What if climate change were synonymous with abundance?

” A monk once told me that renunciation might be a good thing if the things we give up are the things that make us unhappy.. It is with these words that the committed essayist Rebecca Solnit, behind, in particular, the book of events These men who explain life to mea sort of bible of early mansplaining, opened his column published on March 15, 2023, on the website of the American newspaper Washington Post. For the author, this positive vision is what we lack when it comes to ecological emergency and how to act. He even suggests that it is this absence that traps us in inaction. Throughout the article, he returns to the paradigm shift needed to live up to today’s environmental challenges. What if, instead of thinking that acting for the planet means forcing ourselves to a certain austerity in our practices, we considered this commitment as a source of priceless wealth?

As the IPCC publishes today, Monday 20 March 2023, the summary of all its conclusions, a return to this platform that invites hope and, above all, action.

Changing the way we think about wealth

” Often, what drives us to inaction comes from the idea that climate action would mean trading abundance for austerity, replacing ease of owning with minimalism and discomfort. But what if it was rather about leaving aside the things that harm us, such as deadly emissions, a feeling of crippling helplessness or this sense of guilt for being complicit in the destruction of our planet? What if austerity is really nested in the way we live today and abundance in what lies ahead? Take a closer look and you will see that all indicators other than our possessions or our money show that we have gotten poorer. Even the wealthiest live in a world where trust in the future, in society and in our institutions has withered – and where our sense of security, our social connections, our mental and physical health and all that contribute to our well-being are undermined.

Rébecca Solnit, Washington Post, March 15, 2023

In her column, Rebecca Solnit talks about the instability of a world that has lost hope in its future. For the American writer and intellectual, this world is structured by choices guided by the lure of profit, to the detriment of the health, environment and well-being of its inhabitants. At the head of the gondola, the industry of fossil fuelswhich, according to this writer, not only creates political divisions, but also plunges us into eco-anxiety as the carbon emissions generated by the giants of the sector destroy our health and our atmosphere.

Free yourself from feelings of helplessness

“We are facing a greater sense of helplessness and guilt, continues the writer. That of being a witness or even an accomplice to something profoundly wrong “. This sense of guilt, according to Rebecca Solnit, traps us voluntary refusal and anesthetic. But the writer does not admit defeat. Indeed, he is pleased to observe a growing awareness within the company in recent years:

NOTToday we are a greater number to understand this we are not separate from nature but dependent on it. Everywhere I see people rethinking how they work and live, turning their awareness into reality.

Rébecca Solnit, Washington Post, March 15, 2023

An effort that, according to her, must not run out. It is essential to amplify the words and actions of those who engage and demonstrate that change is possible.

Changing perspective on the climate issue

To achieve this goal, the writer calls for a transformation of our view on the climate issue, which should be taken into consideration ” AS an opportunity, a possibility that allows us to reimagine who we are and what we desire Naive vision or essential hope? Be that as it may, Rebecca Solnit suggests redefining wealth, no longer as the money you earn, but as the fruit of a set of values ​​(joy, beauty, friendship, community, care, etc. This optimistic approach aims to regain faith in the possibility of a viable future and to emerge from inertia.

Collectively, these values ​​open us up to a new form of abundance:

To respond to the climate crisis – a disaster on a scale far greater than anything we have faced as humans in the past – we can and should draw on these same resources: the joy, meaning, deep connections, and generosity of being alive in the face of all this uncertainty. This is the kind of abundance we need to respond to the climate crisis, to improve our lives […] Something we don’t need to acquire, because we have it within us.

Rebecca Solnit