Climate Café Iceland is a creative project that aims to increase solidarity, respect and resilience between individuals and society by strengthening interrlated relationships between people, nature and sustainable ways of living together.

The workshops focus on creating a warm atmosphere that invites participants to reconnect with their inner lives and the natural environment their live in. The issues of climate change are heavy and many people struggle to find ways how to understand and act on the challenges we face. In the exercises we are lead by lightness, warmth, humor and creative thinking. The joy we seek in the collective approach can be beneficial for both those who experience environmental paralysis, climate activists and everyone in between. The team of Climate Café, Marina Ermina and Marissa Sigrún Pinal, have extensive experience in leading meditation and breating excercises as well as intercultural storytelling activities that support the regenerative processes needed to takle the issues with a calm awareness.  In collaboration with the public library in Akureyri Amtsbókasafnið, Gróandi and Museum of Everyday Life in Ísafjörður, and Borgarbókasafn in Reykjavík, regular sessions will be held with the local community around Iceland. 

Climate Café is a way to respond to climate change, declining biodiversity and ecological collapse facing mankind and all the Earth’s living organisms. The impact on the mindset and well-being of individuals when considering threats such as those described above are varied, often burdensome, and can be described as anger, denial, anxiety and sadness among other things. Emotions like these are unfortunately very common and people often talk about experiencing climate anxiety. 

Climate anxiety can lead to environmental paralysis, which hinders people from responding to the challenges, e.g. adopting more sustainable lifestyles, pressure the government, participating in activism, leading or participating in projects that promote a healthier society and many other actions. At the workshops we seek effective ways to respond to climate anxiety and other difficult feelings related to natural hazards by forming relationships, listening and recognising others, and learning to respect oneself, each other and nature. Growing awareness and accepting oneself’s own emotions can make one better at listening, showing empathy and creating space for other people’s emotional experiences. 

The project supports the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Project Partners: The Public Library in Akureyri Amtsbókasafnið, Gróandi and Museum of Everyday Life in Ísafjörður, and Borgarbókasafn in Reykjavík

The project is supported by the Icelandi Library Fund - Bókasafnasjóður.

Further information:
Marina Ermina, marina@greenwellbeing.org
Marissa Sigrún Pinal, msp5@hi.is