The ache for me is a disconnection. The feeling that we’re progressing as a species away from what will ultimately keep us happy and healthy. It’s an increased sense of individualism. It’s a pressure to do more and more and more and do it on our own. The cost of living is reaching dangerous levels and people are moving back down Maslow’s hierarchy to a point where they’re struggling to meet their basic needs, never mind self-actualisation and belonging. It’s a difficulty to look after ourselves at the end of the day because the system has us putting everything we have into someone else’s money-making business for most of our lives and we are left aching and tired and dispirited.
Don’t get me started on social media/technology, potentially my biggest ache of all. Diminishing our patience, our attention spans, our creativity. Leaving us content with connecting from afar instead of face-to-face, intentional and meaningful connecting.
Yes to this! I’ve been trying to articulate over the past couple years this idea of corporations or industries (like healthcare which is the field I work in the US) also attempting to function at and promote the top of this hierarchy while not meeting our basic human needs as employees. “Practice at the top of your license but also, no bathroom breaks or time to drink water for you.” It’s all about productivity and profit. This gnaws at me because it’s such a big part of what is broken about our healthcare system.
The ache of President Biden signing an agreement for the Willow pipeline, while knowing it not only goes against his own word, but that it will completely undo all the babysteps the US has seen with green energy
It’s so great to hear about your plans for your next book, Sarah, and to hear a little about the process you go through in arriving at an idea. My creative process is much the same (including the obsessive research and collating of ideas, and the use of hiking as a distillation process!)
My biggest pain point at the moment is in witnessing how many people around me appear to be in a state of ignorance or wilful denial about what’s happening in the wider world, especially in relation to ecological breakdown, but also how this breakdown relates to all of the other political, economic, social and spiritual crises we face. I think this tendency towards siloed thinking and seeming inability to think holistically and grapple with complexity is very much contributing to our downfall (the environmental movement itself is also guilty of this – for example, by focussing so heavily on climate change, while ignoring equally dire problems, such as biodiversity loss).
While Covid offered us a ‘portal’ into a world of other possibilities for living and being (as Arundhati Roy wrote about early on in the pandemic), it also feels like most people squandered those opportunities in their desperation to get back to ‘’normal’ / business as usual’. Seeing people return to their pre-pandemic life of planning home renovations, zoning out to Netflix / reality television, and dreaming about their next holiday to Fiji or Europe – all while choosing not to face the responsibilities that these times demand of us – is both exasperating and enraging.
I feel like we need a collective slap to wake us up (and I sense that we’re about to get a big economic one very soon), but I fear that most people will be so unprepared that we’ll see chaos and ruin before we’ll see the possible light on the other side.
we've all (here) been in this pain for a while...and it's pushing me to ask different questions. MTK on this. In some ways I'm moving toward this bit of things "I fear that most people will be so unprepared ". I know you'll have a lot to share on this. I feel we have a responsibility to help with the unprepared as the shit goes down. For mass civil unrest will destroy humanity (the beautiful bits at a minimum) before the climate crisis does.
Yes, I completely agree, and worry that this is exactly where we're headed. I have a few thoughts swirling around on this at the moment, but feel like I need to sit with it a bit longer, so I'll either come back here and post or might suggest a related theme for your wine and chats catch-up. :)
I believe World problems stem from the accumulation of individual problems. Identity, fear of rejection, self-serving behaviour, greed...... and on it goes. I am currently getting my teeth into a book called "It Didn't Start With You" by Mark Wolynn. The science behind inter-generational trauma, where the stresses and trauma of up to 3-4 generations before us can be passed down through the eggs and sperm to subsequent generations, is kind of blowing my mind right now. I am looking for past trauma to explain my personality and behaviour, but perhaps it's not all mine???? Keep up the good work. Keep asking questions and being curious, that's what keeps life interesting. :)
Heres some food for thought... What are us humans actually suposed to be doing on this earth? Take away the perfect parenting pressure, (social) media pressure, social expectations (financial, professional) and all the things that have conditioned us to be who we are today. Why do we need cars, tv, social media platofrms, junk food? Do we need them? Who gave them to us? Why did we take them so willingly? What if these things disappeared?
Cognitive dissonance, collective inaction, political corruption, media manipulation, fear, shock, deep anger at the general unwillingness of every day people to even attempt to try for better or question the status quo. The daily frustration of influencers, love island and gossip columns getting attention while activists get zero. Conspiracy, misinformation, the increased violent sentiment towards women. I feel powerless despite doing everything in my power to change. Divesting, campaigning for change, joining independent candidates and helping by volunteering, giving to causes doing real work and grassroots, where I can. Shopping ethically and changing my families routines. Nothing is enough without government intervention and mass public support. I constantly look for hope. I hold onto the small shred I have left but some days It feels like a terminal diagnosis. we are simply running out of time for intervention. There is definitely a ‘mourning’ for the world we were told we would grow up into, the opportunities that would await us, only to find it’s all falling apart. Deep frustration we have the answers, we have the technology, we have so many solutions yet they are quashed and ignored by governments in favour of old toxic systems. Humanity is SO capable. But we are held hostage.
I agree with how you feel. Even with all know and knew. I kick myself for making my family and myself shots. Only told recently they were feeding me data to throw me off target. Then as I published their reason why. I fear my Son running his mile one day and never make it back home. I'm not the only one. But I do believe some of these people need prison time. But realizing because they are in power most likely it will be I who will die in prison. Then who have I helped?
It's the ache of knowing that there is so much to do to save humanity from impending climate doom and witnessing the inaction and excuses of governments all over the world.
I'm reading The Ministry of the Future - K Robinson and Less is More - J Hickel at the moment. Both offer brilliant insights into possible ways out of this mess. The depressing part is wondering if greed and resistance to change will win out against the collective desire to survive as a species.
I do think that it's vital to hang on to hope and keep plugging away with any means available to us to avoid disaster
I think this all the time - I just can't see how things are going to change when greed and growth is at the core of every economy and business plan around the world. A civil war might change things, but other than that, I can't see the wealthy (individuals, corporations and governments) giving up any ground to try and avoid what's coming. Read those books too - both brilliant!
If I could recommend just ONE book to everyone, it would be Jason Hickel's 'Less Is More' - it's so brilliant and insightful, and an essential read for these times. My partner's just finished reading 'The Ministry for the Future' (after we both listening to Sarah's interview with Kim Stanley Robinson) and he's urged me to read it too. Jason Hickel's 'The Divide' is also an excellent read that delves deeper into the origins of the various crises we now find ourselves facing. It's a very good companion book to 'Less Is More'.
You have to find you own way. Hopefully by not forcing your will on others. Have you been fed lies by both sides? Have you looked on your own on CO2 vs temperature over Million of years instead of 100. How often has their predictions came true? Do you believe in Euthanization of old people? Everyone has there own path.
Thanks so much Sarah. The pain point for me is human greed and ignorance generated by, I feel, an unwillingness to acknowledge and address their own and the world's challenges. They don't want to know themselves warts and all and they don't want to know others. People all around me are distracting themselves with lots of overseas holidays, brand new clothes and appliances etc. I find it, at times, unbearable and nausea-inducing.
Love how you've described your process, Sarah. And good on you for having the courage to sit on the edge and to go deep into the darkness. BTW, please holler when you're in the darkness so you're not alone in it.
I'm so with you in terms of how walking helps our minds to unjumble the mess ... I get many character insights, ideas, etc on walks.
To what aches for me - the fragility of life at present, the anxiety and mental health struggles that so many of us grapple with, the inability to agree to disagree ...
Hmm... a great way of tapping into the collective unconscious - a call for us to collectively 'name' an ache which those of us awake (enough) universally experience.
and he similarly grapples with collective ways to address the pathology.
I struggle with the same broad concept - how to take 25 years of experience as a psychologist (and now ecopsychologicst) and subtlely, subversively, cleverly shift the compass need at a community level such that individuals (re)'discover' their own connection to nature and suddenly 'SEE' the pathological behaviour (suicidality) killing us all! The ache (pain point) for me is finding my way through the many (psychological) barriers that prevent this from happening - damned frustrating, very slow and filled with false starts - hard work for an admittedly over-achieving, possibly ADHD, over-committing professional like me!
Having said that... it's the trying and incremental (miniscule) successes that lesson the ache... with a hope of eudaimonic satisfaction on my death bed (hopefully a few years forth)!!! of having valiently TRIED!
David and I have chatted a lot about the futility of a 'scientific' framework for all of this. Science is (largely) reductionist and dualistic. The problem (as I see it) is humanistic and spiritual - both of which science 'does' poorly (if at all). The 'solution' MUST be able to bring together the science AND the humanity/spiritual dimensions in a radical new paradigm / zeitgeist. We cannot solve old problems with old thinking... we new entirely new 'ways of being' that make the old ways redundant, but are inspirational and awe-inspiring (and mapped systemically into / onto ecological patterns of regeneration).
Yep it's the trying that lessens the ache. Have you looked at Margaret Salamon's work? Ministry for the Future (mentioned in other comments) is also great for exploring all this.
No.. haven't explored this. I worry that the focussing on the 'outcomes' of human behaviour (climate change), doesn't focus the solutions on 'us' enough. It's too easy to think of climate change as 'someone else's problem'. Our individual disconnection from nature, each other and our spirituality is harder to ignore, particularly when we can link these things clearly with our own health and mental well-being... Suddenly how "I" interact with nature is centrally important to my own wellbeing (quality of life, etc)... this approach takes advantage of the massive tendency to be (eco)egocentric (at least in current times).. and makes the solutions personal. If I can show that spending time outdoors, (let's use hiking as an example) is likely to directly improve my psychological wellbeing (insert heaps of peer reviewed research here) then I can see a direct personal benefit from doing said activity - oh, and I might just happen to notice a bit about the natural world around me too (especially if this type of activity is explicity facilitated to engage in connection with nature) / might just notice that park that I've been walking in being destroyed for more housing / might just notice the clear felling logging coups if I am trail running in a nearby state park / might just notice the rubbish piling up in the rivers along which trails I walk, etc, etc.. It's more subversive, and starts with egoic motivations, but we have to trust that nature has a way of seeping back into our brainstems and saying "Oi, you're part of us... not separate!)
The ache of wanting to self-preserve and stay in my bubble or to embrace an uncertain future with both hands and accept whatever comes. My declining health has seen me desperately clinging to any hope that this isn't it for me. Facing my own demise has seen me cling to all the things I was working so hard to let go of- that money can fix my problems (treatments and specialists), comfort in the familiar, burying my head in the sand and being completely self-absorbed because of my pain. I know I would be better off accepting things as they are and continuing to focus on things outside of my own health, but it is bloody hard. The suffering that faces so many people if we don't change quickly has become real to me now and I really don't know how to handle it (I've found your books a huge comfort though).
I'm so sorry you're in that much personal pain. I know in the past I've used my illnesses as a portal to understanding the collective pain. Sounds like you are too. keep going deeper into that! x
The mental health crisis in our youth. My son who is 14 is suffering from severe mental health issues. Thankfully he has help but so many don't. It takes months to get into see a psychologist (and that is only if you can pay and are lucky). My friends have teenagers who are also suffering. Its great that we identify they need help but if we can't actually provide the resources to help keep them alive and functioning then what as a community are we doing????? The next generation is at risk because of this issue.
Amazing. Last night I dreamt that I shared this thought with you... and now here we are.
I've been thinking a lot about the language around climate change and feel like the overwhelming disconnect for many comes from the scientific and political language often used in this conversation.
Anyway, my thought is that this harm being caused to place and people needs a different language, one that is more human and personal. Psychoterratic language, makes me feel it the most and as you would say 'gets me fired up'.
As I understand it, Glenn A Albrect has done amazing work in this field, but I think what the world needs now is someone like you Sarah, to help us understand the itch / pain caused by the most well known psychoterratic word, solastalgia - a form of emotional or existential distress caused by environmental change.
I like the challenge you set me! Thank you. Language and communication is definitely a theme emerging for me. The polarisation is integral to "all this"
I've been thinking exactly the same thing lately. I've actually also stopped sharing scientific news and articles relating to climate change because I don't think it makes a difference whether someone hears that ice caps are melting at twice the speed as originally predicted or six times the speed... nor do I think that talking about 1.5 degrees of warming versus 2 degrees of warming vs 4 degrees of warming influences people to actually act. I think we need more stories and as you say, a more human way of connecting people with these issues.
The ache is distraction and disconnection (and all the d words you mentioned in the last pod).
‘Stolen Focus’ has helped me articulate the ache (also loved your pod with johann hari) but my brain feels like it’s in that messy, unorganised stage you mentioned is part of your process... it’s like I have an itch in the middle of my back and I’m trying furiously to reach it and scratch that itch but I can’t quite reach and I never completely feel satiated...
It’s a great book! I’d say it has just made me more aware of why and how our collective attention is being stolen, which yeah I guess in turn has helped me be more diligent on focusing my attention and avoiding the distractions. But the book is more about how we can work on the systemic issues which are capitalising on stealing our attention (and to not blame ourselves for being distracted as there’s bigger things at play)
Reading The Beast and Wild has helped me confront the management of my anxiety and, I thought, the serious itch I’ve been feeling for years re our climate. Now I feel complete overwhelm about the future. Huge noise and connection through media and yet complete disconnect too, failing relationships locally and globally, the fat greedy all-consuming powers, my small skinny voice…too much to mention. I just want to run away, I choose no noise, no tv, less social media, minor consuming etc. for bathing in nature, walking/running in wild spaces but when I return to ‘the norm’ I feel crippled by it. Then the guilt; if I run away, I’m deserting the cause, burying my head in the sand. I’d stop shouting my thoughts and concerns because who’s actually listening anyway? In essence I’ve lost hope in humanity and I’m scared. Where the hell do we go from here?!
One thing I've noticed is how apathetic the majority of the population is to most of these issues.
Covid-19 was a perfect example of it here in Sydney; only a small portion of the population was anti-mask/vax, but it was also only an equally small part of the population that was pro-mask/vax. Most people just dealt with whatever happened without letting it affect them. Used a mask as soon as it was mandated, but stopped using it the day it wasn't. Took the vax when it was (basically) mandated and didn't bother with it afterwards. They have not thought about the issue since the lifting of the mandates.
They tend to just live in the moment and worry about the bread and circus stuff (sports/reality tv/pop culture/economy). I'm not sure there isn't anything we can do to shake them out of this, that there will ever be an awakening. Every single civilisation in human history has failed, usually to ecological collapse. They all continued damaging their environment, maintaining the status quo as best as they could right until the very end.
While the above sounds grim, in all the past civilisations the group of people that could try and fix the damage was minuscule or they didn't even understand what was happening. We know exactly what is happening now, and with a pool of 8 billion people, we have a humungous amount of smart people and the capital/technology to figure our way out of this.
I'm optimistic that as long as those of us who care keep fighting, and loudly, we will get there in the end. The apathetic majority realise something is wrong with what we are doing to the planet, as they did with the Covid-19 policies, so they will go along with it as long as we continue to tell them what needs to be done.
We do need to figure out how we deal with the emotional toll that comes with being the ones who have to keep fighting. I feel like your books, podcast and your substack, are a good way for all of us to collectively vent that energy. Thank you for doing what you do, know that it makes a big difference to us fighters and recharges us for the next round. :)
The ache for me is a disconnection. The feeling that we’re progressing as a species away from what will ultimately keep us happy and healthy. It’s an increased sense of individualism. It’s a pressure to do more and more and more and do it on our own. The cost of living is reaching dangerous levels and people are moving back down Maslow’s hierarchy to a point where they’re struggling to meet their basic needs, never mind self-actualisation and belonging. It’s a difficulty to look after ourselves at the end of the day because the system has us putting everything we have into someone else’s money-making business for most of our lives and we are left aching and tired and dispirited.
Don’t get me started on social media/technology, potentially my biggest ache of all. Diminishing our patience, our attention spans, our creativity. Leaving us content with connecting from afar instead of face-to-face, intentional and meaningful connecting.
Helpful: people are moving back down Maslow’s hierarchy
Yes to this! I’ve been trying to articulate over the past couple years this idea of corporations or industries (like healthcare which is the field I work in the US) also attempting to function at and promote the top of this hierarchy while not meeting our basic human needs as employees. “Practice at the top of your license but also, no bathroom breaks or time to drink water for you.” It’s all about productivity and profit. This gnaws at me because it’s such a big part of what is broken about our healthcare system.
Yes!
The ache of President Biden signing an agreement for the Willow pipeline, while knowing it not only goes against his own word, but that it will completely undo all the babysteps the US has seen with green energy
And our submarine commitments!
It’s so great to hear about your plans for your next book, Sarah, and to hear a little about the process you go through in arriving at an idea. My creative process is much the same (including the obsessive research and collating of ideas, and the use of hiking as a distillation process!)
My biggest pain point at the moment is in witnessing how many people around me appear to be in a state of ignorance or wilful denial about what’s happening in the wider world, especially in relation to ecological breakdown, but also how this breakdown relates to all of the other political, economic, social and spiritual crises we face. I think this tendency towards siloed thinking and seeming inability to think holistically and grapple with complexity is very much contributing to our downfall (the environmental movement itself is also guilty of this – for example, by focussing so heavily on climate change, while ignoring equally dire problems, such as biodiversity loss).
While Covid offered us a ‘portal’ into a world of other possibilities for living and being (as Arundhati Roy wrote about early on in the pandemic), it also feels like most people squandered those opportunities in their desperation to get back to ‘’normal’ / business as usual’. Seeing people return to their pre-pandemic life of planning home renovations, zoning out to Netflix / reality television, and dreaming about their next holiday to Fiji or Europe – all while choosing not to face the responsibilities that these times demand of us – is both exasperating and enraging.
I feel like we need a collective slap to wake us up (and I sense that we’re about to get a big economic one very soon), but I fear that most people will be so unprepared that we’ll see chaos and ruin before we’ll see the possible light on the other side.
we've all (here) been in this pain for a while...and it's pushing me to ask different questions. MTK on this. In some ways I'm moving toward this bit of things "I fear that most people will be so unprepared ". I know you'll have a lot to share on this. I feel we have a responsibility to help with the unprepared as the shit goes down. For mass civil unrest will destroy humanity (the beautiful bits at a minimum) before the climate crisis does.
Yes, I completely agree, and worry that this is exactly where we're headed. I have a few thoughts swirling around on this at the moment, but feel like I need to sit with it a bit longer, so I'll either come back here and post or might suggest a related theme for your wine and chats catch-up. :)
I believe World problems stem from the accumulation of individual problems. Identity, fear of rejection, self-serving behaviour, greed...... and on it goes. I am currently getting my teeth into a book called "It Didn't Start With You" by Mark Wolynn. The science behind inter-generational trauma, where the stresses and trauma of up to 3-4 generations before us can be passed down through the eggs and sperm to subsequent generations, is kind of blowing my mind right now. I am looking for past trauma to explain my personality and behaviour, but perhaps it's not all mine???? Keep up the good work. Keep asking questions and being curious, that's what keeps life interesting. :)
That area of psychology/psychotherapy intrigues me. Ditto Stages and integral stuff. I'll look at that author.
Heres some food for thought... What are us humans actually suposed to be doing on this earth? Take away the perfect parenting pressure, (social) media pressure, social expectations (financial, professional) and all the things that have conditioned us to be who we are today. Why do we need cars, tv, social media platofrms, junk food? Do we need them? Who gave them to us? Why did we take them so willingly? What if these things disappeared?
As I ask on my podcasts, "What is left if we lose it all?"
Cognitive dissonance, collective inaction, political corruption, media manipulation, fear, shock, deep anger at the general unwillingness of every day people to even attempt to try for better or question the status quo. The daily frustration of influencers, love island and gossip columns getting attention while activists get zero. Conspiracy, misinformation, the increased violent sentiment towards women. I feel powerless despite doing everything in my power to change. Divesting, campaigning for change, joining independent candidates and helping by volunteering, giving to causes doing real work and grassroots, where I can. Shopping ethically and changing my families routines. Nothing is enough without government intervention and mass public support. I constantly look for hope. I hold onto the small shred I have left but some days It feels like a terminal diagnosis. we are simply running out of time for intervention. There is definitely a ‘mourning’ for the world we were told we would grow up into, the opportunities that would await us, only to find it’s all falling apart. Deep frustration we have the answers, we have the technology, we have so many solutions yet they are quashed and ignored by governments in favour of old toxic systems. Humanity is SO capable. But we are held hostage.
I agree with how you feel. Even with all know and knew. I kick myself for making my family and myself shots. Only told recently they were feeding me data to throw me off target. Then as I published their reason why. I fear my Son running his mile one day and never make it back home. I'm not the only one. But I do believe some of these people need prison time. But realizing because they are in power most likely it will be I who will die in prison. Then who have I helped?
It's the ache of knowing that there is so much to do to save humanity from impending climate doom and witnessing the inaction and excuses of governments all over the world.
I'm reading The Ministry of the Future - K Robinson and Less is More - J Hickel at the moment. Both offer brilliant insights into possible ways out of this mess. The depressing part is wondering if greed and resistance to change will win out against the collective desire to survive as a species.
I do think that it's vital to hang on to hope and keep plugging away with any means available to us to avoid disaster
Oh, and have you read my book Wild and Precious? I cover off the hope and capitalism stuff there...
That said, what you and others are pointing to is the role of the top 1% in all this...
Check out my podcast interview with Kim Stanley!
One LAST self-promoting suggestion - I also have a pod episode with Jason Hickel
Hi Sarah - have listened to both those podcast episodes. Brilliant, sent me down lots of rabbit holes!
Yes to your podcast with Jason - hence buying the book!
Will search for your chat with Kim Stanley.
And yes, I loved Wild and Precious - let the shameless promotion continue!!
I think this all the time - I just can't see how things are going to change when greed and growth is at the core of every economy and business plan around the world. A civil war might change things, but other than that, I can't see the wealthy (individuals, corporations and governments) giving up any ground to try and avoid what's coming. Read those books too - both brilliant!
If I could recommend just ONE book to everyone, it would be Jason Hickel's 'Less Is More' - it's so brilliant and insightful, and an essential read for these times. My partner's just finished reading 'The Ministry for the Future' (after we both listening to Sarah's interview with Kim Stanley Robinson) and he's urged me to read it too. Jason Hickel's 'The Divide' is also an excellent read that delves deeper into the origins of the various crises we now find ourselves facing. It's a very good companion book to 'Less Is More'.
You have to find you own way. Hopefully by not forcing your will on others. Have you been fed lies by both sides? Have you looked on your own on CO2 vs temperature over Million of years instead of 100. How often has their predictions came true? Do you believe in Euthanization of old people? Everyone has there own path.
Thanks so much Sarah. The pain point for me is human greed and ignorance generated by, I feel, an unwillingness to acknowledge and address their own and the world's challenges. They don't want to know themselves warts and all and they don't want to know others. People all around me are distracting themselves with lots of overseas holidays, brand new clothes and appliances etc. I find it, at times, unbearable and nausea-inducing.
I feel you. I don't want to be judgemental of my fellow humans, but....
I'm on a mission to find a WAY to be in the world with this.
Well tuning in to you makes it a whole lot easier to deal with. Much gratitude :)
Love how you've described your process, Sarah. And good on you for having the courage to sit on the edge and to go deep into the darkness. BTW, please holler when you're in the darkness so you're not alone in it.
I'm so with you in terms of how walking helps our minds to unjumble the mess ... I get many character insights, ideas, etc on walks.
To what aches for me - the fragility of life at present, the anxiety and mental health struggles that so many of us grapple with, the inability to agree to disagree ...
Grace and peace, my friend xx
yep to all of that x
Hmm... a great way of tapping into the collective unconscious - a call for us to collectively 'name' an ache which those of us awake (enough) universally experience.
David Key - an ecotherapist and writer recently bosted a blog with a similar exploration of the collective blindness that appears to be sending our 'developed' societies mad... https://www.ecoself.net/folie-des-milliards-and-cultural-ecotherapy/
and he similarly grapples with collective ways to address the pathology.
I struggle with the same broad concept - how to take 25 years of experience as a psychologist (and now ecopsychologicst) and subtlely, subversively, cleverly shift the compass need at a community level such that individuals (re)'discover' their own connection to nature and suddenly 'SEE' the pathological behaviour (suicidality) killing us all! The ache (pain point) for me is finding my way through the many (psychological) barriers that prevent this from happening - damned frustrating, very slow and filled with false starts - hard work for an admittedly over-achieving, possibly ADHD, over-committing professional like me!
Having said that... it's the trying and incremental (miniscule) successes that lesson the ache... with a hope of eudaimonic satisfaction on my death bed (hopefully a few years forth)!!! of having valiently TRIED!
Keep your head down, fellow travellers!
Mark
ps looking at that link - thanks
David and I have chatted a lot about the futility of a 'scientific' framework for all of this. Science is (largely) reductionist and dualistic. The problem (as I see it) is humanistic and spiritual - both of which science 'does' poorly (if at all). The 'solution' MUST be able to bring together the science AND the humanity/spiritual dimensions in a radical new paradigm / zeitgeist. We cannot solve old problems with old thinking... we new entirely new 'ways of being' that make the old ways redundant, but are inspirational and awe-inspiring (and mapped systemically into / onto ecological patterns of regeneration).
Yep it's the trying that lessens the ache. Have you looked at Margaret Salamon's work? Ministry for the Future (mentioned in other comments) is also great for exploring all this.
No.. haven't explored this. I worry that the focussing on the 'outcomes' of human behaviour (climate change), doesn't focus the solutions on 'us' enough. It's too easy to think of climate change as 'someone else's problem'. Our individual disconnection from nature, each other and our spirituality is harder to ignore, particularly when we can link these things clearly with our own health and mental well-being... Suddenly how "I" interact with nature is centrally important to my own wellbeing (quality of life, etc)... this approach takes advantage of the massive tendency to be (eco)egocentric (at least in current times).. and makes the solutions personal. If I can show that spending time outdoors, (let's use hiking as an example) is likely to directly improve my psychological wellbeing (insert heaps of peer reviewed research here) then I can see a direct personal benefit from doing said activity - oh, and I might just happen to notice a bit about the natural world around me too (especially if this type of activity is explicity facilitated to engage in connection with nature) / might just notice that park that I've been walking in being destroyed for more housing / might just notice the clear felling logging coups if I am trail running in a nearby state park / might just notice the rubbish piling up in the rivers along which trails I walk, etc, etc.. It's more subversive, and starts with egoic motivations, but we have to trust that nature has a way of seeping back into our brainstems and saying "Oi, you're part of us... not separate!)
The ache of wanting to self-preserve and stay in my bubble or to embrace an uncertain future with both hands and accept whatever comes. My declining health has seen me desperately clinging to any hope that this isn't it for me. Facing my own demise has seen me cling to all the things I was working so hard to let go of- that money can fix my problems (treatments and specialists), comfort in the familiar, burying my head in the sand and being completely self-absorbed because of my pain. I know I would be better off accepting things as they are and continuing to focus on things outside of my own health, but it is bloody hard. The suffering that faces so many people if we don't change quickly has become real to me now and I really don't know how to handle it (I've found your books a huge comfort though).
I'm so sorry you're in that much personal pain. I know in the past I've used my illnesses as a portal to understanding the collective pain. Sounds like you are too. keep going deeper into that! x
The mental health crisis in our youth. My son who is 14 is suffering from severe mental health issues. Thankfully he has help but so many don't. It takes months to get into see a psychologist (and that is only if you can pay and are lucky). My friends have teenagers who are also suffering. Its great that we identify they need help but if we can't actually provide the resources to help keep them alive and functioning then what as a community are we doing????? The next generation is at risk because of this issue.
Amazing. Last night I dreamt that I shared this thought with you... and now here we are.
I've been thinking a lot about the language around climate change and feel like the overwhelming disconnect for many comes from the scientific and political language often used in this conversation.
Anyway, my thought is that this harm being caused to place and people needs a different language, one that is more human and personal. Psychoterratic language, makes me feel it the most and as you would say 'gets me fired up'.
As I understand it, Glenn A Albrect has done amazing work in this field, but I think what the world needs now is someone like you Sarah, to help us understand the itch / pain caused by the most well known psychoterratic word, solastalgia - a form of emotional or existential distress caused by environmental change.
I like the challenge you set me! Thank you. Language and communication is definitely a theme emerging for me. The polarisation is integral to "all this"
I've been thinking exactly the same thing lately. I've actually also stopped sharing scientific news and articles relating to climate change because I don't think it makes a difference whether someone hears that ice caps are melting at twice the speed as originally predicted or six times the speed... nor do I think that talking about 1.5 degrees of warming versus 2 degrees of warming vs 4 degrees of warming influences people to actually act. I think we need more stories and as you say, a more human way of connecting people with these issues.
word
funny how things go in waves...
The ache is distraction and disconnection (and all the d words you mentioned in the last pod).
‘Stolen Focus’ has helped me articulate the ache (also loved your pod with johann hari) but my brain feels like it’s in that messy, unorganised stage you mentioned is part of your process... it’s like I have an itch in the middle of my back and I’m trying furiously to reach it and scratch that itch but I can’t quite reach and I never completely feel satiated...
Thanks, this is an interesting book to look in to. Has it helped you with greater focused attention?
It’s a great book! I’d say it has just made me more aware of why and how our collective attention is being stolen, which yeah I guess in turn has helped me be more diligent on focusing my attention and avoiding the distractions. But the book is more about how we can work on the systemic issues which are capitalising on stealing our attention (and to not blame ourselves for being distracted as there’s bigger things at play)
Thank you :)
Reading The Beast and Wild has helped me confront the management of my anxiety and, I thought, the serious itch I’ve been feeling for years re our climate. Now I feel complete overwhelm about the future. Huge noise and connection through media and yet complete disconnect too, failing relationships locally and globally, the fat greedy all-consuming powers, my small skinny voice…too much to mention. I just want to run away, I choose no noise, no tv, less social media, minor consuming etc. for bathing in nature, walking/running in wild spaces but when I return to ‘the norm’ I feel crippled by it. Then the guilt; if I run away, I’m deserting the cause, burying my head in the sand. I’d stop shouting my thoughts and concerns because who’s actually listening anyway? In essence I’ve lost hope in humanity and I’m scared. Where the hell do we go from here?!
One thing I've noticed is how apathetic the majority of the population is to most of these issues.
Covid-19 was a perfect example of it here in Sydney; only a small portion of the population was anti-mask/vax, but it was also only an equally small part of the population that was pro-mask/vax. Most people just dealt with whatever happened without letting it affect them. Used a mask as soon as it was mandated, but stopped using it the day it wasn't. Took the vax when it was (basically) mandated and didn't bother with it afterwards. They have not thought about the issue since the lifting of the mandates.
They tend to just live in the moment and worry about the bread and circus stuff (sports/reality tv/pop culture/economy). I'm not sure there isn't anything we can do to shake them out of this, that there will ever be an awakening. Every single civilisation in human history has failed, usually to ecological collapse. They all continued damaging their environment, maintaining the status quo as best as they could right until the very end.
While the above sounds grim, in all the past civilisations the group of people that could try and fix the damage was minuscule or they didn't even understand what was happening. We know exactly what is happening now, and with a pool of 8 billion people, we have a humungous amount of smart people and the capital/technology to figure our way out of this.
I'm optimistic that as long as those of us who care keep fighting, and loudly, we will get there in the end. The apathetic majority realise something is wrong with what we are doing to the planet, as they did with the Covid-19 policies, so they will go along with it as long as we continue to tell them what needs to be done.
We do need to figure out how we deal with the emotional toll that comes with being the ones who have to keep fighting. I feel like your books, podcast and your substack, are a good way for all of us to collectively vent that energy. Thank you for doing what you do, know that it makes a big difference to us fighters and recharges us for the next round. :)