OCT 1, 2021

Climate Connection: Feeling Change: October

We have experienced another summer of extreme weather events. For all the destruction caused, they have also brought an increasing awareness of what a changing climate looks like. And especially what it feels like, in all its unsettling uneasiness. And with this awareness, there seems to be a growing appetite for solutions.

When approaching a problem, an important first step is to define the task at hand. For climate change, our collective task is becoming clearer. It’s to change those behaviors and activities that are pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and warming the planet. Or more simply put: to stop burning so much fossil fuel.

As individuals though, this can feel overwhelming. After all, the scope of this problem is truly global in nature.

Not only that, but we are more closely feeling the impact of a changing climate. If we didn’t directly experience an extreme weather event this year, it’s likely we know someone who did. Someone whose home flooded, or was threatened by fire. Someone who was without electricity or air conditioning during sweltering heat waves. Someone who had to hunker down during unusually powerful storms.

We need to understand the nature of the problem that climate change poses. Because in some important ways it’s not like other problems. It’s something that is both everywhere and nowhere at once. We can’t exactly touch it , but we can feel it all over the place.

One term to describe these kinds of problems is as hyperobjects. Other hyperobjects include COVID, the internet or black holes. Things so big, they are beyond our ability to fully grasp. They also tend to challenge our belief in human mastery. After all, it’s this belief that gives us the confidence to complete a task or solve a problem.

And this is what can make climate change so scary. It’s not only the scope of the problem, but the threat it poses. Not just the threat to our own and other lives but a profound threat to the possibility of life itself.

So we know our collective challenge in reversing the trends driving climate change. But what about our task at the personal level? Can we define this in a way that gives us a map to move forward and courage to meet this challenge? The next few articles here will explore these questions.

––––––––––

John Lewis is a behavioral health professional and a member of the Sitka Citizens’ Climate Lobby.

Posted in the Sitka Sentinel on Oct 1, 2021