Hope in Adaptation

Recently, Greta Thunberg, a teenager from Sweden, offered an impassioned plea to the United Nations.  She said:

"You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!...

"You are failing us. But the young people are starting to understand your betrayal. The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say: We will never forgive you."

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These words focus deserved attention on the issue of climate action; but more importantly, the tone of the rhetoric and delivery underscores an even greater concern: A growing lack of hope for the future--particularly among the younger generation.

A recent article in Vice pointed out that outright despair, prompted by the impression that the changing climate will soon wipe out all life on earth, has caused many to "give up on life."  The article began with the story of a former teacher who related the following:

"Summers have been stressful to me since having my son," said Ruttan Walker, who is now an environmental activist. "It's hard to enjoy a season that's a constant reminder that the world is getting warmer. I think my anxiety just reached a peak," Ruttan Walker continued. It felt like there was nowhere to go, and although she had spoken to her primary care doctor about anxiety, she hadn't sought help with her mental health. Suddenly, she was contemplating self-harm. "Though I don't think I would have hurt myself, I didn't know how to live with the fear of... the apocalypse, I guess? My son was home with me and I had to call my friend over to watch him because I couldn't even look at him without breaking down," Ruttan Walker said. She eventually checked herself into an overnight mental health facility.

The article describes at length the concerns of scientists and others that, as they explain it, "cannot be understated." That said, as even the life experience of the aforementioned Greta Thunberg herself (related in the Vice article) displays, the best response to the fear and despair is to channel those emotions into action.   The article continues:

If despair breeds inaction, that's obviously a problem. But others think a certain amount of dread could be helpful. In an essay by four sociologists (Kasia Paprocki, Daniel Aldana Cohen, Rebecca Elliott and Liz Koslov) published in May, the authors argue for something called "useful discomfort." They write that they couldn't help but notice that their colleagues in the physical sciences are having a tough time dealing with "overwhelming evidence of an apocalypse," and that they're "largely despairing both because of what they know, and how they are being ignored, dismissed, and even outright threatened." However, they write, "We believe that our discomforts are productive. They allow us to reject catastrophism and clarify possibilities for better futures."

In the case of climate, building resilience provides a path forward. One author reminds us that humans can adapt and survive virtually anything. His reasoning?

That’s because apocalypse is well-nigh impossible. We’re like ants: We’re vulnerable to being killed en masse, but the species will survive because, like ants, we’re numerous and dispersed. No matter how many supposedly humanity-ending threats you hurl—literally, in the case of ballistic missiles—humans will continue to crawl the Earth. This comfort may be cold, but it’s still a fact….

The millennial dystopian attitude is not totally illogical. The problems we confront in this century are menacing, and they won’t solve themselves. But a resort to the logic of “it doesn’t matter what we do because we’re all doomed anyway” is both lazy and wrong.

There’s little doubt that Homo sapiens is capable of unprecedented harm. But one thing we can’t do is extinguish ourselves—we’ll have to leave that achievement to an outside celestial force.

OK, not exactly the approach I would take... But the point here is that adaptation to climate change is a reasonable solution to that particular problem.  We can survive even the most difficult global calamities.

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More broadly, I would argue that the informed adults in society begin to speak in terms of a collective hope for a better future for all. Adopting a common vision, finding shared solutions and then encouraging their implementation is far more effective than sowing fear in an attempt to achieve the same goals.  The latter, negative approach does little to build confidence and undermines the resolve of the younger generations who will be responsible to carry the torch forward.

Teach our children there is hope for the future and that rebuilding a peaceful and resilient society is the key.  That's quite literally the only way to keep us all... out of harm's way.