Keeping climate change optimism alive is challenging

-       Robert McLean

Canada's wildfires (bushfires) make it difficult
to remain optimistic that
our response to climate change will be adequate.

Keeping one’s optimism alive can be challenging when humanity’s collective response to the dilemma of climate change is inadequate and embedded in the false hope that some as yet unknown and untested technology will rescue us.

The signs of climate change abound and yet despite some pockets of resourceful and innovative thinking, we (that’s humanity) continue burning fossil fuels, remain strong in our allegiance to an economic system (capitalism) whose success erodes the Earth’s capital and are without the bold and resourceful thinking escape from this crisis demands.

Look for example at what is happening in Canada – “Canada’s huge wildfires may release carbon locked in permafrost” – where forest fires driven by conditions unquestionably worsened by climate change have brought chaos to the lives of thousands.

Minor by comparison, but another example of difficulties brought on by climate change is this retail twist happening in Melbourne, and no doubt everywhere else – “Shopping centres wary of unseasonably warm winter weather”.

The latter is actually of little consequence compared to Canadian events, but surely it is sufficient to make at least these retailers realise that the consistency of season they once enjoyed is slipping away.

It is critical we understand and address the optimism/pessimism dichotomy dilemma for whichever has precedence then determines how this predicament will evolve.

There are, however, various realms of optimism and what prevails is that which has brought on the conditions that have led to climate change and the broader degradation of the Earth and what is needed, right now, is an optimism that humanity can find its way out of this difficulty.

The seriousness of climate change is both misunderstood and underestimated and beyond a handful of people, relatively speaking, few have any grasp of how extreme our response needs to be.

Conditioned by centuries of a life of plenty brought on by the bounty of energy resulting from fossil fuels, humanity generally sees every solution through growth and “more”, while the thinking people see it in a planned degrowth, that is a more restrained way of living where the emphasis is on human wellbeing and thriving, rather than profit and growth.

However, until we can fracture and dislodge that hold neoliberalism has on the human dynamic, we have little hope of changing our way of thinking or doing things.

I’m optimistic we will change, but pessimistic about how that change will come about – it seems that humanity will only change its ways when we have no other option, but sadly that will only arrive at a cost in both lives and property.

In all that, we need to avoid pessimism for that mostly simply freezes people into inaction and breeds an “Oh well, it’s all gone to hell, let’s just live for now”.

Climate change is happening, in human life terms, dreadfully slow, but in a geological sense, it’s coming upon us at lightning speed and that is a terminal-like problem for humanity.

All that said, let’s be optimistic for there is no other way.