#Climate optimism drivers#

The simple answer is that you canвЂ™t be one without it! Trust me, IвЂ™ve tried, and it didnвЂ™t work. How can you be a climate optimist if all you feel is sorrow and pain? WeвЂ™re afraid of what kind of despair weвЂ™ll find ourselves in if we actually let go and allow ourselves to grieve. Photo: David Marcu Our hearts can take itДЄ big reason for avoiding eco-grief is that we donвЂ™t think our hearts can take it. IвЂ™m not proposing that we drop the ball on everything fun (and weвЂ™ll also cover how important it is that we have fun on this journey in a future issue), but I think you get my point. Will she say yes to SusanвЂ™s brunch invitation and go mingle with her ladies, or will she show up by that bedside every morning and call every doctor in the country to make sure her child gets well? Megan sits next to her sick childвЂ™s bed, clinging on to any kind of hope there is despite the daily pain it brings to see her child dying.

Well, sort of! Because how do we find the will to grasp for the last pieces of hope and do all we can to co-create a better world if weвЂ™re not letting ourselves feel the pain of what weвЂ™re losing? Climate anxiety, however, is not!В I will go deeper into climate anxiety in a future newsletter but for now, letвЂ™s just say that climate anxiety comes with nothing good.Д¬limate anxiety is disempowering, prohibits positive action, and is actually dangerous for your health. So eco-grief, if respected and managed properly (tips for that at the bottom of this newsletter), is both healthy and empowering. But when combined in healthy doses, and applied to an attitude of wanting to make change happen, it becomes a powerful fuel to kickstart some empowered action. Fear alone can push you into a paralyzed state.

#Climate optimism drivers#

In his new book, Climate Cure, Jack Adam Weber talks about how fear and grief in combination are important drivers for action and positive change. You shouldnвЂ™t fear eco-grief because itвЂ™s actually a necessary tool in your toolbox as an empowered climate activist an essential part of what fuels your desire to make change and move forward into a new kind of world. ItвЂ™s time we understand and accept that we are part of nature and that itвЂ™s impossible to escape whatвЂ™s happening to the world. If ignored, you might lose yourself to similar car tantrums like the one I had with my hubby in San Francisco. Eco-grief is both necessary and unavoidable. To make it super simple - eco-grief is good, climate anxiety is bad. Especially in the way we ought to think about and treat them. Is eco-grief and climate anxiety the same thing? They can seem similar, and some people might argue that they are, but I believe they differ gravely. ItвЂ™s not until recent years that IвЂ™ve understood that it was grief for the world I was battling with this whole time. No one spoke of climate anxiety when I was younger and therefore, I was never given any help. Although itвЂ™s sad to know more people are suffering from mental illnesses as a result of climate change, IвЂ™m glad itвЂ™s being talked about.

Terms like eco-grief and climate anxiety are becoming more and more common as big media, like The Guardian and NY Times, are covering the topic.

We ARE nature and so, if nature is hurting, so are we. Some even argue (and IвЂ™m a personal supporter of this claim) that since weвЂ™re all interconnected - people, animals, microorganisms, plants - we can experience this pain even if we canвЂ™t see it with our own eyes. WeвЂ™re losing our only home and that is both scary and painful. You donвЂ™t have to be a Birkenstock tree-hugger to experience this grief, nor do you have to be up close to the disaster. Have you felt it? The heart-wrecking pain of returning to a loved place only to learn that what was once lush and beautiful nature has turned into housing or a parking lot? Or the deep sense of loss when you learn that one football field of rainforest is cut down per second, carving a hole inside you with potential for depths youвЂ™re not sure youвЂ™ll ever get out of if you fall?Д®co-grief - or climate grief, as also referred to - is the pain you experience as a result of our dying natural world. With the vast ocean in front of me and the crashing waves in my ears, my body calms. Without hesitation, I step out and walk to the shore, the darkness of the November night swallowing me as I step out of range of the headlights. He asks if we should circle the block a few times and I thankfully say yes, so we pass our home and keep driving down the southern border of Golden Gate Park until we end up at the ocean. I just knew that something was and whatever it was, I couldnвЂ™t hold it in anymore. What starts as a few silent tears down my cheeks soon unfolds into loud crying and I slam my hands in furious punches at the dashboard in front of me. We were driving up Haight street after a Friday night in San FranciscoвЂ™s the Mission district when, only a few blocks away from home, my bubble burst.