摘要:The author observes that a sense of hopelessness appears to be forming in ourculture in response to recent descriptions of the impact of climate crisis. This reaction iscompared to the way people respond to diagnoses of life threatening illness. Stages ofreactions to difficult news are known to accompany such responses. The author sharesher own sorting of responses as an example of stage transitions in the process ofgrappling with the difficult news of climate crisis. Transitions from one stage to the nextare developmental. The importance of bringing resources from the field of adultdevelopment into the field of public deliberations to address the climate crisis isemphasized. A meta approach, “the Gaia approach,” is proposed, as are many questionsfor individual and public reflection.