I’m a former environmental scientist (who also has a masters of environmental law) who studied advanced climate science, and I don’t despair. Am I saddened by species loss (floral and faunal)? Yes. Do I yearn for clean skies, oceans, and rivers? Yes. The changes on our beautiful blue jewel of a planet have been underway since before my birth in the 1970’s and so I feel I’ve always lived with the pain of destruction. I was devastated at 5 years old by the loss of the Amazon (as an example). What this pain has taught me is that this place, our lives, that flower, your Ash are a divine miracle and deserving of our love and attention without the projection of my sense of loss or pain. Despite ‘climate’ those seedlings grow. Will they grow to full trees? Perhaps, perhaps not. Can they be spoken to, adored and loved today? Absolutely. So this is how I live. The plants have taught me how to be a better human.
Ignore the media. It is poison.
Love the elm, ash and oak. They are beauty.
Ignore opinions. They are poison.
Cherish kindness, calmness and caring. They are beauty.
What I love about Wendell is laughter, always. Life is fragile and fleeting. I lost my 29 year old niece 2 weeks ago. Heartbreak is real, as is the call to action death heralds when it arrives close to home. Warmth, laughter, trees, flowers. The hail destroyed my beautiful wildflower garden last week, so I tend, I thank. I remember. Has the hail been really bad this year? Yes. Will I stop gardening? No.
I also find that time spent away from cities is so soothing that the collective grief and fear that globs on to us when in close quarters is transmuted by open skies and thick forests. It is an antidote to the times and to our minds and I truly feel Wendell knows this.
I love this article. I feel moved by my connection to my wormwood hedge to point out that lots of people everywhere are doing all they can to help the planet. I plant, I grow, I eat the home grown and the farmer's market food. I bring all my own bags. I bring cutlery and plates to takeaway places with seats. And I dream about writing the definitive economics work that reforms what the whole world measures in the national accounts. Crazy, maybe? But I plod on, even if I feel like sprinting, which is unsustainable. Like what we measure and don't measure. Hereby is the path of unsustainability. We run our world, we choose our governments, we see, based on what we measure. I have hope. I have faith. I also have a healthy dose of disbelief in society's stupidity. So many resort to numbing the pain of awareness, but I am trying to use mine.
Thanks for the encouragement and reframing of thoughts Liz. The existential dread is real unfortunately. Finding peace in chaos is very much a work in progress for many of us.
“Expect the end of the world, but tend the world anyway.” Thank you for articulating so well how so many of us feel, and for the reminder to keep on doing simply what we each can.
I’m a former environmental scientist (who also has a masters of environmental law) who studied advanced climate science, and I don’t despair. Am I saddened by species loss (floral and faunal)? Yes. Do I yearn for clean skies, oceans, and rivers? Yes. The changes on our beautiful blue jewel of a planet have been underway since before my birth in the 1970’s and so I feel I’ve always lived with the pain of destruction. I was devastated at 5 years old by the loss of the Amazon (as an example). What this pain has taught me is that this place, our lives, that flower, your Ash are a divine miracle and deserving of our love and attention without the projection of my sense of loss or pain. Despite ‘climate’ those seedlings grow. Will they grow to full trees? Perhaps, perhaps not. Can they be spoken to, adored and loved today? Absolutely. So this is how I live. The plants have taught me how to be a better human.
Ignore the media. It is poison.
Love the elm, ash and oak. They are beauty.
Ignore opinions. They are poison.
Cherish kindness, calmness and caring. They are beauty.
What I love about Wendell is laughter, always. Life is fragile and fleeting. I lost my 29 year old niece 2 weeks ago. Heartbreak is real, as is the call to action death heralds when it arrives close to home. Warmth, laughter, trees, flowers. The hail destroyed my beautiful wildflower garden last week, so I tend, I thank. I remember. Has the hail been really bad this year? Yes. Will I stop gardening? No.
I also find that time spent away from cities is so soothing that the collective grief and fear that globs on to us when in close quarters is transmuted by open skies and thick forests. It is an antidote to the times and to our minds and I truly feel Wendell knows this.
Oh I love this. I want to breathe it in. Thank you so much.
Wow, that is beautiful. I love the feel of what you've written here. It soothes the climate anxiety that I feel on a daily basis.
I love this article. I feel moved by my connection to my wormwood hedge to point out that lots of people everywhere are doing all they can to help the planet. I plant, I grow, I eat the home grown and the farmer's market food. I bring all my own bags. I bring cutlery and plates to takeaway places with seats. And I dream about writing the definitive economics work that reforms what the whole world measures in the national accounts. Crazy, maybe? But I plod on, even if I feel like sprinting, which is unsustainable. Like what we measure and don't measure. Hereby is the path of unsustainability. We run our world, we choose our governments, we see, based on what we measure. I have hope. I have faith. I also have a healthy dose of disbelief in society's stupidity. So many resort to numbing the pain of awareness, but I am trying to use mine.
Thank you so much. It is helping me so much to hear how other people are navigating this.
I mean also please write the economics. Just do it
Just gotta get through my son's and my partner's illnesses first.
Thanks for the encouragement and reframing of thoughts Liz. The existential dread is real unfortunately. Finding peace in chaos is very much a work in progress for many of us.
“Expect the end of the world, but tend the world anyway.” Thank you for articulating so well how so many of us feel, and for the reminder to keep on doing simply what we each can.
This feels similar to what Neil Crowther has blogged about recently about messaging on social care and it’s parallels with messaging on climate here:
https://makingrightsmakesense.wordpress.com/2023/07/12/fix-social-care-campaigning/
And here:
https://twitter.com/neilmcrowther/status/1679108820994277376?s=46&t=TnQXODA-AeIQJidMBJ_XlA
Practice the counterfactual. Time stamp your impact tomorrow.