Russ Vernon-Jones

love, justice, and climate change … I know you can make a difference.

Feelings

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Can Compassion Help Us Personally and Globally?

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Climate change is causing a lot of human pain and suffering in many parts of the world. In order to be healthy and effective I think we need to limit our consumption of the news, but also stay sufficiently informed to make good decisions about how to be engaged in helping to create more just and sustainable societies. We need not follow every detail of each climate catastrophe, but I do think it’s healthy to face the extent of the crisis we humans face as a result of climate change. Trying to turn away from the reality of it seems to leave us ungrounded, alienated, and anxious.

Facing the disastrous effects of climate change may cause us to feel fear, grief, or other painful emotions, but it keeps us grounded in reality. Facing our feelings and sharing them with others can be healing and lead us to be more open-hearted, appropriately vulnerable, and connected with others.

I recently listened to an audio book titled, Humankind: A Hopeful History, by Rutger Bregman. One of the things I found helpful in his book is the recommendation to “train your compassion.” He advises that in the face of other people’s suffering, rather than trying to share in their pain, we strive to call up our compassion — our feelings of “warmth, concern, and care.” These are much more likely to energize us and help us feel more connected.

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A Battle for Your Mind

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I used to think that if people of good will had more information about climate change, they would all be moved to take action to stop the climate crisis.  I don’t think that any more.  Why are some people moved to take action as they learn about climate change and some are not?  One key variable is whether you believe you might be able to make a difference, and whether or not you see yourself as significant, or potentially significant.  If you believe you can make some difference you are much more likely to take action.

Don’t we all have this problem, to some extent? Don’t we all have days when we feel engaged, connected to others, and glad to be part of the action; and other days when it seems like nothing we do matters and the problems
are all too big for us?

Many people, perhaps including yourself, feel as though they have very little choice about how the world looks to them and how they feel about it.  They take what comes their way.  Even when you don’t want to, you may find yourself feeling discouraged, hopeless, or despairing. Your perspective may seem to be buffeted about by the latest news item, a comment by a friend, a minor failure.  I invite you to consider that we humans have the power to choose, and fight to hold, a good perspective.

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A Useful Idea with Practical Implications

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One of the most useful concepts I’ve encountered in working with people and organizations is the concept of “distress patterns.” While distress patterns themselves are generally harmful and can interfere with individual relationships and with organizations–including groups tackling racism and climate change–understanding them is potentially transformative. Here is an introduction.

You may have noticed that people often respond to life in repetitive ways, that is to say there are patterns in their thinking, feelings and behavior. Some people frequently feel discouraged; some are always trying to take care of other people; some tend to feel victimized; some frequently try to dominate other people or situations; and many of us feel that we are essentially on our own and no one really understands us.

There are many ways that psychologists, therapists, and people in general think about these issues. Many approaches contain ideas that people have found helpful. I find the concept of distress patterns distinctive its power to explain people’s behavior and in its potential to help people and groups move forward.

At our best, we humans are flexible, creative, and smart; we like other people; and we are glad to be alive. We think and function in ways that fit the present situation, connect us with other people, and contribute to advancing the goals we care most about. When distress patterns occupy our minds ….

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Tips for Stepping Up Our Action on Climate Change

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We continue to make slow progress on climate change in the United States. More of the population is concerned about the situation, more political leaders are advocating action, and a few businesses are reducing their carbon footprints. But slow progress is not what we need in the climate emergency we are facing. Only dramatic acceleration of our action on climate will give us any chance of avoiding global catastrophe.

With the failure of the Congress to pass the Build Back Better bill and with big businesses mostly trying to improve their PR campaigns instead of actually cutting emissions, it is clear that neither government nor business on their own can be relied on to solve this crisis. Only a very large people’s movement demanding bold action has any chance of accelerating action sufficiently.

We have a good climate movement in the U.S. with bold solutions, but it needs far more people actively engaged. I propose that most of us could be more engaged, and all of us could be doing more to get other people join in taking action.

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Climate Anxiety and Having a Good Life

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If you feel anxious about the climate situation, you have lots of company. Virtually everyone has some anxiety about the mess we are in with climate change, whether they want to face it or not. Google searches for “climate anxiety” went up 565% last year. A recent poll found 70% of U.S.ers are worried about climate change.

I’m going to say some unpleasant things in this post, but I promise some useful, more auspicious, perspectives and suggestions before the end, if you can get that far.

If you’ve been following the climate situation, you know that things are bad and that even under the best-case scenario they are going to get worse–everywhere. Yikes! Even if we already know that’s true, it’s a shocking statement to say that things are going to get worse. (Aren’t things bad enough already? Is anyone thinking … COVID pandemic, rising authoritarianism, racism, economic inequality, financial insecurity?)

How do we manage our feelings in this situation? What’s a healthy emotional response?

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Nurturing Hope

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Hope is essential for climate action. Some activists may be motivated by fear, anger, or even grief, but without hope it is virtually impossible to sustain an effective, active commitment to stopping climate change. What does it mean to be hopeful when people around the world are already suffering and dying from the catastrophic effects of climate change? What does it mean to be hopeful when despite all the marches, speeches, scientific reports, and goal setting, damaging global greenhouse gas emissions are still rising at an accelerating rate and deadly feedback loops are being triggered?

What is hope? Hope is not a conviction or prediction that things will turn out well. It is possible to be hopeful even when the odds are not in your favor.

Hope is a decision. Hope is a decision to hold open the possibility of success regardless of the odds. Hope is a choice. Hope is deciding that you would rather join with others and go for what you want, than give up and resign yourself to failure or inevitable doom. When it comes to tackling climate change, hope is a decision that you will have a better life and experience greater integrity and sense of purpose if you work together with others to try to solve the crisis than if you turn away from the issue or declare the battle lost.

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Can Joy and Realism About the Future Co-exist in Our Minds?

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The day before Joe Biden was inaugurated President, a friend of mine said to me in passing, “I’m so happy and excited that he’s going to get us back into the Paris Climate Accords right away!”

I have another friend who worked hard to get Biden elected. The day Biden was declared the winner, she shifted to bemoaning the fact that he isn’t more radical than he is, and focusing all her energy on where we need to push him to take bolder action on both climate and race.

Both?
I could identify with both of my friends — feel both the joy of first one and the upset of the other. But I don’t want to choose between being happy about what a difference Biden’s election will make, and being upset about the fact that his policies are still not adequate to meet the crises we face. Can’t I have both happiness in the moment and a sense of purpose and determination about the challenges ahead?

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Connection — A Balm in Troubled Times

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Do you need a few moments of peace, a balm, a brief rest? I do. I can only put my attention on the election, the likely coup attempt, the rise in coronavirus deaths, violence against Black people, and climate change for so long. Then I need something to revive my spirits. I’ve been finding it in getting outdoors, noticing the natural world, and experiencing a sense of connection to it.

The Indigenous perspective that we are part of the natural world — not separate from it, not rulers over it — but deeply interconnected in the web of life, restores me and heals me when I take even a brief time to immerse myself in it. The song, “We Belong to the Earth,” helps me remember.

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Our Recent Loss

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I have been deeply saddened by the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg/RBG. I’ve found my self struggling with despair and feelings of hopelessness. She was such a force for good in the world and, although imperfect, played such a crucial role in protecting the rights of women, and of all people, for so many decades. The prospect of the current President making another Supreme Court appointment is staggering.

Two days after her death I was committed to participating in a presentation that included both climate disasters and effective climate action. Those of us on the presentation team were forced to pick ourselves up, work together, and present with all the caring and vision we could muster. The presentation was well received. It also had an unintended effect on me. It made me feel more alive again. I wasn’t done with my grief and despair, but I could move again. Connecting with people and sharing a vision helped me re-focus — although we’ve lost RBG, we are called to continue the struggle for justice in which she so nobly fought.

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Is There Still Time?

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When I was a very young child I loved books and I loved being read to. My mother, or my father when he was available, would read to me at bedtime. It was a brief, happy time each day. It always ended with the announcement that it was time to turn out the light and go to sleep. I couldn’t tell time yet, but each night I knew that time for books was running out. My constant question was, “Is there time? Is there time for one more book?”

Many of us have that question about climate change. Is there still time? Is there still time to reduce emissions, sequester more carbon, and avoid the most catastrophic effects of global warming?

There are some bright spots, some big challenges, and some hard realities in the current answer to this question, as I see it.

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Piano Man

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A nurse who is a friend of my partner had an amazing experience recently (and is amazing herself). She described it this way:

I woke up this morning singing “Piano Man.” At work I cared for a patient named Ted – a 60 year old guy who was really sick with COVID pneumonia. They were trying not to intubate him and he was on that edge….

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A Future of More Fear or More Connection?

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I walked through my town a few days ago ….
I tell this story because something I read got me thinking about what our mindsets will be when this crisis eases and we are again able to have closer contact with each other. We could come out of this fixated on the potential transmission of infectious diseases, with a constant low-level fear or suspicion of each other. Or we could come out of this feeling triumphant and connected – glad that together we behaved in ways that kept far more people alive, that our caring about each other was real, and with a new sense of all being in it together. We could come out with greater confidence that we can have a similar united front against climate change and work together to build a future that works for everyone.

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