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Climate change optimism3/23/2023 ![]() ![]() The most powerful conversations begin with our hearts, not our heads. And I agree: I avoid those conversations, too. ![]() We may avoid these conversations because we don’t want to get into yet another argument, we are tired of trying to guilt people into green living, or we are simply overwhelmed with doom-filled facts. In the US, 67 per cent of people surveyed said they “rarely” or “never” bring up climate change in conversation. In the UK, less than half of people surveyed said they have discussed climate change in the past week. That is why it is past time to deploy the most important force we have: our voice. But the window for staving off the worst of these is closing fast. The most dangerous climate impacts can still be avoided. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says: “Every action matters… Every choice matters.” It isn’t going fast enough yet but for each new hand that joins, it will go a little faster. And when we realise the giant boulder of climate action isn’t sitting at the bottom of an impossibly steep hill with only a few hands trying to push it up, but rather it is already at the top and rolling down the hill with millions of hands pushing it in the right direction, that gives us hope. It is only our actions that offer a chance of a better future. Will we allow fear to paralyse us or use it to galvanise us into action? Only one path leads to hope. Here is where the turning point must occur. Recognising the overwhelming nature of this crisis can fill us with fear and anxiety, and we need to acknowledge these emotions as well. It starts by acknowledging just how serious climate change is and what is at risk: the future of civilisation as we know it. The kind of hope we need – rational, stubborn hope – isn’t about positive thinking, but it doesn’t begin with imitating an ostrich, either. It is no wonder the question I’m asked most often is: “What gives you hope?” We need hope, desperately, because if we believe it is too late, it will be. Only around 50 per cent of people in the US and UK believe climate change will have much of an effect on them personally, and even less think individuals can do anything to combat it. However, the disconnect between now and the future we face grows starker every day. Record numbers of us are worried about climate change – 66 per cent in the US where I live, 76 per cent in the UK and 84 per cent of young people across 10 different countries. Headlines bombard us with an increasing litany of disasters, from coastlines flooding and ice sheets disintegrating to drought in Madagascar and wildfires across western North America. ![]() It is here now, intensifying extreme weather events, threatening food and water supplies and putting our health at risk. CLIMATE change is no longer a future issue or a distant one. ![]()
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