When did you first realize climate change was affecting the world or your community?
When I was a freshman in college, I took a course on environmental ethics. That year, we learned about the report from the IPCC that explained what would happen if the planet passes a 1.5 degree threshold. Taking this class completely changed my worldview because, for the first time, I was learning in a classroom setting about the inherent value of non-human beings, the sixth extinction, and the explicit connection between planetary destruction and the capitalist system.
Have you ever felt overwhelmed, sad, or anxious about climate change? What brought on those feelings?
Working in the climate space, I feel an array of emotions every day. While I often feel motivated and hopeful, especially when learning pieces of wisdom from my colleagues, I feel a constant undertone of anxiety because the scope of work that has to be done in the coming decades is so vast. It can make me extremely feel frustrated, hopeless for the future, and even depressed.
How have your thoughts or feelings about climate change changed over time?
As I grow older and have forged a stronger relationship with nature and the more-than-human world, I feel a greater sense of grief for the parts of nature we’ve lost. I’ve also become much more oriented toward education as a solution, because individual behaviors can only do so much to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change. I believe what needs to happen, especially in the United States, is a significant cultural shift towards class-consciousness and community care.
