"The way I channel my anxiety is through my activism”: Young Climate Activists, Storytelling, and the Emotion Culture of Cultivated Hope

Emotions are part of action; they can mobilize and demobilize, energize or deenergize, strengthen collective identity or divide activists, and they also play a key role in strategic decision making and lifestyle choices. The analysis of the emotional dimension of social movements allows comprehending how activists understand the world around them, give meaning to their experience, and act consequently. This chapter discusses climate emotions (i.e., those that people can feel with the experience of climate change), from a sociocultural approach, focusing on their role in climate activism, and not on their effects on mental health or the nonactivist population. Additionally, it examines moral emotions and affective commitments that characterize the experience of activism. The chapter will also debate the relevance of knowing the strategies of emotion management that climate activists develop in order not to give up or burn out, and the feelings that they share, which can contribute to the emotion culture of the climate movement.