I needed this today. I’ve had so much grief during the heat dome, and in the weeks after, as temperatures rise again and smoke from wildfires has forced my family inside. AC on. Air cleaners on. CO2 levels inside rising. Our own personal climate disaster. And we’re the lucky ones, with technology to assist us, but it’s built on the same systems causing our distress. Endless circle of guilt and fear. This is not the summer of my youth in the Rocky Mountains of Canada and I’m devastated that my teens may never know the easy, carefree times that I was gifted. Thank you for putting words to my feelings and giving me ideas snd hope. But first I must grieve.
Thank you for sharing and yes, absolutely, I understand. The order of things is important. Grieving helps us see this crisis with new eyes, as Joanna Macy says. It's good to do that first.
Thanks for all this. Personally, I find Zen Buddhist thinking very helpful on the subject of death and coping with fears of the future. But I would also like to see more focus on helping the rest of our world, not just our own species— without the continuation of the rest of our beautiful world — animals, plants, birds, entire ecosystems— life to me would hardly seem worth living. Humans are more adaptable— but because of the rate and extent of the changes, other species, and the ecosystems on which they depend, are in many cases going extinct. And they are what makes life worth living, not just the humans (I live in ALaska, not in an urban mega-city).This too will affect us all, even people who are not “nature lovers” or whatever. Isn’t that also a priority? I think it implies added emphasis on slowing and stopping climate change, and helping the rest of Creation adapt as well.
I agree with you, Zen Buddhist approaches have saved me in my deepest moments of despair around this stuff. Also, I'm very pro non-human attention (my undergrad is biology with a focus on conservation and it took me a long time to care about humans as much as the species we're driving extinct) but this RJLifton concept of the prospective survivor admittedly focuses on galvanizing a human response for a bond within our species - I think there is room for both.
Yes. We also easily forget that our juman fate actually depends on all those other species. As we lose our fisheries to ocean warming and acidification, fishermen lose their livelihood and people who depend on fish starve. As we lose our pollinators and the drought spreads, we lose our crops. Not to mention the effects of deforestation on climate change. Etcétera.
Hi there! Thank you SO MUCH! As always, love your writing, this newsletter in particular resonated with me. I am most definitely a prospective survivor, I am currently in the process of turning away from my old career towards the work of building a vision of what could be and the why and how we need to get there. Check it out - https://www.hubren.org/ and https://www.instagram.com/hub.ren/. Eventually it will be a mobile art and info cart that paints the picture of the beautiful decarbonised future we need to build, there will be a local directory of the groups already doing the work (I am in east London), and I hope to make it replicable. I feel so strongly that we need to create spaces irl where we can have courageous and imaginative conversations, and to build better stories together. I am currently running a work in progress version of it outside my house for the local E17 Art Trail, and tomorrow evening I will be joined by Professor Simon Lewis for an 'Ask a Climate Scientist' session. I hope people come and it goes well! I gotta say, it's quite lonely work but I am always galvanised by your words and all the great folk out there cracking on with it. Thank you, Amy
Every one of your posts is better than the last. This one - my favorite yet. It is PRECISELY where we need to be:
"At its simplest, the prospective survivor, with a mind so sensitively attuned to the threat of complete annihilation, may hold the power to shake things up and bring about new ways of being human at this time that we need. What the prospective survivor does not do, is make peace with death or collapse. She sometimes even finds joy in pushing against them and would rather die trying, arm in arm with others just like her, than in a state of surrender. This is the kind of resilience we need now. When enough of us generate existential meaning by stepping out of isolation and into this role, we muster the life force that might actually prevent the worst outcomes from happening. It’s a way of living with radical hope."
Yes, yes yes. Finally someone who understands hope right.
This is so well-timed for me. In the wake of so much despair around the climate crisis, I've felt that urge to be prepared, educated, adaptable, and more. But sometimes feel alone trying to talk to anyone about it. At times it feels like it comes off as negative just bringing it up at all...
Knowing that there are others out there feeling the same way and taking action and analyzing these feelings is SO encouraging and so uplifting. So thank you for sharing all of this it means more than you know!
I needed this today. I’ve had so much grief during the heat dome, and in the weeks after, as temperatures rise again and smoke from wildfires has forced my family inside. AC on. Air cleaners on. CO2 levels inside rising. Our own personal climate disaster. And we’re the lucky ones, with technology to assist us, but it’s built on the same systems causing our distress. Endless circle of guilt and fear. This is not the summer of my youth in the Rocky Mountains of Canada and I’m devastated that my teens may never know the easy, carefree times that I was gifted. Thank you for putting words to my feelings and giving me ideas snd hope. But first I must grieve.
Thank you for sharing and yes, absolutely, I understand. The order of things is important. Grieving helps us see this crisis with new eyes, as Joanna Macy says. It's good to do that first.
Thanks for all this. Personally, I find Zen Buddhist thinking very helpful on the subject of death and coping with fears of the future. But I would also like to see more focus on helping the rest of our world, not just our own species— without the continuation of the rest of our beautiful world — animals, plants, birds, entire ecosystems— life to me would hardly seem worth living. Humans are more adaptable— but because of the rate and extent of the changes, other species, and the ecosystems on which they depend, are in many cases going extinct. And they are what makes life worth living, not just the humans (I live in ALaska, not in an urban mega-city).This too will affect us all, even people who are not “nature lovers” or whatever. Isn’t that also a priority? I think it implies added emphasis on slowing and stopping climate change, and helping the rest of Creation adapt as well.
I agree with you, Zen Buddhist approaches have saved me in my deepest moments of despair around this stuff. Also, I'm very pro non-human attention (my undergrad is biology with a focus on conservation and it took me a long time to care about humans as much as the species we're driving extinct) but this RJLifton concept of the prospective survivor admittedly focuses on galvanizing a human response for a bond within our species - I think there is room for both.
Yes. We also easily forget that our juman fate actually depends on all those other species. As we lose our fisheries to ocean warming and acidification, fishermen lose their livelihood and people who depend on fish starve. As we lose our pollinators and the drought spreads, we lose our crops. Not to mention the effects of deforestation on climate change. Etcétera.
Hi there! Thank you SO MUCH! As always, love your writing, this newsletter in particular resonated with me. I am most definitely a prospective survivor, I am currently in the process of turning away from my old career towards the work of building a vision of what could be and the why and how we need to get there. Check it out - https://www.hubren.org/ and https://www.instagram.com/hub.ren/. Eventually it will be a mobile art and info cart that paints the picture of the beautiful decarbonised future we need to build, there will be a local directory of the groups already doing the work (I am in east London), and I hope to make it replicable. I feel so strongly that we need to create spaces irl where we can have courageous and imaginative conversations, and to build better stories together. I am currently running a work in progress version of it outside my house for the local E17 Art Trail, and tomorrow evening I will be joined by Professor Simon Lewis for an 'Ask a Climate Scientist' session. I hope people come and it goes well! I gotta say, it's quite lonely work but I am always galvanised by your words and all the great folk out there cracking on with it. Thank you, Amy
thank you Amy! And thank you for embodying what adrienne maree brown says with your work--- "what you pay attention to grows"
I don't have anything more thoughtful in me other than, thank you.
Every one of your posts is better than the last. This one - my favorite yet. It is PRECISELY where we need to be:
"At its simplest, the prospective survivor, with a mind so sensitively attuned to the threat of complete annihilation, may hold the power to shake things up and bring about new ways of being human at this time that we need. What the prospective survivor does not do, is make peace with death or collapse. She sometimes even finds joy in pushing against them and would rather die trying, arm in arm with others just like her, than in a state of surrender. This is the kind of resilience we need now. When enough of us generate existential meaning by stepping out of isolation and into this role, we muster the life force that might actually prevent the worst outcomes from happening. It’s a way of living with radical hope."
Yes, yes yes. Finally someone who understands hope right.
Thank you, Britt!
Thank you Susi! Means a great deal coming from you.
🙏 Thanks very much; needed this....
This is so well-timed for me. In the wake of so much despair around the climate crisis, I've felt that urge to be prepared, educated, adaptable, and more. But sometimes feel alone trying to talk to anyone about it. At times it feels like it comes off as negative just bringing it up at all...
Knowing that there are others out there feeling the same way and taking action and analyzing these feelings is SO encouraging and so uplifting. So thank you for sharing all of this it means more than you know!