Much of humanity’s reluctance to change our ways of doing things in the face of climate change comes from the assumption that it means trading abundance for austerity, writes historian Rebecca Solnit. As we antecipated yesterday , she is a writer and historian. And an article with her opinion was published last Wednesday by The Washington Post.
She starts like this, "A monastic once told me renunciation can be great if it means giving up things that make you miserable".
And then adds, "Look closely, and you can see that by measures other than goods and money, we are impoverished. Even the affluent live in a world where confidence in the future, and in the society and institutions around us, is fading — and where a sense of security, social connectedness, mental and physical health, and other measures of well-being are often dismal."
And concluded "When I was researching a book on how people respond to disasters, I was struck less by the fact that most people were brave, altruistic and able to improvise new social networks and means of survival, and more by the fact that amid these improvisations, they found something they craved so much that even amid death, ruin and disorder, their joy shone out."
According to her, this should be our human attitude towards climate change. To make most lives better. And through moral beauty.
Also being published coming April, Rebecca is co-editor of the anthology “Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story From Despair to Possibility”. If you click at the image below, you can access the portal of that project. Among other things, such as a great section of Frequently Asked Questions and links to other interesting articles, it includes 3 simple paths to get people doing something, in a direction worth going:
Inform. Make sure you're reading beyond the horrifying headlines. If you find a climate story that brings you hope, share it on your social media.
Imagine. Take time for that, how the world could be like, instead of how it is.
Act. Adapt your / our individual pattern. And get involved, join a group. If there isn't one near you, then find the courage to start something.
Last but not least, recall here our December 30, 2022 post "Young people feel like they have no future due to climate change; we need to change the narrative."
