Photo by Austin Noble
This piece, written by former Sonoma Ecology Center Writer and Content Creator Stella Favaro, was originally published in the Press Democrat on June 2, 2025.
Bay Area residents are more anxious than ever about climate change. Since Donald Trump has taken office, the country has seen a slew of climate action rollbacks and roadblocks. In the Bay Area, local organizations now face at least $60 million in threatened funding for climate resilience projects. At the same time, over 70% of adults in Sonoma County report that they are worried about global warming.
In a survey by Together Bay Area, respondents from 28 regional organizations, including environmental nonprofits, public agencies and local tribes, expressed fear and anxiety about recent changes in federal climate policy and funding. Northern California residents have already experienced severe climate impacts, including longer and more intense fire seasons. And yet only 3 in 10 express confidence in the government’s readiness to respond to wildfires in our area. This uncertainty, fueled further by recent environmental policy setbacks, is a recipe for inaction.
Fortunately, there’s a way forward that helps the planet while helping our mental health: Get involved with your community.
As we tackle challenges like heat waves and unpredictable seasonal storms, collective climate action can make a difference while nurturing a sense of togetherness. “Collective action” means working within a group, or collective, toward a common goal. It can be formal and informal, from joining a cooperative that supplies community energy to simply facilitating conversations about climate change with those around you.
Underlying all of these actions is a commitment to change and to fellow community members, promoting a sense of collective resilience, unity and mutual support.
Photo by Austin Noble
Collective action has the potential to spark friendships, grow new skills and improve one’s self-esteem and sense of empowerment.
By relieving feelings of overwhelm and pressure, group effort makes it easier to get involved in pro-climate action.
We are lucky enough to live among an abundance of natural beauty and biodiversity, from redwood forests and grapevines to the coast and wetlands. However, regions like ours are particularly vulnerable to climate impacts. We are on the front line of threats like severe flooding, shifting fire regimes and extreme heat. According to the Urban Ocean Lab, these impacts make community involvement and disaster preparedness especially important. Getting involved with groups like Save the Bay or Sonoma Ecology Center, which support change in regional climate policy, green infrastructure and restoration projects, can deepen your connection to your community while also making a critical impact.
This has also been shown to significantly reduce climate anxiety. Collective action has the potential to spark friendships, grow new skills and improve one’s self-esteem and sense of empowerment. Young people, in particular, increasingly indicate feelings of anger and powerlessness when thinking about climate change. A study by Yale researchers suggests that engaging collectively may be a powerful solution for youth by fostering connection and easing climate anxiety and despair. By relieving feelings of overwhelm and pressure, group effort makes it easier to get involved in pro-climate action.
We have the power to invest in our communities together. We can dig our hands into community gardens and restoration projects. We can support initiatives that help communities flourish, such as ecosystem protection, education programming and public advocacy. And we can do so while experiencing the joy of togetherness, rather than fear and overwhelm.
So, rather than taking on the weight of climate action solo, we should work alongside our neighbors, friends and community members to create large-scale change. You can start by accessing resources like Act Now Bay Area or the Climate Action Mapping Project, which connect people to local climate action groups. You can also encourage organizations you are already a part of to join coalitions, such as Together Bay Area, to amplify their impact. No matter how we choose to engage, we can have a truly significant collective impact: doing good not only for our homes, but also for ourselves.