My Thoughts On Climate Anxiety

In this article, I would like to discuss something that I have struggled with tremendously throughout my journey as a climate activist: climate despair. Now, there does not seem to be a hard and fast definition of climate despair, but the definition is pretty self-explanatory: despair over the state of our world and what we can do about it. Now, I am sure that all of you have your own definitions of climate despair and what it means to you, but to me at least, it hits you like a truck, and all I can think about is how messed up our current state of affairs is. I also tend to visualize the future with gargantuan forest fires, smog so thick you can’t see a foot in front of your face, and people suffering from food insecurity and dying from the extreme heat. These can become our reality if we let it. Not we as climate activists, but we as humanity as a whole. And I am not saying that we should not worry about this potential future, because The Earthrise Project would not be an organization if that were the case. What has gotten me through this time though, is individual actions. Sure, I know that bringing a set of reusable cutlery to a picnic is not solving the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced, but at the very least, I am doing what I can, to make our world better. This organization is founded on the hope that people will see the solution within themselves and make a difference, and by being here, you already have. Yes, this crisis is just that, a crisis that we need to face head-on, and it is scary, and solutions are more complex than avoiding some single-use plastics, but I know that with our group of climate activists, we are starting to take our future back into our own hands.