While the American people have the impression that scientists are hard at work figuring out this complex matter of climate change, it's not actually that complicated.

My grandmother is a Holocaust survivor. Some heroes of mine have long been the Jewish Partisans, these young people who just went into the woods with whatever guns and bombs and what not they could get their hands on, and just would fight Nazis, and try to help people escape.

I used to be a lot more afraid of climate change. Now I spend my time working, planning, trying to move forward.

With climate change, of course there are things to grieve. I certainly grieved that the vision that I had for my life, that I would be a clinical psychologist and write books and have a family, that that was not going to happen, because if the world is collapsing around you, it just doesn't seem that appealing anymore.

I argue that I don't think it's a moral position to say that civilization is going to collapse, and that's okay. Because that would cause the deaths of billions of people. It's certainly not something I'm willing to accept.

Psychologically speaking, the rational, healthy response to climate change is to say to oneself, "What can I do about this?" But that question is often answered through individual action.

Taking fear seriously is not easy. A lot of people's response to fear is "Don't worry so much, it's crazy." But some things absolutely deserve our fear, and climate change is first among them.