I recently met a guy in his 70s from Brazil, who spoke about the destruction of the Amazon as a damn shame. He mentioned, with despair, that he thought the human race was incorrigible, alluding to the idea that we’re a cancer on the planet. He also spoke with a degree of optimism that we might “solve” the energy crisis through nuclear fusion. He also spoke about the need for a new consciousness that’s more connected with the land.
I’m in my 30s, and these are all thoughts I’ve had, too.
I asked the guy: “What is the difference between optimism and hope?”
For me, this question crystalizes the journey I’ve taken in my thinking about environmental issues over recent years (in large part by writing this newsletter).
Eco-hope, to me, is the belief in humanity’s ability to take positive action. Eco-optimism, to me, is the belief that everything is gonna be all right.
The song Three little birds by Bob Marley epitomizes optimism for me. Marley sings: “Don’t worry about a thing. ‘Cause every little thing is gonna be all right.”
Nothing against Bob Marley, but I believe that eco-optimism and eco-despair are two sides of the same delusional coin. Believing that fusion or electric cars will save us is just as delusional as thinking that everything is f*cked beyond all repair. Really, the truth is in the middle: there are huge, huge problems AND we as humans have agency and intelligence to make positive change.
There is major and tragic damage to nature AND nature can recover (and has, in past extinctions). And no, every little thing is not going to be all right. Many things are already quite devastating, and will likely get worse.
And also: we have the ability to DO SOMETHING.
I’ve spoken with different friends about the decision whether or not to have kids in this age of ecological crisis. It is true that bringing a human into this world would likely, in the short-term, use more fossil fuels and create a footprint. It’s also true that humanity is not going to go into voluntary extinction anytime soon, and so, it’s best if the next generation works on our collective ecological pickle versus not. Chances are that if ecologically-minded parents have kids, those kids will (on average) be somewhat likely to work towards creating environmental solutions.
In all, I see different developmental “stages” of processing our environmental predicament (similar to the stages of grief shown in the image above). The first stage is the blissful ignorance we have as children. We don’t think about the plastic wrappers that EVERYTHING is packaged in. We haven’t yet flown over the country and seen the scars that human civilization creates in natural landscapes. We haven’t watched documentaries about the destruction of the Amazon.
The subsequent stages — despair, optimism, and hope — are more of a tangle than a neat progression. And still, with time, we can learn to spend more time in hope rather than despair.
The writer John Green says this of despair:
Despair…isn’t very productive. Like a replicating virus, all despair makes is more of itself. If…[despair] made me a more committed advocate for justice or environmental protection, I’d be all for it. But the white light of despair instead renders me inert and apathetic. I struggle to do anything. I often can’t find a reason to get out of bed in the morning.
A pithy quote, that I’ve been using as a mantra:
Fear begets fear. Power begets power.
—Cheryl Strayed, Wild
So…between Bob Marley’s saccharine optimism, and the nihilism of despair, there’s a belief in our own agency, in our own power.
This is the field of hope. I’ll meet you there.
P.S. Yes, the last line is a reference to Rumi.