Hope

 With all that is going on in the world today, it can be easy to become overwhelmed.  There are so many threats to our existence that if one sits down and tries to process them all, we inevitably end up shutting down.  How does one stay open to the information without becoming overwhelmed with grief?

I have a degree in Environmental Science, and by the completion of that degree I was left with the belief that we, as a species, were killing ourselves and that extinction as a species was inevitable.  I completely shut down.  I still did little things to help the environment- I recycled and composted; I turned off lights when I left the room; I grew food in my backyard; I bought Green and organic- but I did it all knowing that those things weren't having the slightest impact on the mass destruction that was happening to our world.  My education had shown me that the people in charge, the people with power, were more interested in increasing GDP than they were in having fresh water to drink.  They were more interested in creating profits for their shareholders than they were in preserving the forests that provided them with oxygen.  They were more interested in making billions of dollars than they were in maintaining a planet that would provide a home for their children and grandchildren.  Every decision that was being made in every 'developed' country was about the economy.  It was about keeping money flowing and growing.  We had to cut down the forest because it had a greater dollar value as lumber than it did as a tree.  We had oil reserves in the ground that had to be extracted because that would save the failing economy.  What country wouldn't extract their oil?  Environmental destruction was not considered as a cost.  The planet was there for our use, was it not?  Did we not have the right to use 'our' resources however we wanted?  To this day, even with the effects of global warming being blatantly obvious and devastating, our global leaders are still saying 'well, we can't do anything about it now because it would just cost too much; it would be devastating to the economy'.  What about the devastation global warming is causing to the people?  Apparently, that is a price they are willing to pay.

When I graduated in 1998, we were already learning about global warming.  The knowledge was there.  We knew it was happening, but in the 30 years since I graduated, what has been done?  There have been some glimmers of hope as smaller countries have adopted climate friendly policies, but for the most part, there's just been a lot of talk and very little action.

So, for most of my adult life, I have had the knowledge that we were causing massive damage to the planet, that we knew we were doing it, and that we also knew how to stop it, but that the political will just wasn't there.  I shut down.  I lived my life day to day and put on blinders so that I could cope.  I'm not an activist.  I'm an educator and where I could, I would teach my students about what was happening to the world, but I did it with little hope.  Life is already hard enough without having to cope with the fate of the entire species (and most of life on earth).  It was only when I was introduced to the work of Joanna Macy that I was able to pull myself out of the abyss and start caring again.