Thank you, wonderful post! I particularly love how you highlight the connection between fear, its detrimental impact on our imagination, and radical optimism being like a catalyst for the radical imagination we need so desperately in these times. Let optimism be our (clean & sustainable!) fuel for dreaming big and taking the action we can to bring those dreams into being.
Wonderful post, thank you for writing this! It’s like you were inside my head and managed to make sense of the messy thoughts and fears and hopes. I will check out The Week, it sounds great! Can you run a virtual version of that too? I think my online community might like to join this.
Jennifer, so glad you liked the article!! And yes - you could totally host this online, you would just have to do a virtual screening. Hope you sign up :) (Make sure to use the link provided in the newsletter so that we can include you in our group call!)
Great read, thank you for sharing! The point about climate news throwing us into despair is only too real... Makes me think of a brilliant post by Prof. Kimberly Nicholas that really helped me shift my perspective when it comes to navigating this.
She mentions that we often judge our personal actions (e.g. recycling) in the context of global statistics, which naturally makes us feel silly about our futile efforts. She uses the example of reducing the flights we take, and I quote: 'It’s true emissions from flying are small at the GLOBAL level. But for an INDIVIDUAL high emitter, **flying is likely their largest source of emissions,** and thus _their most effective opportunity to reduce many tons of carbon.'
Doom and gloom messaging often takes the power away from us by shifting our attention on the massive global scale: the great pacific garbage patch, China's relentless drive to build new coal plants, etc.
Perhaps a more helpful way to think about climate action is to ask ourselves, 'what emissions do I have some power to reduce'? And it's okay to focus on just that, we're only human. :)
Thank you, wonderful post! I particularly love how you highlight the connection between fear, its detrimental impact on our imagination, and radical optimism being like a catalyst for the radical imagination we need so desperately in these times. Let optimism be our (clean & sustainable!) fuel for dreaming big and taking the action we can to bring those dreams into being.
How beautifully you summed up the importance of climate optimism in this one comment -- thank you for your passion and commitment!!
Wonderful post, thank you for writing this! It’s like you were inside my head and managed to make sense of the messy thoughts and fears and hopes. I will check out The Week, it sounds great! Can you run a virtual version of that too? I think my online community might like to join this.
Jennifer, so glad you liked the article!! And yes - you could totally host this online, you would just have to do a virtual screening. Hope you sign up :) (Make sure to use the link provided in the newsletter so that we can include you in our group call!)
Awesome! I will look into it more later how to do the screening but it should be fine.
Will use your link, thanks for reminding me!
Great read, thank you for sharing! The point about climate news throwing us into despair is only too real... Makes me think of a brilliant post by Prof. Kimberly Nicholas that really helped me shift my perspective when it comes to navigating this.
She mentions that we often judge our personal actions (e.g. recycling) in the context of global statistics, which naturally makes us feel silly about our futile efforts. She uses the example of reducing the flights we take, and I quote: 'It’s true emissions from flying are small at the GLOBAL level. But for an INDIVIDUAL high emitter, **flying is likely their largest source of emissions,** and thus _their most effective opportunity to reduce many tons of carbon.'
Doom and gloom messaging often takes the power away from us by shifting our attention on the massive global scale: the great pacific garbage patch, China's relentless drive to build new coal plants, etc.
Perhaps a more helpful way to think about climate action is to ask ourselves, 'what emissions do I have some power to reduce'? And it's okay to focus on just that, we're only human. :)
Link to Prof. Nicholas' post: https://wecanfixit.substack.com/p/get-your-climate-priorities-straight