Gregg Kleiner, writing in Orion Magazine (April 13, 2017, “Shoveling Blossoms”), told of a bush that grows by his sidewalk that drops it’s petals each Spring. Recently, a large fall of petals came early and he used a snow shovel and wheelbarrow to remove them. The whole thing was disturbing to him as it was a tangible reminder of climate change. The early blooming of the bush combined with shoveling petals instead of snow in January brought him sadness and kept him awake at night. It led him to think of the ice in Greenland melting and the way the climate is slowly changing in so many ways. He was dealing with grief for what is being lost.
I can relate, for when something out of synch happens with the climate I too go to grief. Unseasonable heat or cold,, the collapse of my bees hives yet again, species from southern zones thriving in my yard, a weirdly warm Thanksgiving, all subtle reminders that my grandchildren’s lives will be different than mine. The outdoors I have fished, gardened, hiked, skied and enjoyed forever changed by human choices. So much is being lost: non-human species, the coastlines we have know for generations, the stability of weather, the quality of water and air.
Some people are calling it ecocide, ecological suicide – the knowing destruction of our eco-system that has supported life on Earth, including our own. Ecocide because we are doing it. Some people are beginning to talk about us now living in the Anthropocene, the name being used for the new epoch of the Earth. It is an epoch defined by human presence and choices. By this theory, humans are now the primary influence on planet Earth. What we decide and what we do is now the major determinate of what happens here. I read of a conservative politician who called this theory arrogance. He said it is arrogant of people to think humans are such an important presence on Earth. I can relate to his skepticism, but unfortunately, an overwhelming number of scientists agree that it is true. Thomas Berry prefers the term, “Ecozoic Era for this new epoch of the Earth. This seems more optimistic, but whatever we call it, it’s here. What we as a species do now will determine the future of the Earth.
How far down this path of ecocide we go remains to be seen, and I have trouble imagining the end of human life. We are a resourceful species and will, I suspect, survive on an altered planet. Future generations will probably adapt and even thrive and rejoice in the future world. But I still mourn the losses. I think my main emotion these days when the reality of climate change rears it’s ugly head is sadness. My prayer each night now is a prayer from the Upanishads, “O God, lead us from death to life, from falsehood to truth, lead us from despair to hope, from fear to trust. Lead us from hate to love, from war to peace. Let peace fill our hearts, our world, our universe, peace, peace, peace.” From despair to hope! Lately as I say this prayer that phase, particularly, jumps out at me. Hope is my challenge, and trust in the midst of sadness.
Sadness is a heavy weight. It closes me down, makes me want to give up the fight to preserve the Earth as it is. Shuts down creative thought, puts me in a foul mood, makes me react to the ignorance and greed in our world with anger. It makes it hard for me to forgive those who willfully lead humans down the path to climate ignorance. Makes me have hateful reactions to climate deniers. I am fighting again my hateful, despairing thought. I actively work at forgiveness and openness to those humans, including myself, who continue to live in ways that add to climate change. I suspect that part of the denial of climate change comes from the instinct to avoid this sadness that comes with facing reality. Most people are just getting through their lives and trying to earn a living, feeding their families and holding onto hope. They don’t need more sadness weighting them down. Many people don’t share my belief that the human future is inextricably linked to the future of other species on Earth. Many hold religious beliefs that separate humans and nature. They seek heaven, perhaps, and a human faced God who is also separate from and above the nature world. For them perhaps the Earth seems expendable. I can forgive and understand this in my better moments.
But in the end I am left with my sadness and fear for my grandchildren, the poor who will be the first victims of climate change, non-human species and so much I can’t conceive of now. What do I do with this sadness? I have one idea. My personal grief has focused in the past on the death of my parents, my one sibling, my best friend from High School, the loss of so many people in churches I served over the years, the loss of my own and my children’s innocence and childhood. I have learned to live with this grief. As I have faced the grief directly I have be able to reinvest and find joy in the world and the people around me. It doesn’t work to deny the grief and bury it, I have found that it comes back stronger as a result. But as I face it, weep perhaps, and accept it, I find I can invest in the people who are still alive. It has helped me deal with my grief over the loss of loved ones to make myself of service to others and seek to improve the world around me.
Perhaps this strategy can help with what I am calling Climate grief. It is something to do in the face of the profound losses of climate change. It does not help, in my opinion, to avoid reality of the changes and the human causes. It does not help to deny the reality of sadness and try to put it out of my mind. It is by embracing the truth of the death of loved ones that I have moved on to embrace other people. So by embracing the truth of climate change and taking definite actions I can heal or at least live with my grief. Perhaps the sadness I feel with ecocide is a reflection on how poorly (and how well) I have dealt with the other losses in my life. I don’t blame anyone for trying to forget about climate change. The alteration of our climate is very difficult to think about. But avoidance just makes it worse. By facing the reality of what is happening on planet Earth I can begin to take small steps toward dealing with the sadness that crops up with each small reminder of the change that is coming. Al Gore said in August: “ Hope is essential – despair is just another form of denial.” I think this is true. One way out of grief and the vaguely disturbing feeling that comes over us as we contemplate yet another subtle sign of the change that is upon us is to face the truth and then take action. We do need to make changes in our life-style, and spend time advocating for the Earth, calling politicians, eating less beef, taking fewer long distance flights, whatever it is for you, do it. One way out of sadness is action.