the antidote to existential exhaustion

or Jen is feeling better after four days in nature and...

Every month or so I write about taking climate action because it’s not too late to save ourselves and anybody who says it is is lying.

Bob and I spent four days off-grid camping last weekend and it was the balm my weary heart needed. Listening to all the different calls a robin can make, studying the tiny buds on the baby aspens, trying to remember if a male Ponderosa pine tree smells like cinnamon and a female vanilla or vice versa, watching storms build over the mountains, these are my ideas of fun.

And, of course, these are good antidotes for my existential exhaustion because silence and nature restore me and because I was offline — no bad news to make me feel overwhelmed and depressed.

Back at my computer Monday morning, I gently called myself out for falling into the trap many of us who care about the climate do, which is thinking we are alone and are the only ones paying attention.

I re-read this great piece of research More People in the World Care About Climate Change than You Think to remind myself you and I are so not alone. Here’s the opening:

People across the world, and the political spectrum, underestimate levels of support for climate action.

This “perception gap” matters. Governments will change policy if they think they have strong public backing. Companies need to know that consumers want to see low-carbon products and changes in business practices. We’re all more likely to make changes if we think others will do the same.

If governments, companies, innovators, and our neighbors know that most people are worried about the climate and want to see change, they’ll be more willing to drive it.

On the flip side, if we systematically underestimate widespread support, we’ll keep quiet for fear of “rocking the boat”.

This matters not only within each country but also in how we cooperate internationally. No country can solve climate change on its own. If we think that people in other countries don’t care and won’t act, we’re more likely to sit back as we consider our efforts hopeless.

Hopeless is what the fossil fuel industry wants us to feel. I refuse to give them the satisfaction.

I caught up with what

Katharine Hayhoe

with Michael Mann wrote recently:

We are concerned how well-meaning journalism is perpetuating this narrative of doom and despair. Consider the recent piece on the Guardian’s survey of climate scientists, titled “Hopeless and broken: Why the world’s top climate scientists are in despair”.

The implication of the article — and especially the social media promotion of it — is that there is a scientific consensus that we are headed towards 2.5C warming. If that amount of warming is inevitable, that would be devastating. Exceeding 1.5C would be bad enough, and 2C would be even more dangerous and damaging.

But that is not what the survey showed or what the scientific consensus is.

Existing policies and actions already in progress are estimated to limit warming to between 2.5C and 2.9C. Adding in current pledges and targets would limit this to around 2.1C. If the net zero goals of 140 countries were achieved, warming would be around 1.8C. Only a path of rapid societal decarbonisation at this point could keep warming below 1.5C.

I read this lovely interview with Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and I joined my local chapter of Citizen’s Climate Lobby because being with other people taking local action in my community has long been a goal of mine and I’ve been too shy to do it. I have preferred to do things at a remove — like write this newsletter — and that’s part of what has exhausted me. We need to be with other humans!

And finally I read Heated and I then took more action here.

My exhaustion is much better because I rested and because I took action.

I think what gets in my way of taking regular action is thinking what I do has to be heroic or special which is so adorable.

I’d love to hear how you feel about taking climate action, if it’s hard for you to join groups too? What have you done lately especially when it comes to local organizing?

Do tell!

Thanks for being here. I appreciate you so much.

Love,

Jen