Keywords

“Water that’s far away can’t put out the fire nearby,” Jack says, translating from a Chinese expression. Jack is a Cool Block leader. A few months ago, he went door to door talking to neighbors, like Stuart.

“Hi Stuart! I’m Jack, and I live in 342”—he’d say, pointing to his house—“and I would like to invite you to my home to hear about a new program.”

Stuart, drawn by the appeal of getting to know his neighbor, agreed. And he, along with other people living on the block, went to Jack’s house the next week for a Cool Block meeting.

At the meeting, Jack explains Cool Block’s goals to his neighbors: make the neighborhood safer, more connected, and, most of all, resilient against climate change. At the next meeting, the group discusses their dream block. For some, this means no cars so that children can play in the sectioned-off street. For others, it means exchanging homegrown fruits and vegetables. The new Cool Block members take turns hosting monthly meetings in their homes, while becoming experts on different parts of the Cool Block curriculum, such as water stewardship (e.g., reducing water use) or energy preservation (e.g., completely turning off appliances). The members exchange resources, advice, and general help to achieve a set of climate-related sustainability goals.

Jack explains, “Before Cool Block everybody would have been on their own in a disaster. They might have gotten to know each other in a hurry, but they didn’t have the kind of social collaboration that Cool Block fosters. When—not if—a major bad thing happens, this is all going to be about neighbors helping neighbors. Cool Block feels like a family, a close-knit family.”

Climate change presents an “unacceptably high and potentially catastrophic risk to human health” (Watts et al., 2015, p. 1). At the same time, global heating has been recognized as potentially “the greatest global health opportunity” of the twenty-first century (Watts et al., 2015, p. 1). In 2021, over two hundred medical journals called for emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health (Atwoli et al., 2021).

This chapter aims to provide useful examples and tools to create climate resilience to decrease harmful climate change-related mental health impacts. First, we will review the effects of climate change on health (physical and mental), including the detrimental consequences on children’s health. Second, we highlight the importance of social connection and resilience as mental health resources. The conceptual containers for this chapter are social identification (i.e., perceiving oneself as belonging to social groups; Hogg, 2018; Turner et al., 1994), collective efficacy (i.e., people’s shared beliefs about their group’s capability to accomplish collective tasks; Bandura, 1997), and positive deviance (i.e., a behavior-change approach that amplifies the successful actions of existing community members; Durá & Singhal, 2009; Singhal & Durá, 2017). The chapter will discuss the potential for local, intentional community building to serve as an effective strategy to improve resilience. The specific examples of Cool Block and the Transition Town movement (e.g., Eco Vista) will illustrate how communities can effectively support climate change adaptation, mitigation, and resilience strategies. Though mental health is inextricably related to larger public health mitigation strategies, this chapter will not address how to mitigate climate-related disasters that impact mental health. For example, while wildfires and forced migration clearly impact mental health, this chapter will focus on building collective efficacy and promoting mental health rather than strategies to reduce wildfires.

Impacts of Climate Change on Physical and Mental Health

As illustrated in Fig. 1, the health consequences of climate change are manifold. They range from the repercussions of food and water shortage to increased heat, allergy, vector-born, and air-pollution-related diseases, as well as to the devastating mental health effects of extreme weather, population displacement, and social conflict (Romanello et al., 2021; Watts et al., 2021;Watts et al., 2017). A sustainable energy transition is predicted to have major health benefits, with reductions in air pollution alone saving millions of lives yearly (World Health Organization, 2018).

Fig. 1
An illustration presents how G H Gs emissions lead to climate changes such as ocean acidification, raised average and extreme temperatures, altered rainfall patterns, and other pollutants. These lead to various diseases, floods, and social mediating factors, ultimately impacting mental health.

The health impacts of climate change. (Adapted from Watts et al., 2017, copyright permission granted)

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Given the important connections between health, environmental destruction, and global heating, experts believe that “gains could be made by placing health at the very center of climate change and policy development” (Hamilton et al., 2021, p. e80). Growing Planetary Health and One Health initiatives recognize the complex interconnections and interdependencies of living things and their shared environments and strive to ensure a sustainable future by protecting and enhancing human, animal, and environmental health (Amuasi et al., 2020; Horton et al., 2014; MacNeill et al., 2021). These initiatives recognize the importance of “dismantling disciplinary and professional silos” and promoting forms of collaboration that enable the understanding and management of local and global health threats (Amuasi et al., 2020).

Negative Impacts of Climate Change on Mental Health

Mental disorders are estimated to be the second leading contributor to the burden of global disease, accounting for one-third of global disability and for 7–13% of disability-adjusted life years (Vigo et al., 2016). Climate change threatens the psychological health of individuals and communities (Cianconi et al., 2020; Lawrance et al., 2021; Obradovich et al., 2018; Ojala et al., 2021). For example, comprehensive reviews show connections between high temperatures and aggressive behavior (e.g., physical assaults, homicides, domestic violence) as well as suicide (Barlett et al., 2020; Burke M et al., 2018, Burke SEL, Sanson, & Van Hoorn, 2018; Miles-Novelo & Anderson, 2019; Palinkas & Wong, 2020; Rinderu et al., 2018; Ruderman & Cohn, 2021; Thompson et al., 2018). Air pollution and temperature variability are also associated with declining mental health (Xue et al., 2019). Additionally, extreme weather events such as hurricanes, wildfires, and drought increase the likelihood of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance abuse, and suicidal thoughts (Cianconi et al., 2020; Palinkas & Wong, 2020).

The aforementioned mental health effects of extreme weather often strain social relationships which, in turn, negatively impact health on an immunological level (Segerstrom & Miller, 2004; Smith et al., 2020). More specifically, interpersonal conflict, low social support, and loneliness have been shown to increase pro-inflammatory immune molecule levels (i.e., cytokines; Kiecolt-Glaser et al., 2010; Smith et al., 2020) and the risk and development of both physical and psychological illness (e.g., anxiety and depression; Glaser & Kiecolt-Glaser, 2005; Kiecolt-Glaser et al., 2010). Insufficient social relationships and loneliness also present a mortality risk comparable to tobacco and alcohol abuse, and greater than physical inactivity, obesity, and air pollution (Holt-Lunstad et al., 2010). In other words, social relationships significantly influence our health, and, just like clean water and food, they should be recognized as a resource (“social capital”) worth promoting and protecting (Almedom & Glandon, 2008; Umberson & Montez, 2010).

Another often under-recognized impact of climate change on psychological well-being involves the ongoing media coverage of catastrophic threats posed by extreme weather, which can lead to chronic anxiety and stress related to a heightened perception of risk. Climate change-related media coverage can result in sadness, guilt, pessimism, and the loss of belief in either or both individual and collective efficacy (USGCRP, 2016). These psychological symptoms are elements of an emotional state called eco-anxiety (Albrecht, 2011; Cunsolo & Ellis, 2018; Dodds, 2021; Panu, 2020), or the “chronic fear of environmental doom” (Clayton et al., 2017, p. 68). Media coverage or other forms of discouraging and/or inaccurate communication are more likely to evoke eco-anxiety than coverage that focuses on adaptive and preventive measures that individuals or groups can take (USGCRP, 2016).

Compounding the direct impacts of climate change are the related economic (e.g., job loss, displacement, homelessness) and social costs (e.g., isolation, reduced opportunities for exercise and other stress-relieving activities). These can also adversely influence mental health, resulting in a loss of a sense of identity and place as well as feelings of helplessness. The COVID-19 pandemic is a recent example of how mental health conditions, suicide attempts, drug overdoses, violence, abuse, and neglect can rise during times of increased stress and social confinement (Holland et al., 2021). While the mental health implications of climate change can affect everyone, these impacts tend to be greatest among individuals who are the most vulnerable and marginalized, such as those with pre-existing chronic health problems, senior citizens, women (especially if pregnant), the socioeconomically disadvantaged, and some ethnic minority groups (Hayes et al., 2018; Ingle & Mikulewicz, 2020; Kreslake et al., 2016; Palinkas & Wong, 2020; USGCRP, 2016).

Children are also particularly vulnerable to the mental health fallout of climate change (Burke M et al., 2018; Burke SEL et al., 2018; Uddin et al., 2021). Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) include mental illness and violence within households, physical and/or emotional abuse, as well as neglect. The consequences of ACEs can create long-term problems in afflicted children, such as physical health problems, worsened academic performance, and risk of substance abuse (What Are ACEs?, 2018). ACEs compromise children’s brain development, leading to poor decision-making and behavioral problems (Doppelt, 2019a, 2019b). Additionally, a majority of mass shooters were found to have faced ACEs at a young age (Peterson & Densley, 2019a, 2019b).

The mental health consequences of climate change in adult caregivers increase the likelihood of ACEs. In the face of persisting traumatic stresses, caregivers are more likely to develop PTSD, engage in self-protective behaviors such as avoidant withdrawal, self-medicate with substances, and/or engage in other maladaptive behaviors (Doppelt, 2019a, 2019b). In addition, climate change directly affects on children’s mental health, with a recent global study reporting concerning levels of climate anxiety (Hickman et al., 2021). To address ACEs and toxic stress, creating a cross-sector network of care within communities is essential. The Network of Care Subcommittee, formed by the California Surgeon General, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, created a guide for communities and health providers to reduce and treat ACEs, called the ACEs Aware Trauma-Informed Network of Care Roadmap (For Communities, n.d.). The guide outlines the importance of establishing a strong accountability system with collaborative group leaders, as well as identifying a set of shared goals across different leading organizations (ACEs Aware Trauma-Informed Network of Care Roadmap, 2021). Another strategy to protect children from ACEs brought on by stressors affecting caregivers involves building climate resilience.

Building Climate Resilience

The ability to recover from climate-related tragedies will be determined by “efforts that promote resilience” (Ingle & Mikulewicz, 2020, p. e128). Resilience is “the ability to maintain or regain health, despite experiencing adversity” (Herrman et al., 2011, p. 259). Climate resilience is defined by the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions (C2ES, 2015) as the ability to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to hazardous events, trends, or disturbances related to climate. Improving climate resilience involves assessing how climate change will create new, or alter current, climate-related risks, and taking steps to better cope with these risks.

A key component of climate resilience involves the access to resources and capacity to use these effectively (e.g., adaptive capacity). While individual adaptive capacity is important and can be strengthened via formal resources such as counseling and psychiatric care, many of the most effective adaptation measures require collective action (Adger et al., 2007).

Active engagement in problem solving (e.g., civic action) can result in a number of positive mental health consequences (Wikrama & Wikrama, 2010). Though active engagement in climate change actions does not guarantee reduced stress, it can offer a valuable buffer for managing stress and building emotional resilience—thereby lowering the likelihood of experiencing negative mental health impacts. Stress-resistant, resilient people have been found to exhibit a sense of group identity and perceived social support, thoughtful but active coping skills, and a perceived internal locus of control (i.e., sense of efficacy and determination; Agaibi & Wilson, 2005; Ozer et al., 2003; Schnurr et al., 2005).

The impact of natural disaster-related stress on depressive symptoms can be mitigated by social connections and perceptions of non-familial social support (Kaniasty & Norris, 1993). Supportive communication and social support are also associated with reduced reports of physical symptoms and depression as well as a greater sense of well-being (Albrecht & Goldsmith, 2003; Flannery, 1990). On the other hand, insufficient social support is a strong predictor of PTSD and has been associated with premature death (Flannery, 1990; Ozer et al., 2003). Hence, opportunities to connect with and support others is an important way to promote climate resilience.

Evolutionary psychology has shown that cooperation and mutual aid are as important for species survival (Ruskey et al., n.d.). Sustainability experts like Christian Berg emphasize that conflict and loss of social cohesion threaten our potential to overcome climate change (Berg, 2019). Overcoming global environmental challenges may therefore be partially dependent on solidarity rooted in social connection (Cosentino, 2021).

Social Identity and Cohesion, Collective Efficacy, and Positive Deviance

Social identity theory posits that an individual’s sense of belonging to social groups is a critical part of one’s self-concept (Hogg, 2018; Turner et al., 1994). By belonging to groups (e.g., family, community), aspects of a social environment are integrated into one’s self-understanding. Group memberships and the social identity that one develops through these memberships are associated with enhanced health and well-being, as well as resilience against environmental stressors such as social isolation (Alcover et al., 2020; Fong et al., 2019; Jetten et al., 2017). These findings have led Jetten et al. (2012) to propose that the development of social identities constitutes a “social cure.” In line with this proposal, community-based interventions that increase social identity have been found to mitigate the devastating health effects of loneliness (McNamara et al., 2021).

Social ties as well as community cohesion have been established as essential resources for health (Torres & Casey, 2017; Torres et al., 2018). More specifically, enhanced social cohesion (e.g., supportive social ties) is a protective factor of mental health outcomes (Hikichi et al., 2016) and can be healing post-disasters (Wikrama & Wikrama, 2010). Successful mental health and suicide prevention programs credit socialization as a predictor of program efficiency (Kahn et al., 2020). Taken together, social environments that build and maintain social ties improve mental health, community resilience, and adaptation.

According to Bandura (1997), human behavior is regulated by personal and social factors. These factors include personal and social identity (Turner et al., 1994), social modeling (i.e., learning from role models who demonstrate specific behaviors, attitudes, and emotional responses), self-efficacy (i.e., belief in one’s ability to organize and follow through with the necessary actions to obtain desired results), as well as collective efficacy (i.e., people’s shared beliefs about their group’s capability to accomplish collective tasks; Bandura, 1997).

Higher degrees of collective efficacy are associated with a greater likelihood to coordinate and perform behaviors that increase a group’s chance of succeeding despite initial setbacks or other barriers (Bandura, 2000; Goddard et al., 2004; Thaker et al., 2016). Collective efficacy also regulates how people or groups respond emotionally to challenging situations (Thaker et al., 2016). Finally, collective efficacy influences the decisions people or groups make in order to control their future (Bandura, 1997, 2000; Goddard, 2002).

Goddard and Salloum (2011) assert that collective efficacy beliefs may “foster decisions to gather health-related resources, eliminate environmental hazards to health, and promote communication among neighbors, each of which in turn could facilitate dissemination of health information, prevent disease, and increase the likelihood of treatment” (p. 11). High group collective efficacy establishes a strong normative influence of the group, affecting the persistence with which groups pursue goals (Goddard et al., 2004). Further, social norms are established through collective beliefs that encourage certain actions and discourage others (Goddard et al., 2004).

Given climate change’s negative impact on psychological well-being, the influence of social identity on health, and the potential of collective efficacy to catalyze constructive, coordinated behaviors, it seems clear that climate mitigation and adaptation strategies should support community building. A promising approach to build collective efficacy within communities is positive deviance, a social change strategy that aims to identify what is already working in a community and amplify it (Pascale & Sternin, 2005; Durá & Singhal, 2009; Singhal & Durá, 2017; Sternin & Choo, 2000). Positive deviance posits that the wisdom to solve intractable social problems often lies within the community. Despite the odds, community outliers who deviate from conventional norms model desirable or positive behaviors. Positive deviance inverts conventional diffusion strategies via an “inside-out” process (Durá & Singhal, 2009; Singhal & Durá, 2017).

Collective Efficacy in Action: Two Examples of Positive Deviance

The following two organizations, Cool Block and Transition Town (e.g., Eco Vista), serve as models of positive deviance in how, at the community level, they showcase building collective efficacy for climate resilience.

Cool Block Program

Cool Block (coolblock.org) is a non-profit program established to shift behaviors within neighborhood blocks to reflect increased environmental awareness, with a focus on community building, crisis resilience, and carbon neutrality (Cool Block, n.d.). Cool Block provides individual blocks with specific actions to mitigate their carbon footprints. The program amplifies change by leveraging the behaviors of positive outliers or individuals already exemplifying desired behaviors. In other words, the program utilizes the power of social modeling (Bandura, 1997). Neighbors who are already proficient in a particular carbon-mitigation behavior serve as role models to motivate others on the block to follow suit. Behavior modeling is thus used to shift the culture of the local community. For example, if one neighbor has a composting bin and shares about its benefits (e.g., garden fertilizer, reduced garbage), their neighbors are more likely to use one as well. Similarly, the likelihood of someone purchasing solar panels or installing other climate change mitigation tools increases when a neighbor shares their personal experience. This phenomenon has been termed the familiarity principle or the mere-exposure effect (Zajonc, 2001). On a larger scale, each Cool Block acts as a positive deviant for surrounding neighborhoods. In this way, change snowballs from an individual’s actions to a block’s actions to, potentially, civic action at the city-wide or beyond level.

To create a block, the Cool Block organization first recruits and trains a “block leader,” providing them with the resources (e.g., scripts) necessary to encourage neighbors to join an initial informational meeting. Cool Block recommends each block leader use a script when approaching a new neighbor (see Box A):

Box A

“Hi (neighbor’s name if you know it). I’m (your name, if not already known), and I live (describe or point to where you live on the block or building, if not already known). I would like to invite you to my home to hear about a new program.” (Cool Block, Team-Building, n.d.)

According to Sandra Slater, the Program Manager of Palo Alto’s Cool Block branch, this script has been refined over years of trial and error to maximize its effectiveness, just as are all the scripts that the program recommends. The guide suggests that Cool Block leaders point to their own houses to emphasize the neighborliness of the proposed plan. Similarly, Cool Block suggests Cool Block leaders use specific terms in order to set a more welcoming and pleasant tone, such as “home” instead of “house.”

According to Slater, the top reason people join Cool Block is to get to know their neighbors. The second is to foster a sense of safety, an integral element of mental health, through social connection. Slater explains, “We’re tribal. The idea that we don’t know someone that is sleeping thirty feet from our head is a completely alien thing to us as a tribe—as a species. We have to know who our neighbors are for our own safety.”

Other motivations for joining the program include curiosity and fear of missing out. According to the manual for Cool Block leaders, “We human beings are innately curious. If we pass by someone’s home every day, many of us have an impulse to peer inside. How do they live? What is their lifestyle like?” (Cool Block, n.d.).

By offering psychosocial support in a neighborly context, Cool Block is able to cater to people’s desires for community, safety, along with other motivations, and use these to further a climate change and resilience agenda.

Cool Block also offers a script for use by Cool Block leaders when running the initial informational meeting (Cool Block, Information Meeting Guide, n.d.). In it, the following four questions are posed to guide potential participants toward building a collective vision for their block (see Box B):

Box B

  • What do you most love about our block and why?

  • In the event of a natural disaster, how would our block ideally respond and function?

  • If our block were living more sustainably, what would it look like?

  • How would your life improve if you could rely on/get help from your neighbors?

The Cool Block manual explains that the purpose of these questions is “to inform, inspire, and empower” neighbors to participate (Cool Block, Information Meeting Guide, n.d.).

Climate resilience grows through the connections between households that, in turn, enhance collective efficacy. Strong community ties are established by working through the eight-topic, 6-month Cool Block curriculum (see Fig. 2), which teaches participants to better adapt to different climate emergencies (i.e., flooding, fires, hurricanes, and earthquakes). This curriculum is web-based with an interactive interface that enables participants to track their climate mitigation actions and carbon reduction progress.

Fig. 2
A chart presents Cool Block's action plan curriculum. It lists 12 points with checkboxes against each. 3 options of will take, previously taken, and now taken with icons for filling out the checkboxes are mentioned at the top. Only 2 checkboxes are filled, while the rest are blank.

Example of Cool Block’s action plan curriculum. (Image used with permission)

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The community ties neighbors develop when participating in Cool Block were shown to be helpful during the COVID-19 pandemic—a health and environment-related crisis. Despite the lack of resources experienced by many individuals and communities during the pandemic, Cool Block communities were able to quickly establish needed support for at-risk neighbors (e.g., the elderly and immunocompromised) by making use of their previously developed Cool Block infrastructures. In addition, social ties previously developed through the initial Cool Block process, facilitated opportunities for social connection despite the quarantine, which promoted mental health and well-being. For example, one block closed off their street, played music, and encouraged children and their parents to gather in a physically distanced manner.

Cool Block has proven highly effective. Within the first pilot year, three large California cities—Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Palo Alto—recruited 45 blocks to participate, with participating households averaging 25 climate actions taken and a 32% household carbon reduction. Fifty-five percent of the people on the block who learned more about it agreed to participate (Lebeck, 2017).

The Palo Alto branch has grown so substantially that it has become municipally engaged. Cool Block is now officially endorsed by the city of Palo Alto, and the recruitment of Block Leaders has shifted to become a responsibility of the local government. This relationship between Cool Block and the city provides positive feedback and direct connections between citizens and government officials. For example, officials sometimes attend Cool Block meetings to provide information about government-sponsored initiatives like the “Home Efficiency Genie,” and “Zero-Waste.” (Home Efficiency Genie, 2021; Zero Waste, 2022). Engagement at the neighborhood level furthers the city’s agenda to reduce its carbon footprint.

Despite its successes, the program also has limitations. Cool Block works most effectively when neighborhoods are organized on blocks. Slater describes a case where a woman went through the entire training program before revealing that her home was behind a drug store with only one neighbor. The lack of a tangible block made it very difficult for her to continue with the program. Cool Block has demonstrated its greatest success in affluent, elderly, and/or academic communities, where people are long-term homeowners and the city has the financial resources to hire Cool Block staff to help organize. However, Cool Block is working to expand to different types of neighborhoods through its role in initiatives such as the Cool City Challenge (Cool City Challenge, n.d.). Cities are invited to compete for $1 million dollars by submitting plans to engage the whole community (e.g., businesses, government, technology, schools, and non-government organizations) in becoming carbon neutral.

Transition Town Movement

The Transition Town movement is a global network of grassroots community projects in which citizens join together to “reimagine and rebuild our world” in response to climate change (About the Movement, n.d.). Older than Cool Block, the Transition Town movement was founded in the United Kingdom in the mid-2000s and quickly spread to many other communities and countries. Transition Towns offers psychosocial support by helping individuals and communities process their fears, despair, and other emotional responses to climate change. Like Cool Block, the members of most Transition Towns are middle class and middle-aged. In addition, and also similar to Cool Block, members are given access to educational materials.

Recently, a group of university students living in Isla Vista, the 23,000-person community surrounding the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), were searching for a climate change mitigation and resilience program for their university town (of which about 85% are students). After initially attempting to integrate Cool Block’s curriculum, the group, joined by a few of their professors, quickly realized that Cool Block’s structure, which was developed for long-term homeowners, was less suitable for the transient nature of their student community. With 96–99% of Isla Vista residents being renters (The Santa Barbara Independent, 2015; Lodise, 2019), the students chose to adopt Transition Town’s structure, focusing on community projects. However, individual Cool Blocks exist within the Isla Vista community (Scully-Allison, 2020).

Eco Vista (ecovistacommunity.com), the name chosen for Isla Vista’s student-led community initiative, provides members with the opportunity to participate in a variety of projects. “Food Forest,” a collaboration with the Isla Vista Recreation and Parks District, enables Eco Vista members to plant fruit trees and other plants that are “edible, native, medicinal” and/or “[fix] nitrogen” (Eco Vista Community, n.d.; see Fig. 3). Another project, the “Radicle Zine,” uses a magazine format to “spread [climate change] awareness through art” (Eco Vista Community, n.d.). The “Circular Economy” project collects donations of school supplies, household items, books, and more for a share shop to “foster a circular economy within Eco Vista” (Eco Vista Community, n.d.). Eco Vista also works to foster a sense of community through social events, such as shared meals.

Fig. 3
A photo of 2 people who plant medicinal plants in a field along the roadside while wearing masks and hats. One of the people wears gloves and smiles while posing for a camera. A bucket and 2 packs of products are placed next to them. A shed, big trees, poles, and cars are in the background.

Two students planting medicinal plants as part of the “Food Forest” project. (Image used with permission)

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Also among these projects is Eco Vista’s “Green New Deal,” which was created by 300 UCSB students, most of whom were taking sociology classes at the time (e.g., Earth in Crisis and Eco Vista: Creating Systemic Alternatives). This Green New Deal proposes strategies to address renewable energy and resilience against climate emergencies with a strong focus on mental health.

Eco Vista’s Green New Deal includes pathways to destigmatize mental health within the community. By making support more accessible, there are greater opportunities to address eco-anxiety. Specifically, the deal proposes a rideshare service for therapy appointments, additional mental health classes in the UCSB curriculum, an anonymous hotline for students, and general peer support (e.g., a group website; Eco Vista Community, n.d.). Jessica Parfrey, one of the founders of Eco Vista, explains that Eco Vista tackles eco-anxiety by allowing students the opportunity to directly impact climate change via the different Eco Vista projects. Helping people work together to directly impact their lives and futures fosters an increased sense of social identity and/or collective efficacy. As noted in the introduction, individuals with a greater sense of efficacy are more likely to take action, increasing their community’s adaptive capacity (Thaker et al., 2016).

The ability to foster a sense of community that supports climate change adaptation, mitigation, and resilience strategies without the traditional structure of a neighborhood block is a notable strength of Eco Vista. The community is also an effective example of building a sense of social cohesion among individuals despite the typically transient aspects of student life. In addition, Eco Vista’s focus includes the often under-recognized pertinent health impact of climate change on mental health (as discussed earlier in this chapter).

A significant limitation that applies to over half of Transition Towns is their need for more funding (Scully-Allison, 2020), which negatively impacts the funding of long-term sustainability projects. While Eco Vista shares this limitation with the Transition Town Movement, its interdependence with UCSB mitigates the necessity for independent resources to some degree. For example, while UCSB provides minimal financial support (<$2000/year), it offers college credit for students participating in the initiative (Scully-Allison, 2020). In this way, a recruitment pathway is created, facilitating a steady stream of students into the program without the need for additional financial resources. Eco Vista’s relationship to UCSB, along with the adaptations it has made to serve unique community needs, act as positive outliers for the student-centric climate initiative, which could be scaled for use on other university campuses in the University of California system and/or nationwide in the United States.

Future Directions and Conclusion

According to Berry et al. (2018), “mental health could be a lead indicator for measuring progress on mitigating the human impacts of climate change” (p. 288). This chapter provides evidence for the many ways in which climate change negatively impacts mental health. Evidence is also given for the role of community in building mental health resilience in the face of these negative impacts. We presented Cool Block and the Transition Town movement (e.g., Eco Vista) as examples of positive deviance, by showing how they model practices (e.g., neighborhood meetings) and behaviors (e.g., initiating community projects such as gardening) that strengthen social cohesion and collective efficacy, and therefore, mental health. Social ties were also shown to increase the likelihood of disaster preparedness via social and material resource sharing (Torres & Casey, 2017).

Future directions include developing public health prevention strategies and designing community infrastructure to be resilient and health-promoting (Torres & Casey, 2017). For example, those displaced by climate change should be included under international refugee laws and provided pathways to integrate into new residences (Torres & Casey, 2017). In addition, effective climate communication (e.g., news, entertainment, and social media) can reduce eco-anxiety and channel awareness into active engagement in climate change adaptation and mitigation actions. The effect of community building and positive deviance stories can be amplified through public communications and also modeled via entertainment-education (Coren, 2024). Real-life examples (e.g., Cool Block, Eco Vista) and “reel” examples (e.g., transmedia entertainment shows like East Los High and Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon; Coren, 2024) can inspire, motivate, engage, and persuade (Singhal et al., 2013). Through working together and exhibiting compassion and solidarity, individuals can meet environmental changes and trauma with hope, a sense of belonging, and gratitude.