Hey there Earthlings. 🩵 It’s a hard time to have a soft heart. I am with you — and letting both love and rage propel me.
Last week, I was interviewed by Daniel Gross of The New Yorker for his piece “Is There Still Time to Hopeful About Climate?” Here’s what I said:
First of all, I did not know cursing was allowed in The New Yorker. 🤣
Second (and linguistically related), I sort of object to the article’s title question. Y’all know my stance on hope: “Fuck hope. What’s the strategy? What are we going to do so that we don’t need hope?”
Third, I’ve been reminded that cursing will alienate some people. Well... time to whip out the thesaurus and gather up some other strong words. 🤬 (What non-expletives have you been gravitating toward recently? Please drop suggestions in the comments.)
Fourth, now seems like a good time to re-share this short “A Note on Hope” chapter from my book What If We Get It Right?: Visions of Climate Futures. I hope (ha!) you’ll find something useful or relatable in there. We’re in this together, babes.
Book Excerpt 📖: A Note on Hope
I’m sort of baffled by the common (Western?) social premise that hope is super important, or worse, the precursor to action. Unpopular opinion: I’m just not into hope — it feels pretty flimsy to me. Which makes it pretty awkward that the question I get asked in almost every interview is: What gives you hope? 😬
In other news, I’m trying to live a more analog and outside life this summer (highly recommend). 🛶🏕️📚 I’m slowing down on podcasting (among other things) until autumn. So for this week’s episode, I want to introduce you to another show I think you just might love. It’s called Science Vs., hosted by Wendy Zukerman. In each episode they tackle a different topic to sort out what’s fact, what’s fiction, and what’s still TBD.
As a scientist and lover of facts, I appreciate how Wendy and her team dig into the scientific literature, fact check everything, share their sources, and interview experts. Which is to say, I think you’ll enjoy the episode “Climate Crisis: We’re Solving It?!” As they describe it:
“The climate is a mess. It's hot. There's fires, floods, hurricanes — and we may have even crossed some rather scary climate tipping points. But there is hope. So today, we’re answering your questions about solving the climate crisis. We find out how you can help in the fight against climate change, if carbon offsets are a scam, whether renewables really work and what exciting new technologies could help save the planet. Our guests are Dr. Sven Teske at the University of Technology, Sydney, and Wei Sue, head of strategy at Monash University's Climateworks Center.”
More soon. xo
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