Beyond the already enormous challenges of doing anything about climate change, the emotional toll: fear, despair and anger, can present additional difficult barriers. . Attempting to contribute to climate change advocacy in my own meager way, I struggle with seesawing between hope and it's longer friend - lessness. Examining articles addressing the emotional impact of climate change exposes significantly differing opinions about what's the "best" strategy for coping with hard feelings (hope, it helps you act! Despair, fear promotes meaningful actions!). . The most helpful suggestion I read re: mental health impact from climate change, was simply to talk about it, with your neighbors, your friends, your community. 70 percent of Americans don't talk about climate change with people they know. Studies on disaster resiliency found that the more tight knit a community before a disaster, the better change it had of successfully rebuilding after, in addition to higher survival rates for at-risk populations. . I'll end with two paragraphs from the Chelsea Green blog which struck the perfect balance for me: . "Poet Gary Snyder was once asked, 'Why bother to save the planet?' He replied with a grin: 'Because it’s a matter of character and a matter of style!' What I really like about his answer is that it doesn’t attempt to found our actions on some plausibility calculation of success or failure, or on a dualistic ethics—the good fight against evil. Rather Snyder points to our calling and to aesthetics, both realms of the soul, of being who we are. . The future is fundamentally uncertain and complex. Therefore it is open to the imagination and always possible to influence in some way. So yes, it’s hopeless and we’re going all-in. The active skeptic gives up the attachment to optimistic hope and simply does what seems called for. There is a deep freedom in that. The dream sometimes glimmers like a silver thread, and that’s all I need to keep walking. I don’t need to believe that things will end well in order to act. The walking and the doing are their own reward." . #CCisnow #ActOnClimate #CCrealAF #CCequity #climate #climatechange #EarthMatters #CCsnapshots #resistance #350pdx