studies young polar fish 鈥 species with no colder place to go as the planet warms. A Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate Group in Ecology at 嘿嘿视频, she travels to Antarctica to learn how these vulnerable fish use sea ice and how they adjust their bodies and behaviors to cope with climate change. She鈥檚 thought a lot about what humans may have to learn from them about dealing with stress.
This article is the final part of the series 鈥淐onfronting Climate Anxiety鈥
View all eight parts of the series, and find out what scientists are doing to turn climate anxiety into climate action.
Here, Frazier describes the soft side of Antarctica, a unique way she deals with her own anxieties and holding kindness in our work and lives.
What goes through your mind when you鈥檙e researching these fish and how they deal with stress. Do you draw parallels with your own life and climate anxiety?
Yes, it makes sense to me to study stress when I can personally feel stress impacting my life. There鈥檚 an emotional aspect of studying climate change and just existing as a person in a world that鈥檚 changing.
I just read this book I really like called by Faith Kearns. Have you read it?
I鈥檓 actually reading it now.
Great. Her whole thesis is we have to relate to people and see them as emotional beings and embrace our own emotional selves to connect on scientific communication issues. I really see that in my own work. Climate change is such an emotional topic 鈥 from climate denial perspectives to the anxiety and grief so many people feel with climate disasters. I have to find ways to hold that while I鈥檓 working. It鈥檚 an interesting balance.
I think in western science, we frown upon people bringing in emotion. I think that鈥檚 a disservice to ourselves, to our science, to our community. It鈥檚 actually really powerful to hold space for that. Especially when you鈥檙e interested in communicating science to the public. You have to connect; you have to feel things. It won鈥檛 be successful if you follow this one-directional deficit model of, 鈥淚 have to tell you things really academically, and you have to listen to me.鈥
On that note, I鈥檒l share with you 鈥 perhaps not surprisingly 鈥 that I鈥檓 doing this series because I鈥檝e been anxious and grieving climate change. It鈥檚 been great to talk with climate scientists about it. What sorts of things do you do to take care of yourself when climate anxiety sets in?
I鈥檓 going to take a tangent and then make sure to answer that. I really love this question. For me, my family actually just lost our home to wildfire in the end of December in Colorado.
Oh, Mandy, I鈥檓 so sorry.
Thank you. That experience was really pivotal for me as a human and as someone who studies climate change. I was on Twitter the day of the fire and days after because it鈥檚 excellent for emergencies and things like evacuating. Because I鈥檓 also on 鈥渁cademic Twitter,鈥 I was seeing all these posts from fire scientists saying things like, 鈥淥h, well, this is the wildland-urban interface, and that鈥檚 the problem here鈥 鈥 almost trying to point fingers. It was so infuriating to me to literally have the properties and homes still smoldering and have these people really remove themselves and remove the connection people have with their homes in this discourse of intellectualizing the experience. And I thought, 鈥淚 never want to do that.鈥
That experience really emphasized to me that note of holding a gentleness and kindness in our work. I hate the notion that to be a great scientist you have to be very cutthroat or serious. No one has training in how to listen and relate to people 鈥 how to hold kindness.
Often toward the end of a dive I鈥檓 so cold, but I want to stay because it鈥檚 so beautiful that I just want to have time to explore.
So when you ask what I do to cope, that鈥檚 a major piece of it 鈥 allowing all of these emotions and intentionally trying to be kind and gentle with myself, the people I work with and the community overall. Because more and more, people we work with have evacuated for fires or had their homes burned down in a fire. Feeling these feelings and allowing space for it is productive.
More specifically, I see a lot of value in tying in things I鈥檝e learned from social justice work. I volunteer with on campus. It鈥檚 the sexual violence prevention and resources group. I bring that up because that space is so trauma-informed, and so gentle and inclusive. I see so much value in bringing those grounding principles into our work as scientists and climate-adjacent scientists.
And I really focus on the things that bring me joy, like playing with my dog, Maisie. Just taking care of a creature and having that bond with a creature is so joyful and has brought so much balance to my life. I have to walk her and feed her and play with her every day. I don鈥檛 know if you鈥檝e seen that meme from the dog鈥檚 perspective of, 鈥淚 have to take my human for her mental health walk.鈥 I just love that.
Because, yeah, it鈥檚 really depressing: These species I study may not exist by the time I die. That鈥檚 a lot to carry and feel.
A lot of people talk about how they get out in nature to cope. I find it so interesting that you also cope with this heavy topic of climate change by going into what鈥檚 an arguably heavier topic of sexual violence. Can you talk about how helping others also helps you?
I do find it very rewarding. Often in my work, I feel like I鈥檓 not impacting anyone鈥檚 lives. I just study these tiny fish at the end of the world, and I鈥檓 going to write a paper, and no one is going to read it. Those are the grumpy days.
By volunteering with CARE and programs where I can actively talk with students and answer questions, it helps me feel like maybe we鈥檙e moving the dial a bit about sexual violence. I just felt this need to do something. It is heavy, but the big lesson is that when the space you work in and the people with whom you share that space is trauma-informed, intentionally intersectional and gentle, that space can hold everyone through those challenging feelings.
More and more, people we work with have evacuated for fires or had their homes burned down in a fire. Feeling these feelings and allowing space for it is productive.
All these students I volunteer with are so amazing. Everyone puts their hearts into this heavy topic, and the space holds us there. That鈥檚 where I鈥檓 like, 鈥淎h, we need this in our grad groups, our institutions and our collaborations.鈥 We need those check-ins and just celebrating the humanity of people.
Let鈥檚 go back to Antarctica for a bit. Most of us haven鈥檛 been there. What鈥檚 it like?
It鈥檚 amazing, full stop. To me, it鈥檚 the most beautiful place on Earth. It鈥檚 paradise. There鈥檚 a narrative that polar science is so badass, and you have to dominate and be this heroic explorer. I don鈥檛 like that vibe. To me, it鈥檚 so stunning and more gentle than I think people perceive it as being. I think of the poles as so vulnerable 鈥 how the ice is always breaking and moving out. I view that as softness.
The research station is facing out to McMurdo Sound. You wake up, go to the lab. The sound is completely frozen, and the Transantarctic Mountains are behind the sound. So it鈥檚 this stunning landscape of mountains and oceans.
People are like, 鈥榊ou must be so tough to go there.鈥 But I鈥檓 like, 鈥榊ou wear jackets!鈥
People are like, 鈥淵ou must be so tough to go there.鈥 But I鈥檓 like, 鈥淵ou wear jackets!鈥 I feel really comfortable. I love that cold feeling on your cheeks and breathing it in. Ah! I really love that. Or taking off your layers and defrosting a bit. It just brings me a lot of joy to be able to work there. I鈥檓 very lucky that I get to dive there to collect our fish.
Wow! I 诲颈诲苍鈥檛 know that. How do you dive in Antarctica?
For young life stages, you have to collect the fish by hand if you want them to survive. So you put a dive hut over the ice, sit on the edge and plop in, like you鈥檙e going into a swimming pool. There are a couple feet of ice you have to go through to get down. In the few seconds it takes to do that, I feel like I鈥檓 transporting through a black hole to another planet, because it鈥檚 such an otherworldly ecosystem.
I鈥檓 really interested in ice habitat for the fish, and I鈥檓 obsessed with sea ice. On the top, the ice is flat from the wind and stuff, but when you go underneath, there鈥檚 all this structure that forms. It鈥檚 like an 鈥渋ce reef鈥 because of all the structures. I love that.
That鈥檚 also where emotion ties in, because I feel really sad that the ice is disappearing. Sea ice is such an important piece of the ecosystem, and I think we鈥檙e only just starting to understand that more in terms of smaller critters.
The water is crystal clear at the beginning of the season, so you can see for hundreds of feet. That鈥檚 not normal for diving, especially in California, where it鈥檚 like, 鈥淕reat, I can see 20 feet today!鈥 So it feels like swimming through this alternate planet.
Everyone鈥檚 like, 鈥淚s it cold?鈥 Yeah, it鈥檚 cold! Dry suits leak and compress. Often toward the end of a dive I鈥檓 so cold, but I want to stay because it鈥檚 so beautiful that I just want to have time to explore. You come up, and your cheeks and lips are all puffy from the cold water. Your face is all red from the blood coming back. But it鈥檚 just stunning, is all that I feel. Being able to work there is what keeps me going, too. Thinking about how special it is that that鈥檚 what I get to study.
That sounds so amazing. I talked with Professor Tessa Hill for this series, too, about 鈥渢he knowing.鈥 Like when you study climate change, there鈥檚 a lot of joy in that because you get to be in these amazing environments and feel a sense of purpose. But 鈥渢he knowing鈥 changes how you see everything in your life. Are there ever times you wish you 诲颈诲苍鈥檛 know?
My housemate and I joke, like, 鈥淟et鈥檚 just open a flower shop or own a bakery or something joyful.鈥 But whether it鈥檚 just my generation or upbringing, the importance of climate change is something I鈥檝e always known about. I see that with students who are now undergrads at 嘿嘿视频. Even my nephew and niece, who are 8 and 6, sometimes make drawings of wildfires and wildfire smoke. I鈥檓 like, wow. I think younger generations are just like, 鈥淭his is what it is.鈥
I guess the difference for me is I feel there鈥檚 been a shift from environmentalism as 鈥渞educe, reuse, recycle鈥 and individual actions as the answer to realizing the big drivers are the oil and gas industry, and the intentional propaganda and misinformation we鈥檝e been exposed to for decades. I just get so angry at these companies and handfuls of individuals who have really changed our climate.
So what drives you to move forward with 鈥渢he knowing?鈥
I ask other people that a lot, like, 鈥淗ow do you do this?鈥 I feel like I do it not because I want to but because I have to, almost. I鈥檓 in this.
I鈥檓 thinking about what we talked about with the sexual violence work. This is so heavy and so hard, but you find community in it.
And the knowing part: Once you know, you can鈥檛 unknow. Now that I know, and I know I care about it, I have to keep working on it. That keeps me going. The thought of going back to the Antarctic, that also really energizes me.
Restart the series with part 1, 鈥淧eter Moyle: Fish by Fish, Bird by Bird鈥
In part 1 of the 鈥淐onfronting Climate Anxiety,鈥 series, fisheries biologist Peter Moyle tells us why he鈥檚 still so optimistic despite a half century of chronicling the decline of native fishes in California.
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Kat Kerlin is an environmental science writer on the 嘿嘿视频 News and Media Relations team. 530-750-9195, kekerlin@ucdavis.edu. Twitter
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