to stuff them down just to get through our day-to-day lives. We're trying to put food on the table, we're trying to get to work on time. We're stuck processing those emotions in isolation.”

Younger people are particularly impacted — they wonder how much of the Earth will be habitable by the time they’re in their 40s and 50s. In the largest study of its kind, a 2021 survey of 10,000 young people across the world found the vast majority experience emotional distress over the climate crisis on a daily basis, while more than half feel humanity is doomed.

Climate Cafes are mostly geared towards Gen Z, but they've proven to be needed spaces for people of all ages and walks of life.

At the recent virtual Climate Cafe LA, folks from all over the world joined — from Canada to India to the U.K. to New Jersey to right here in Los Angeles. The attendees encompassed a range of ages and professions: activists, therapists, a veteran, scientists and a faith worker. Though a small sample, the group exemplified the diversity of who is struggling with climate-related emotional distress.

Feeling our feelings … without the need to act 

Batuyev said one of the most important — and perhaps surprising — parts of the Climate Cafe is that it explicitly pushes back against the action-oriented narrative that’s common in most climate spaces.

“I think a lot of times when people think about climate, they imagine saving the polar bears, they imagine protesters, they imagine people yelling at each other or demanding that others sign petitions, and it's kind of easy to understand why not everyone's comfortable starting to engage in that way,” Batuyev said.

But providing a space simply to feel emotions, and not act on them, can allow people to build community and find ways to engage with the climate crisis in their own way, Batuyev said. 

“When we're able to help people connect with these intense emotions of grief or despair or anxiety around these issues, what we're really doing is also helping them connect with a place of love,” Batuyev said. “These emotions themselves are very often transformative and what drive us to act and get involved, but I think our problem is that we lack a community around us that enables us to express ourselves and experience these emotions in a safe and comfortable way.”

An accessible support model

Though Climate Cafes are not meant to replace professional help, therapy itself can be out of reach for many people, so these groups can provide support for those who otherwise may not be able to access it, said Isaias Hernandez, 27, who grew up in Sylmar and is the creator of environmental education platform Queer Brown Vegan.

Isaias Hernandez, 27, is the founder of education platform Queer Brown Vegan. He created a Climate Emotions Scale to help people name the feelings they're experiencing around climate change.

(

Courtesy of Isaias Hernandez

)

Additionally, he said this kind of grassroots peer-to-peer model can be replicated to fit the needs of many different communities.

“Mental health services are expensive. It's a privilege to afford it,” Hernandez said. “Creating grassroots models that center a need for community and a safe space is important.”

Hernandez created a climate emotion scale to help people find the language to describe their climate-related emotions. 

“When someone else validates another person about what they're feeling,” Hernandez said, “I think that allows them to say 'It's not just in my head, it's not a disorder, it's a natural response to what I'm experiencing.'”

How to cope with climate emotions

Recognizing and acknowledging the emotions that are driving our internal narratives around climate change is an important first step to coping and building mental resilience, said Long Beach-based therapist Carol Bartels, who specializes in “ecotherapy,” where clients process their emotions outside in a natural setting.

Coping with those feelings comes down to a lot of well-researched strategies in trauma recovery, she said.

“That is finding a sense of safety, finding the resources inside of our own bodies to relax and to feel a sense of some control and ability to regulate our own emotions,” Bartels said.

Carol Bartels is an ecotherapist based in Long Beach. Here she is at DeForest Wetlands in Long Beach, one of her favorite places to take clients.

(

Courtesy of Carol Bartels

)

Using breathing exercises or other forms of “grounding” to return to the present moment can help us alleviate panic and find safety and calm within our own bodies, said Bartels. To help her clients get there, Bartels often takes them outside — what’s called “ecotherapy.”

“Getting grounded in one's own body, feeling what's really going on inside of us — nature has a way of helping us tune into that and bringing us right into the present moment,” Bartels said. “Nature does half of the healing.”

Taking action … when you’re ready

Bartels said once you can recognize and hold space for your own climate-related emotions — whether it be grief, anxiety, anger, fear, despair or all of them at once — taking action can play an important role in further building mental resilience.

“It doesn't have to be some grand action of changing the world, but maybe getting involved at a more local level of sustainable projects, or even just within one's own home,” Bartels said. “We can channel these emotions into something that we do have control over, because the feeling of lack of control is such a big problem with this issue.”

To cope with her own overwhelming climate emotions, Bartels grew a permaculture food forest in her backyard. She emphasized that choosing actions rooted in one’s own personal passions and interests — not “shoulds” — is essential to building true emotional resilience.

“As we move forward, we're going to need educators and healers and artists and musicians,” Bartels said.

The next global mental health crisis?

The UC San Diego public health professor, Wael Al-Delaimy, has firsthand experience of the impacts of war and displacement on mental health. Originally from Iraq, Al-Delaimy spent most of his career as an epidemiologist working with refugees in the Middle East and here in Southern California.

Today, he sees the mental health impacts of the climate crisis on people all over the world as the next major public health challenge. He's currently researching how climate disasters are affecting the mental health of people in the Middle East.

Wael Al-Delaimy is a public health professor at UCSD who's researching how the climate crisis is impacting the mental health of people in the Middle East.

(

Courtesy of Wael Al-Delaimy

)

“The physical impacts are limited to people who are injured, who may die from extreme weather events,” Al-Delaimy said. “And this is small compared to the much more widespread mental illnesses, psychological impacts, which can become chronic. People become traumatized.”

For example, he said, people who have survived a wildfire or serious flooding may be triggered every time they smell fire, or every time it rains. He pointed to how research has found that violence and suicides increase during extreme heat events. There’s also the concept of solastalgia, the emotions that come with watching beloved landscapes change and disappear, upending livelihoods and cultural traditions — something Indigenous communities around the world have coped with for generations.

“The health care system is not prepared for either the acute nor for the chronic [mental health] conditions from climate change,” Al-Delaimy said.

He said physicians and mental health professionals alike need to be trained in talking to their patients about climate-related mental health concerns. And that training needs to be culturally aware, particularly in longtime landing spots for refugees and immigrants such as southern California.

“The mental health crisis is there without climate change,” Al-Delaimy said. “Climate change is just going to make it worse.”

But Al-Delaimy said he sees a lot of promise in the peer-to-peer support model, such as Climate Cafes. For example, his research on community health workers doing outreach with Somali, Iraqi and Syrian refugees in San Diego during COVID found communities were far more likely to trust and engage with workers from their own communities.

“Mental illnesses are hidden. There's denial about them. There's a stigma about it,” Al-Delaimy said. “But they're like any other chronic disease …They need attention. Without that, our society will continue to suffer.”

Resources for people seeking help with climate emotions

Resources for health professionals 

Californians will decide on more than a dozen ballot initiatives this November, covering a wide range of proposals focused on housing, taxes, recall elections, voter identification and more.

One ballot measure would approve an $11.25 billion bond for affordable housing; another would create a new down payment assistance program for homebuyers. Proposition 40 would establish a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of billionaires in California, while two other propositions would limit new taxes and potentially nullify Prop. 40. Other ballot measures, if approved, would change the recall election process in California, require identification to vote and speed up the environmental review process for certain developments.

It’s a lot of information to wade through on your own.

That’s why LAist unveils its Voter Game Plan each election season, with guides to help you cast a ballot that aligns with your values and beliefs. (The one thing we don’t do? Tell you how to vote. That is up to you.) For the Nov. 3 general election, LAist is also hosting a series of ballot cram sessions focused on helping you make informed decisions.

The series kicked off on Wednesday with AirTalk Host Larry Mantle and a panel of experts focused on the long list of statewide propositions in a one-hour cram session.

Michael Alvarez, professor of political and computational social science at CalTech; Sara Sadhwani, associate professor of politics at Pomona College, and Lee E. Ohanian, a professor of economics at UCLA and senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, provided an overview of each ballot measure. The trio described the pros, cons and stakes of every decision Californians face this November, including the confusing and conflicting trio of tax measures you’ll see on your ballot as Props. 40, 41 and 42.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty as to how much revenue this might generate. There’s a lot of uncertainty, in particular, if it’s going to generate revenue in sufficient time to help the Californians who are really in need of having healthcare,” said Alvarez on Prop. 40, which would create a one-time tax on billionaires to fund healthcare.

Lee and Sadhwani both noted that there's a question of whether the tax would drive billionaires out of the state. “If you think that super high wealthy people should be paying more in taxes, there’s better ways to do this,” said Lee.

As for Prop. 41, which would require audits of new tax programs, and Prop. 42, which would ban new taxes on personal property, the panel agreed the measures are confusing.

Both propositions would nullify Prop. 40 if they receive more votes in support than the billionaire tax measure. That’s the big thing to remember, said Sadhwani: “They’re really the poison pills of Prop. 40, the billionaire’s tax. So a yes on 41 or a yes on 42 is a no essentially for Prop. 40.”

“I’ll be honest, Prop. 41 as well as Prop. 42 kind of makes my eyes glaze over,” said Sadhwani. Alvarez added that the measures make his head spin. Experts — they’re just like us!

LAist’s upcoming voter cram sessions will focus on judicial elections and Orange County.

You can find LAist’s Voter Game Plan and dozens of guides to the Nov. 3 election here at LAist.com/Vote

Elevated sea levels are already rolling into Southern California waters, leading to coastal erosion and other damage. An El Niño-driven Kelvin wave is further exacerbating conditions along the coast. And Tropical Storm Rachel could bring rain across the region this weekend.

But all of this is probably just the beginning of a very wet Southern California rainy season.

Authorities have been sounding the alarm.

“ Residents need to hear this information, and they need to hear it repeatedly, enough times so that they too can act,” L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis said during a recent presentation about El Niño preparations.

Heavy rain, flooding and debris flows can pose serious threats to homes and infrastructure. Officials and climate scientists say the best way to protect yourself and your property is to make preparations now, well before peak El Niño conditions arrive.

Here’s what you can do to prepare your home.

Preparing your property

One of the first steps to getting your home ready for El Niño is to understand how vulnerable it is to flooding when heavy rain or surging surf hits your neighborhood.

“It really is incumbent upon people to pause, evaluate where they live, where they travel and to really think about what would happen if those areas were flooded out,” said Kerjon Lee, spokesperson for the L.A. County Department of Public Works. “ Knowing your community, your neighborhood, where mud and debris flow might occur — is really critical.”

You can review your risks using California’s MyHazard tool, which allows you to input your address and cycle through potential risks.

Floodwaters and the landscape

Knowing if your property or neighborhood has flooded in the past can be helpful, and you can learn a lot from simply looking at the landscape in and around your home.

If your house is at the bottom of a hillside, for example, it’s probably more susceptible to debris flows, especially if the slope burned in a wildfire in the last several years. Burn scars are especially vulnerable to landslides and flooding because they lack the established vegetation that helps hold soil in place and absorbs water during heavy rain.

Other landmarks to look out for near your property are creeks, canals, drainage channels, debris basins and even low-lying roadways.

It’s also a good idea to understand how rainwater flows onto your property, where it collects and how it leaves. The goal should be for water to flow through your property safely and efficiently, without causing damage to neighbors.

That means clearing debris and overgrowth from gutters and drains now, before extreme weather hits.

Officials are also urging residents to report clogged or blocked storm drains to their local public works department.

If you live in L.A. County and are concerned about potential mud or debris flows, you can contact the county’s Department of Public Works for free advice.

Sandbags

If your property is at high risk of flooding, consider stockpiling sandbags. Many fire departments and public works departments offer sandbags to their local communities.

You can check sandbag distribution locations and availability here:

• L.A. County
• Orange County 
• Ventura County
• Santa Barbara County
• Riverside County
• San Bernardino County

Be prepared to fill the sandbags yourself, as most places only offer empty ones. Never fill sandbags with beach sand or empty used ones onto the beach.

Once you have sandbags, make sure you know how to use them properly.

Here are a few tips:

• Only fill sandbags half-full, not all the way full.
• Do not place sandbags directly against the outer wall of a building as wet bags can create added pressure on the foundation. 
• Sandbags should be placed parallel to the direction of water flow.
• The open ends of sandbags should be folded underneath and face upstream so they aren’t forced open as water flows around them.
• Sandbags should be used to redirect floodwater rather than create a dam or block its path. 
• Sandbags can be used to protect doorways, but to do so, they should have a waterproof layer like heavy plastic or waterproof canvas placed behind them. 

This diagram shows the proper way to place sandbags so that they are parallel to the flow of water or debris and redirect it away from structures.

(

Los Angeles County Department of Public Works

)

Local agencies offer thorough instructions on how to use sandbags online. L.A. County Public Works offers a breakdown in its Homeowners Guide.

Sandbags and other materials for protecting your home, including plywood, lumber or plastic sheeting, should be stored in a dry location away from potential flooding.

Other flood considerations

If valuables could be damaged or destroyed by floodwaters, consider moving them away from the ground or, if possible, to upper floors. Keep important documents in waterproof containers or sealed bags, and make sure to create digital copies.

Another recommendation is to check trees on your property for dead branches, cracks or other issues that might make them unstable, especially those that hang over structures. If you’re unsure or concerned about your trees, you can hire an arborist to inspect them. To trim or remove them, you will likely have to hire a professional. Cities and counties generally do not handle tree maintenance on private property.

Finally, consider purchasing flood insurance if your home is at risk — and do so as early as possible.

Standard homeowners insurance policies typically do not cover flood damage, and new flood insurance plans can take at least 30 days to kick in. If you want to consider signing up for a plan, the National Flood Insurance Program is a good place to start.

If floodwaters do enter your home, public health officials recommend drying wet areas as quickly as possible, as saturation can lead to mold. If mold does take hold, clean the area using a disinfectant. Also, wear gloves and a mask to protect your skin and lungs and throw away moldy items that can’t be cleaned.

Jordan Corral had to do something.

It was late 2024, during a historically dry start to the winter. But the winter before that had been historically wet. This kind of “weather whiplash” is growing more common with a warming climate, research is finding. And it meant the hillsides of the Santa Monica Mountains were overgrown with invasive and highly flammable plants, such as black mustard, castor bean and fennel.

So Corral got to work. Alongside mentor Bill Neill, the president of the Santa Monica Mountains chapter of the California Native Plant Society, Corral pulled together a group of volunteers to pull out invasive plants.

Then came the Palisades Fire. Corral and his wife, Sara Marti, lost their apartment and had to start over. They’ve finally relocated to an apartment that survived the fire. Meanwhile, through their work for the nonprofit Resilient Palisades, Corral has launched a subgroup focused on invasive plant removal.

“The team is working on wildfire recovery while trying to mitigate the next wildfire simultaneously,” Marti said by phone on a day when Corral was out working with volunteers in Temescal Canyon Gateway Park.

Now, Marti said, their effort to heal the land has become a part of their own recovery journey.

“Being a part of the recovery has played an enormous part of personal healing,” she said. “It's meditative while you know that you're also making a huge difference, protecting the nearby neighborhoods.”

A half dozen or so volunteers, including Corral and Marti, have been regularly going to the park to remove invasive species, which choke out native plants and grow into dense, dry vegetation that can make fires more intense. They’ve also worked with local high schools and youth groups.

Now, they’re racing to get as many invasive species removed as possible, while at the same time planting as many native seeds as they can, ahead of a potentially very wet winter driven by El Niño. If the rain is as intense as forecasters are predicting, it could help invasive species flourish further.

Sara G. Marti, left, and Jordan Corral lost their apartment in the Palisades Fire and are leaders in the nonprofit group Resilient Palisades.

(

Courtesy Sara G. Marti

)

The effort has been boosted by a recent $24,000 grant from UCLA’s Philanthropy as Civic Engagement Course. The money will help hire expert field assistants and buy safety gear, among other things. Corral and Marti hope the effort can become sustained.

“It's not a one-and-done thing,” Marti said. “Invasive plants are going to continue coming back. … So we're really just trying to stay ahead of it as much as we can.”

In some ways, Marti said, the effort reflects their own journey to recover after losing their apartment in the fire.

“ We're probably never going to win, but we can't give up,” she said. “We have to keep trying.”

The city of Los Angeles will establish a fund to clean the 6th Street Bridge, where trash and other waste often pile up on pedestrian walkways. 

In a unanimous vote on Tuesday, the City Council approved the establishment of the fund, which will allow the city to accept and retain donations from private entities “to preserve this iconic landmark,” Councilmember Ysabel Jurado said. “Our commitment to this bridge has to ensure its longevity.”

Funds will go toward trash and bulky item pickup, graffiti abatement and other beautification services for the bridge. 

The dedicated fund follows the city’s hiring of Pasadena-based engineering firm Tetra Tech to restore the lighting of the bridge, which has been plagued by copper wire theft since its opening in 2022. 

The outages have frustrated residents and commuters who use the bridge to walk, run, bike and drive between downtown L.A. and the Eastside. 

This move also comes as residents in Boyle Heights and the Arts District grapple with how the 12-acre park beneath the bridge will be maintained once it opens in 2027. 

Community members have raised concerns about the possibility of homeless encampments forming at the park, as well as graffiti and whether copper wire theft from the bridge could affect the park’s safety.

Meanwhile, groups like the Arts District Little Tokyo Neighborhood Council, Arts District Los Angeles and the Boyle Heights 5K Run/Walk are filling gaps with an upcoming bridge cleanup in collaboration with Jurado’s office. 

The post City of LA will establish a fund to clean the 6th Street Bridge appeared first on LA Local.