Climate Change is Not an Issue to Solve
What I’m about to write here almost feels guided. It’s like they’re my words, but not really, and I can’t help but feel like Nature somehow is coming through me to communicate with the world.
A cry for help; a try to signal to us humans who so desperately want to get it right that we’re missing the point.
When I first decided to commit myself to climate work in my early twenties, I said out loud to the trees: “I want to be a voice for those who cannot speak!” Yes, I said that and I meant it, and I’m realizing as I’m writing this post, that this is what that voice looks like. Guided or not, my words or something other-than-human spirit, I feel urgent that we have to talk about this. It’s a part of the climate conversation we often forget but that I believe is crucial that we bring to the table.
Because when we talk about climate change, we tend to focus on things that we can easily measure; PPM (the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere), the percentage of energy that comes from renewable sources, how many pounds of toxic garment waste that ends up in our landfills, or how much plastic compared to fish that we’re expecting in our oceans, and so on. In order to easier understand this very big and unfathomable issue, we like to throw around numbers with the hope to “scare and repair.” Let’s alarm people with a bunch of crazy facts and hope that we will all wake up and start saving the world!
Don’t get me wrong - it’s fantastic that years of climate science are finally circulating and reaching the masses. We need to know all there is to know so that we can come from an empowered place when we make our choices and work for a better world. However, if we only focus on facts and figures for communicating climate action, we miss part of the truth. And, if lost and forgotten, will probably ruin all our chances of ever getting this right.
*This post is also heavily influenced by Charles Eisenstein’s beautiful book - Climate, A New Story.
Nature is a Complex System
As Charles Eisenstein so beautifully describes it in his book Climate - A New Story - nature is a complex system that can not be “figured out” by applying complicating problem-solving. Humans are GREAT with complicated systems. Mathematics is complicated. Science and technology are complicated. Machinery is complicated. They are complicated because it takes someone very smart to understand the mathematic systems that go into creating complicated things - like computers, airplanes, and other machines. As humans, we’re used to looking to people with complicated minds to help solve our world’s problems. We live with this idea that as long as we can continue to advance our brains, and hence the technology birthed from it, we can “figure this out” and save the world.
Up until now, we’ve dearly trusted our complicated minds to pave our path for the future. But we’re missing one important thing - nature doesn’t respond to this kind of thinking.
Nature is not a complicated system - it’s a complex system! Just like the human body (which is part of nature too), there are certain things about nature that we will never understand. We can study it and try to copy it as best we can, but the complexity of Earth’s ecosystem and its extraordinary biodiversity is beyond what our complicated minds can comprehend. The Earth, just like a human body, is a breathing thing. It has veins and tissue and skin and blood and, just like any of us, it can function with a few missing organs and limbs. But if we continue to kill more and more of this beautiful body, She will soon stop breathing.
From “fixing” to Loving
So the deal we have to come to terms with is that we can’t “fix” this problem. Climate Change can never be fought and won by solely addressing our (if so extremely talented) complicated problem-solving skills. If we do, if that is our only focus, we will miss the fact that these magical ecosystems that Earth has taken millions of years to create will forever be lost. And no matter how much we try, we will never be able to “fix” that. It will be gone, forever.
What we must understand is that Earth is perfect as it is and that our mission is not to “fix” it, but to hold it sacred and care for it all we can. Care and protection should be front and center for politics, resources distribution, and even in friend-to-friend conversations. We have to make it commonly known that we’re here as the Earth’s guardians and stewards and that we must work to protect all the biodiversity we still have left. And then we must do all we can to bring back life in places where it’s almost gone. See the incredible thing about our Mother, and this is where we’re lucky, is that she wants to come back to life. All she needs is a little push in the right direction…
Soil (the Earth’s skin) that in many places have been depleted of life to nothing but hard rock and dirt, can come back in only a year or two. When wolves were brought back into Yellowstone National Park, the whole ecosystem restored itself and things came back to life. It’s incredible really, how fast nature restores itself! And similar things are happening in the oceans. If you plant kelp, for example, that kelp forest is soon attracting all kinds of marine life and the fish population is bouncing back. It’s so incredible to think that we have the ability to help life be what it’s supposed to be! We can’t use our complicated minds to “fix” a complex system like nature, but we can use our hearts to care for it with love and respect, and then pair it with our brilliant minds to come up with modern solutions to help it on the way!
Humans are not the problem
Humans are not the problem. That is a lie we’ve been telling ourselves for years and a continuous justification to harm the planet and kill our home. The truth is - we are actually here to be part of the solution! If you look to indigenous cultures you’ll soon learn this is exactly the role they play - a partnership with nature, not a war against it. These tribes didn’t just roam around in the “wild”, obeying nature’s rules and systems. No, these indigenous people, these “hunter-gatherers”, have always treated nature like their garden and a home that should be attended to and loved. We can do too, but we don’t have to adapt their hunter-gatherer lifestyle to treat Earth the same way. What they have that we lack is a mindset and a way of looking at nature and the role it plays. Along with an understanding that humans, too, can be part of the cycle of life.
So what we must understand is that we’re not here to “fix” climate change. Because nature, as a living being, cannot be fixed. Instead, we’re here to embrace a revolution of love and to remember what it means to be part of the cycle of life.
The issue with a “complicated” mindset
We live with the belief that ONE = ONE. If we cut down trees, all we have to do is plant new trees to replace the old ones, as mathematics support! The issue with this way of thinking is that old trees store tons of carbon that gets released when we cut them down. (Carbon released = more CO2 in the atmosphere = global warming). Even though new trees will help sequester that carbon, they can never make up for the amount that got released. So no, in nature’s complexity ONE tree does not equal ONE tree.
Furthermore, when we cut down forests, we kill the ecosystem in that area and biodiversity gets lost. Biodiversity is one of nature’s magical complexities and once it’s gone, we can’t have it back.
The complicated problem-solving mindset brought us to create things like pesticides and conventional fertilizers. We thought that if we can just eliminate bugs and speed up crop growth, we will be able to grow more food. Good thought but, as we’ve witnessed, nature doesn’t work that way. Not only do pesticides kill our soil, but it turns out that some of those bugs were really important for growing crops - like bees, for example! And applying more and more man-made fertilizers won’t help that, it’ll only make the problem worse.
It makes us focus too much of our attention on our brains and too little on our hearts. Climate change should not be thought of as an “issue to be solved”, but an opportunity for us humans to reconnect with the magic of life. If we can allow ourselves to feel, we will soon hear the drums of the Earth again, the rhythm of life that so desperately wants to pulsate through our bodies. And once we’re back in that rhythm, we will understand and see all this magic that we still have left to protect.
What we often forget is that humans are complex too! We’re part of nature, and hence we’re just as complex. We thought that new technology and an advanced society would make us happier, but it hasn’t. Suicide and depression are at an all-time high and I think it’s because we’re further removed from our source than ever before. Our complicated minds have created a lot of incredible inventions, and we ought to be proud of that. But we can’t “fix ourselves”, as we can’t fix the Earth. Medicine and science can keep our body parts functioning, but you know just as well as me that it’s more to us than that. Just as the Earth is magical beyond comprehension, WE ARE MAGICAL TOO! A pill might help someone from feeling the pain, but it will never get to the core of the problem. If we want to be able to fully live, we have to also understand what it means to fully feel.
What can we do?
So what can we do to make sure we bring ourselves back to the ecosystem of life? Here are a few ways that you can get started right now:
Support regenerative farming practices. Restoring the soil could be one of the most important tasks of our lifetime and the most optimistic of solutions I know! This solution shows that where you bring life, there will be more life, and this brown gold - once brought back to life - will sequester carbon like the party never ends! (Highly recommend watching Kiss The Ground and The Need To Grow)
PROTECT - as much as we possibly can. Forest, rivers, wetlands, grasslands, beaches, oceans, and local parks. We must do all we can to hold on to the original magic we still have - it’s not too late!!
Plant trees. They may not be as powerful as old trees, but they are definitely doing the job and we need as many climate equalizers we can get!
Make cities green. And I mean green as in, literally! Rooftops gardens, green walls, trees, and plants plants plants! Whatever we can do to bring nature back where it’s been stripped away, we must do. Not only is it pretty, but it will help stabilize local climates, bring temperatures down, and sequester carbon from the atmosphere. Imagine a city like New York bathing in greenery? WOW!
Everything else we’re already doing. Of course, we have to also continue our work to eliminate fossil fuels, move to renewable energies, rebuild cities, cut out plastic, revolutionize fashion, and much more. All of it is important - so important - but we have to remember to do it from a lens of LOVE and not just from: ‘how can we figure this out?”
I hope my message came across in a loving way. If you have any thoughts or other things you’d like to add - don’t be afraid to drop a comment or reach out! This is a conversation that we all need to have.
With gratitude, Anne Therese
