April 22, 2022
Hello ,
First, I'd like to offer a hearty welcome to all you new subscribers!
Sorry, I've been neglectful this year in letting you know how happy I am to be invited into your email box. Reply any time and let me know if I can do something of more value for you.
And now a confession. I've got climate anxiety.
It's a real thing according to scientists and mental health professionals. A common symptom is feeling helpless, even hopeless. The best antidote for those feelings is to do something positive.
Today, I'm going to tell you the one thing you can do that will make the most difference in helping resolve climate change.
No. It's not recycling.
But first a word from your sponsor. Check out my new bookplates!
Back to climate change anxiety. I must admit my first impulse is to try and get rid of my bad feelings. But choosing to take even a small action can transform our fear and helplessness into hope.
The hope we need if we're going to help our young people save the earth. We can't leave it to the next generation. For Earth Day, I'm recycling a story I wrote five years ago because I find this woman so inspiring.
Rocking the Second Half of Life
Marjory Stoneman Douglas earned her place in history for her tireless advocacy in helping preserve the Florida Everglades.
She did it all in the second half of life. At first glance Marjory appears an unlikely heroine.
She started her career as a society reporter for the Miami Herald in1915, and later published short stories and novels.
A bookish woman, Marjory rarely went out for a picnic, let alone visited the crocodile infested Everglades, saying it was "too buggy, too wet, and too generally inhospitable...I know it’s out there, and I know it’s important..."
South Florida land developers agreed. They considered the Everglades a useless swamp just waiting for them to turn it into shopping malls and subdivisions.
Scientists warned if the area wasn't protected, soon all wildlife there would be extinct.
Marjory wrote stories set in South Florida and vividly described the natural world. She was writing a novel in 1941 when an editor asked her to write a non-fiction book addressing threats to the Everglades. She agreed.
"There are no other Everglades in the world. They are unique...in the simplicity, the diversity, the related harmony of the forms of life they enclose," wrote Marjory.
"The miracle of the light pours over the green and brown expanse of saw grass and of water, shining and slow-moving below, the grass and water that is the meaning and the central fact of the Everglades of Florida."
At age 57, Marjory published The Everglades: River of Grass. It hit the shelves in November 1947 and sold out before Christmas. The impact of the book is sometimes compared to Rachel Carson's Silent
Spring.
And it launched Marjory into her role as an environmental activist, which took up the next 51-years of her life.
She founded Friends of the Everglades, wrote more books on the subject and fought developers, the Army Corp of Engineers, and anyone else who
threatened the unique species and habitat of South Florida.
"[She's a] tiny, slim, perfectly dressed, utterly ferocious grande dame who can make a redneck shake in his boots," said Assistant Secretary of the Interior Nathaniel Reed. "When Marjory bites you, you bleed."
Marjory's wisdom is crucial today as we face climate change. She said, "I would be very sad if I had not fought. I'd have a guilty conscience if I had been here and watched all this happen to the environment and not been on the right side."
In 1990, Marjory published her autobiography, Voice of the River beginning with the admission "the hardest thing is to tell the truth about oneself."
And ending with the advice, "life should be lived so vividly and so intensely that thoughts of another life, or a longer life, are not necessary."
Marjory lived “my own life in my own way,” for 108 years. Her spirit gives me hope and challenges me to do better.
The One Action that Will Make the Most Difference
In my research I discovered lots of things, big and small that we can do to confront climate change. But it can feel like it's too late. Too hard.
But the story on climate change if still unfolding. We can be aware of how bad things are and also believe that we can make a difference. Let's look at what we can do.
Sara Ray has spent a decade leading and teaching young people in environmental studies programs at Humboldt State University.
She says, "The new generation doesn’t think of this as just something that we need to go into science to fix or technology to fix or engineering to fix or even politics or law. There’s a sense...we need all hands on deck to address [climate crisis]."
"We need all the talents, we need all the skills — in addition to all of the usual suspects that used to be thinking about the major leverage points of affecting climate change."
So, here's the deal on helping reduce climate change
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We can stop buying bottled water. We could get an electric car or forgo that airplane trip. These things would have a big impact. It's good to focus on things we can control.
The most effective thing we can do is replicable community action. This is where you work on specific solutions with others in your local area.
Find a local organization already working on specific projects to abate climate change. Think about what skills you have to offer and volunteer. This can have immediate tangible results and multiply the impact of your time and energy. If your project is replicable, other communities might copy or adapt it.
Here are some community projects going on around the country: Engaging school boards and city officials to divest from fossil fuels, gathering deeds to return land to Native people, starting water and reforestation projects, and starting a project to support young women with their climate activism, engaging cities to declare climate emergency.
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Sources
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/30/how-to-stop-climate-change-despair-according-to-professor.html?
Pachamama Alliance global community that has been working to create a sustainable future for 25 years.
Of course, I think books are the answer to every problem, so this week I'm recommending a bundle of them.
Bold, relatable scenes depict how these people turned their childhood interests in nature and wildlife into huge movements that continue today, and kids will see how they can help protect the environment, too.
The author and research team synthesized primary research from thousands of studies and developed a ranked list of the most important actions the globe can take to combat climate change.
A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet by Sara Ray. Combining insights from psychology, sociology, social movements, mindfulness, and the environmental humanities, Ray explains why and how we need to let go of
eco-guilt, resist burnout, and cultivate resilience while advocating for climate justice. A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety is the essential guidebook for the climate generation—and perhaps the rest of us—as we confront the greatest environmental threat of our time. Find it at the
library
Provocative and illuminating essays from women at the forefront of the climate movement who are harnessing truth, courage, and solutions to lead humanity forward.
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