Yup. Not only does the science agree that individual actions move the needle, so do our hearts. That's a big part of it too - the immensely motivating feeling of being able to actually do something, which has a knock-on effect elsewhere. Hope as a verb, a doing-stuff word, as a reaction to the knowledge that nothing is certain so the game is still afoot. I feel like the "the people with money have all the power" folk are also the ones who'd argue for hopelessness in other areas, and that's a telling thing.
Also, a nice thing I saw recently, also on Threads, via environmental scientist Katherine Hayhoe (also on Substack): everyone gets the story where a time traveller goes far back in time, changes a tiny thing and accidentally changes the present for better or worse. Nobody questions the narrative logic of that. But hardly anyone applies this in the other direction: by changing a tiny thing in our present, what if we can radically change our future? Surely they're an identical story?
That's a nice way of looking at it. We can do small things that lead to other small things, and who knows where we'll end up.
Generally, I just don't see many downsides to climate action. If I ride my bike instead of driving, I get some exercise and maybe spend some time in nature too. If I switch my cooktop from gas to induction, my food still cooks, but I'm not inhaling particulate matter while I do it.
Yup. Not only does the science agree that individual actions move the needle, so do our hearts. That's a big part of it too - the immensely motivating feeling of being able to actually do something, which has a knock-on effect elsewhere. Hope as a verb, a doing-stuff word, as a reaction to the knowledge that nothing is certain so the game is still afoot. I feel like the "the people with money have all the power" folk are also the ones who'd argue for hopelessness in other areas, and that's a telling thing.
Also, a nice thing I saw recently, also on Threads, via environmental scientist Katherine Hayhoe (also on Substack): everyone gets the story where a time traveller goes far back in time, changes a tiny thing and accidentally changes the present for better or worse. Nobody questions the narrative logic of that. But hardly anyone applies this in the other direction: by changing a tiny thing in our present, what if we can radically change our future? Surely they're an identical story?
That's a nice way of looking at it. We can do small things that lead to other small things, and who knows where we'll end up.
Generally, I just don't see many downsides to climate action. If I ride my bike instead of driving, I get some exercise and maybe spend some time in nature too. If I switch my cooktop from gas to induction, my food still cooks, but I'm not inhaling particulate matter while I do it.