How increasing your happiness can help solve climate change (w/ Jiaying Zhao and Elizabeth Dunn)

The conversation around climate change is often bleak and terrifying, but it doesn’t have to be that way, says climate behavior scientist Jiaying Zhao, or JZ. In this episode, JZ and happiness researcher Elizabeth Dunn join Chris to discuss why we need to account for happiness in climate solutions. JZ and Elizabeth argue since happiness is contagious, making happiness-driven decisions go further in influencing behavioral change than fear-based tactics. They also talk about an anesthetic gas that releases more carbon than CO2 and why you should google if your bank is investing money in fossil fuels.

Featured guest

• Follow JZ on X, LinkedIn, and at psych.ubc.ca/profile/jiaying-zhao/
• Follow Elizabeth Dunn at https://dunn.psych.ubc.ca/
• Learn more at https://happyclimate.org/
• Buy Leave the Light On

Connect with the team

• Follow Chris on Instagram and at chrisduffycomedy.com
• Buy Chris’ book, Humor Me 
• Watch How to Be a Better Human videos on YouTube at TEDPods
• Follow TED on X, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and TikTok

For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts

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