Thank you Noble Ones, for reading this! Thank you for caring. Thank you for your time, your talent, and your dedication. This post is here to recharge your batteries, so soak it up.
We’re smart, passionate, proactive, problem solvers. We’re “fixers” for our planet. There’s a compelling desire in us to preserve our home, and we work with others who feel the same way. In another era we brave hearts might have been abolitionists, or suffragettes, or 3rd Reich resistors. I don’t have to ask you to rise up, because you already have. What better company could we possibly keep?
As a decades-long environmental speaker, activist, volunteer, and Congressional liaison on climate, I’ve wrestled with myself to maintain my awareness on the positive, on the solutions, rather than the disaster movie aspects of the Greenhouse Effect. But my humanness has sometimes struggled with the immensity of the problem, drifting back to lack, fear, depression, anger, and frustration. Now while that’s really fun???
My Higher-Self reminds me of Car and Driver Magazine’s” advice for negotiating difficult terrain. And this is a GREAT metaphor for any challenge you may have. Yah ready? Here it is: “When you go into a skid, keep your focus on where you WANT to go.” So NOT in the ditch, or at the brick wall, keep your eyes on the prize, imagine the goal you want to see completed, and lean into THAT. This doesn’t mean stick your head in the sand or give up. By all means, stay engaged. But while fear, anger, despair, judgement, and resentment can be cathartic for a few minutes… long-term it only saps our strength and weakens us. Philosopher Noam Chomsky said, “If you lose hope, then sure enough, there’ll be no hope”.
So, banish cynicism, NO MATTER WHAT, because that will NOT lead to progress, in fact, it’s not just a buzz kill, it’s a total waste of time. Even ONE of you holding the vision of a brighter, better, future is more powerful than throngs of folks who are marinating in fear and anger.
Some clear-eyed fire in the belly is great – but ONLY if its brief and it spurs POSITIVE action. I remember a friend’s comment, “Yea though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I’m NOT gonna build a house there.” So let that anger and resentment go as soon as you possibly can, life’s too short to waste.
Why am I an Environmental Activist? Because I choose hope. Hope and GRATITUDE, and JOY. I’m thirsty for it. In fact, I know that our strength, our resilience, our effectiveness, lies in Happiness and Appreciation, that’s more than hope, it’s our secret weapon. It’s the antidote to fear and anger. It’s where we create success. There is opportunity in everything, even chaos. So, when pondering the state of our climate and all that needs to be done, I invite you to remember to elevate your mood. Imagine being overjoyed by huge environmental progress! Let that be your energy pack, your driving force. THAT’s where the Magic happens.
My life’s experiences have shown me that thoughts have power. So do words of course, so give it a try… think about how you’ll describe the possibilities of our “climate reality”. Envision and speak the world you want to see into existence. This takes a little discipline, at least until you get into the habit of it.
By focusing on positive outcomes, we’re still aware, we’re still walking the walk, the ONLY thing we’re surrendering is hopelessness and failure. That sound OK to you? My most effective meetings with policymakers, coworkers, even family members, were when I’d pictured success beforehand. This is a very powerful political act.
Vote with your ATTENTION. Tune into what you WANT, mentally create the reality you desire. It WILL empower your actions. Appreciate yourself! SEE the good that you and others do and visualize phenomenal progress. Remember, “I’m not going to let the things I can’t change, stop me from making a difference on the things I CAN change”.
Envision that it’s going to be OK. “When in drought, think of the deliciousness of rain.” Hold that high-5-feeling of success, Know it. And if you’re struggling – that’s OK, fake it til you make it. The magic still works. Ride that high vibe and the Universe can’t help but bend toward happier and healthier outcomes. You want to save the world? Then picture it healed.
So, keep the faith. Not blind faith, but intelligent, informed faith. Because we know what’s possible. In fact, infinitely possible. The truth is that we are awash in clean energy and large-scale climate solutions.
From the DOE and the National Renewable Energy Lab this, “The U.S. has the technology and resources to more than meet the projected 2050 growth in electricity demand through improved energy efficiency, and produce 80% of the remainder from renewable energy sources.”
Mark Jacobsen, Stanford’s director of the Atmosphere & Energy Program told Scientific American back in 2009 that, “We can meet the world’s energy needs with wind, water and solar in 20 years without nuclear, for the same amount of $$ that we’d spend on fossil fuels anyway.” Nowadays that’s even more true, and clean energy is getting cheaper and cheaper all the time.
Solid research on climate restoration shows that, “We have the ability NOW, to capture ALL of the carbon pollution that humanity has put into our atmosphere since the industrial revolution and return it to the ground in 11% of the world’s currently unused cropland.”
We have the technology right NOW to create marine forests of kelp that will sequester massive quantities of carbon and create healthier oceans and clean jobs and income. We can Moonwalk ourselves back from the edge of the cliff onto solid, stable, and much safer ground. When pollution goes down, economies rise. So think of our success as inevitable.
Lastly, shake off the defeats, celebrate our successes, and picture waaaay more of them. Begin and end your day with gratitude and the vision of a healthy planet Earth. You will come away refreshed, renewed, and more resilient to whatever life has thrown you. Eyes on the prize. With every positive vision, every act of gratitude, we are moving humanity up the ladder. Not haters, Healers. THAT is where the magic happens. Like they say, clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose. ❤
