Ink Tea Stone Leaf

If you have been aware of the news lately, you’ve likely heard about a grim forecast from the United Nations: The goal of limiting global warming to less than 1.5 degrees celsius above “normal” will almost certainly not be achieved. This means that the extraordinary weather-related disasters we have begun to see will not only remain with us for at least as long as all of us are alive, but will get worse, at least for a long while. Ecosystems will continue to wither, and species of plants and animals will become extinct. More people will die or be displaced, and new conflicts will erupt over water, food, and the very fact of migration. These things are already happening, and they aren’t going away. But that is not the end of the story.

This article in Scientific American summarizes the news very well. At this moment in history, we have found ourselves in this position because of a great social, economic and political failure. That is to say, that although this problem has long been foreseen and effective solutions have been available for a long time, the world has not accomplished the collective shift necessary to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. There has been no political will to embrace renewable energy sources to the extent that would cause them to overtake the burning of carbon compounds—or at least that will has not manifested where it is needed most. The corporations that profit from oil, coal, and gas have spent billions of dollars to shield themselves from making the necessary changes, and the politicians we have elected have done little or nothing to force them. The current President of the United States, the world’s largest per-capita source of greenhouse gas emissions, still calls the climate crisis a hoax, and will continue to gut what environmental regulations we have managed to enact for as long as he holds power. As I wrote yesterday, we need a massive political shift to put us back on the right track, and that shift cannot come too soon.

And yes, there is still a right track. At the very least there is a right direction. As bad as the situation is, we still face a range of possible outcomes. It is still rational to prefer what is merely bad to what is worse, because it is better. A world where 20% of the species now alive go extinct is better than one where 50% do, or 80%. We have not run out of people or things to protect.

I want to highlight some words that come at the end of the Scientific American article, quoted from the U.N. Environmental Program’s report:

Every fraction of a degree avoided and every year by which overshoot is shortened will save lives, protect ecosystems and reduce economic losses.

This statement is true, and will remain true as long as humans have the capacity to affect their environment. In other words, as long as we are capable of damaging our environment, we are also capable of healing it. The environment may not look the same as before, and it may always bear the scars of its injuries, but we do not have to let it die.

I wish more people embraced this mindset. When I was a teacher at an alternative school, I watched too many students with failing grades despair of their educations, and even of their chances of graduating high school, because they could not achieve more than a barely passing grade. They did not want to put in extraordinary effort to achieve no more than a mediocre result. But from where I stood, I could more clearly see the consequences that would follow them for years and years if they did not try. They were consigning themselves not only to a trajectory of lower incomes and economic opportunities, but a lifetime of reduced horizons for the mind. But they didn’t have to do this—even if their twelfth grade history scores could not be raised above 69%, or even 59%, they had the rest of their lives to start over, open their minds, and hope for more than what was right in front of them.

So the right response to the climate news is not to despair. It is to act for the good of the planet, even and especially if you have not done enough in the past. The most consequential actions will require organization and coordination, particularly in politics, where obstinate and malicious actors remain at the heart of the problem. But each of us lives in a local environment as much as we share a globe. We have neighbors who need help, so we should support them, and support those who are doing the hard work of providing services directly. We have plants and wild animals all around us, and it is within our power to advocate for them and take active steps to protect them—even if that means treating your front yard as a living ecosystem, rather than a sterile expanse of decorative grass.

Living a more eco-friendly lifestyle by using less power and consuming fewer goods will not save the world on their own, but they are better than nothing, and better is better than worse. The only thing that is required of us as individuals is to care, and to sincerely demonstrate that we care through our actions in all areas of life—and to despair is nothing more than an excuse to care less.