Have you ever felt that way? Or a smidge of the "eco depression" despair? The "why try it's so overwhelming"? Well this post is for how I overcame and you can overcome. You can, I promise!
Despair is surprisingly common, and perhaps not so surprisingly, a thesis statement of many in the environmental field and environmental academics. Last fall at SXSW Eco I went to a speaker who titled his talk "Coping with the Cascading Crises of Our World". He's a professor who has made his profession writing books on "Arguing for Our Lives" and how we've reached the limits of every natural resource and now is the time to change our mindset to deal with the coming catastrophe. I spent time listening to the science behind his talk (it's well founded), and appreciating the extremely thoughtful approach he took to get there...but also in my head having more than a few"oh please!" moments....hope and innovation is our greatest renewable resource and we would do well to remember (write that down enviro(ish) friends!)
And even at GreenBiz Forum two weeks, a business conference for sustainability professionals, the head of that organization spent time at length over how companies aren't doing enough....how the problems are so vast and we've not moved the needle. It's not that the message is untrue....it's just perhaps the wrong message in the first place. As if preaching to the choir and demoralizing those who are in the trenches working hard inside business to solve environmental problems really gets us anywhere. To think, most of the professionals like myself who go to these things do it for the inspiration, the cross-collaboration potential....the hope (jokes on us?!)
Before I go into my favorite analogy for you to hang your hat on, steeped in actual environmental history....think on the good Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and choose the light. Amen!