Be Like the Wildebeest Mother with Lions on Her Back, and Biden’s Climate Corps vs Despair

In a recent editorial in The Guardian that is well worth reading, Christiana Figueres, the head of the UN climate change convention from 2010 to 2016, argued that “stubborn optimism may be our only hope.”

There has been much discussion about which climate models best describe the trajectory we are on. Some suggest we have some chance of modifying climate change, if not to below 1.5 C increase, to not much more than that. Others say we are cooked. Much of this is because we are in uncharted territory, using models based on our current understanding of very complex systems, an understanding that is not complete. It is also based in part by reading the geological record, and that is not easy. There seem to be legitimate variations based on what we know and the power of our current models.

On the one side are those who claim we are sugar coating the situation. On the other are those who say that we cannot be certain, and doom and gloom serves no one but those who favor inaction (the fossil fuel industries, for example).

Perhaps this is a false dichotomy. Do we have to choose between optimism and pessimism?

I choose the following attitude: act as if it matters, because it does. How much it matters remains to be seen. Doom and gloom is not helpful (at least past a certain very limited point as motivation for some, I guess).

Certainly, those who are in charge of planning want the best models possible, and need to know what contingencies may be necessary. This is very important.

But the most useful attitude for most of us is: whatever the models show, we need to act as if acting matters. If we don’t, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy that guarantees failure.

I don’t think of it as stubborn optimism, but the same energy that the wildebeest uses when she has lions at her back and a baby to get back to. That wildebeest struggles, and the fact is, as I am sure you have seen in nature shows, she sometimes gets away. No struggle, and mother and baby are dinner. I don’t think the wildebeest is optimistic or pessimistic. She is doing the best she can.

Of course, the wildebeest is stressed in the moment as the lion is gaining on her. But then, after she escapes, the stress hormones dissipate, she nurses her baby, she grazes, even as she can see that the lions continue to prowl. She keeps a wary eye out for the lions, but she takes time to live her best wildebeest mother life. Be like the wildebeest in that too.

Now, don’t take this analogy too far; comparing lions to those who profit from environmental destruction is a disservice to lions.

Speaking of not succumbing to despair, Grist reported on the Biden Climate Corps program as a useful activity that also acts as a bulwark against anxiety and despair by getting young people involved. It also is an introduction to green jobs for many.