How do we actually solve climate change?

Climate change is here. What now?

This is Cosmic Junkyard, a newsletter about the world’s most interesting unanswerable or unanswered questions. This one is going to be a bit different from the others, a little more opinionated and political, perhaps a bit more controversial — but it’s something I feel very strongly about.

If you’re reading this, I’m currently staying at an off-grid permaculture farm with very little internet access, so posts, notes, and responses have been a little more infrequent than usual. I’ll be back in full swing in about a month! Until then, and as always, I’d love to hear what you think about all this.

One night in early February of this year, I found myself in a panic about climate change.

This hasn’t happened in a while, to be honest.

Years ago, when I first fully understood just how bad climate change is, I went through a sort of dark night of the soul with that realization. Once you see it, the full size and scale of it, you really can’t unsee it. I know many people reading this have also been through that — the free-fall into understanding the actuality of where we are and the vastness of how much needs to change in order to create a sustainable future for life on Earth.

This led me into climate activism, which gave me newfound hope. Since then I’ve basically lived by the gospel of the excellent climate-themed anthology All We Can Save — yes things are bad, all we can do is just focus on making a difference in whatever small way we can, and it’s better to focus on what can still be done rather than on everything that’s going wrong.

Yet the Trump Administration’s destruction of the EPA (and so much of what is going on in the US) is a major blow to the movement. Things already weren’t looking good, of course, and business as usual was not functioning either.

I don’t think most people have any idea just how bad climate change actually is, let alone how bad it’s going to get. Honestly, I’m not even going to drop in any facts or projections into this piece because those generally aren’t even that effective at summarizing the size and scale of the problem, but I’ll just link some here.

I will say instead that we can already see climate change manifesting in travesties like the California wildfires and the ever-more-frequent hurricanes and heat waves happening around the world. Climate change truly means we are going to keep seeing more and more horrifically traumatizing natural disasters happening more and more frequently. The destruction will truly be unfathomable and it will get exponentially worse each year.

There will be waves of climate refugees (there already are). Already the air grows poisonous, already our brains are full of microplastics, already so many of us have lived through natural disasters. A natural disaster is not a simple thing to heal from — they are massive traumas, and the truth is, most of us will go through many of them within our lifetimes.

All this is actually why I don’t want to have children. I don’t judge you if you’ve chosen to have kids, but I personally don’t want to put another living being through all this.

Truthfully, it blows my mind that there hasn’t been a massive, systemic global movement to address our changing climate. But another part of me understands why all attempts to address this problem have failed.

Climate change is the natural end point of a system built on extraction and consumption. We are overusing the earth’s resources, and the earth is treating us like the parasites we are, coming in to wipe us out so it can grow back.

Unfortunately, the people using the most resources — the billionaires, the 1% — will be least affected by climate change, and the poor will be on the frontlines of every disaster.

Terrible memes have also helped to contribute to the climate movement (and left)’s downfall — don’t quote me on that

Most likely, unless we see a truly radical mass movement surrounding a proto-Bernie Sanders, the government will not swoop in and save us, because the government is being run by wealthy oligarchs who probably are already planning to fly to Mars when shit really hits the fan.

The best thing we can probably do at this point as individuals on Earth is learn to grow our own food, prepare ourselves for disasters, and build supportive, resilient communities. We can also learn from the earth and from communities who have also been through variants of their own apocalypses. The world has ended many times for many peoples, after all. AndtThere are so many people deeply engaged in this work already, working to build and imagine resilient mutual aid networks and alternative structures on top of the ashes of the burning world.

Normally, I am able to have complete faith in this subterranean, mycelial change-making movement. Yet in the midst of my panic the other night, it all fell away, and I found myself wondering if maybe, just maybe, some sort of miraculous technology might swoop in and save us.

This likely won’t happen, and it’s not a good idea to rely on miraculous science to solve all of our climate problems. Carbon capture as a way of leveling out global temperatures is impossible, most scientists say; we’d need to sequester about 20 billion tons of carbon per year to cancel out emissions, which is an unfathomable, unachievable amount.

But there are also projects in the works like solar geoengineering, which could help reflect the sun’s heat back into space. Meanwhile, ocean fertilization proposes stimulating the growth of phytoplankton in the oceans, which could also help get rid of some of that excess carbon.

All these projects could have horrifying unintended consequences on our ecological systems, but hey, things are already pretty bad. This will be controversial, but I personally believe that we do need to be putting some energy and resources into these projects. These probably have no chance at getting funded in America at this point, but right now, from a purely ethical standpoint, I think there’s nothing more important for humanity that we could possibly do than putting our energy and resources into finding a solution to climate change.

One thing I know won’t save us is little, individual efforts to reduce waste or emissions. Sure, it matters to take care of the earth and garden and minimize our use of single-use plastics, and we all have a role to play in this moment of great change.

But the truth is that most recycling isn’t actually recycled — the oil industry brainwashed us into thinking it would be to deflect responsibility away from them — and tiny changes in our own individual emissions will not be nearly enough to prevent full-scale disaster.

Charwei Tsai and Mandy Barker

What we really need, best case-scenario, is systemic change on a global scale, and fast — a World War II-level of mobilization. What we really need is to completely shift away from oil and gas to renewable energy. We need to cover the world with forests, which serve as natural carbon capture technologies, and we need to build resilient, sustainable, green cities, and we need to transition to sustainable and/or electric cars. And so much more.

These would take effort, but this is not impossible. We have the resources to do it and we just need the political power to make it happen.

Back in the heyday of my climate activist days, I was really excited about the Green New Deal, a plan which envisioned decarbonizing the US economy in 10 years while creating countless high-paying jobs in the clean energy sector in the process.

Of course, the people have spoken in America and we couldn’t be further away from a Green New Deal now. Everybody was too scared of “socialism,” and now here we are. It’s really, really tragic. It breaks my heart, the total failures on both sides of the political spectrum, and the carelessness and greed of this exploitative system that was built on the backs of slavery and subjugation and the illusion of endless progress which is really endless, endless black holes of desire and consumption that only lead to despair.

And yet. I know that doomerism is never a fertile place to start a movement; it is actually desert you can get lost in forever. People need to believe in something, need to be excited, need to have hope. I know my place at this point; I’m a storyteller, and if there’s one story I want to tell, it’s a better one about climate change and the future.

So here’s what I believe. I believe that the first step in solving climate change is telling some really, really good stories about it.

The original stories about climate change were so badly told. We were told, or at least I was told as a child, that we need to come together “save the Earth.” We were shown poorly drawn graphics of polar bears on sinking ice floes, and we were told to recycle for distant hypothetical grandchildren’s sake.

This is how climate change became the domain of the privileged and disconnected, a cause designated for those who had the ability and time to care about things like trees and birds rather than their next meal and rent.

The simple truth is, most people are too tired and working too hard to care that much about something that doesn’t connect to them and their families personally. The climate change movement royally fucked up by focusing on statistics, polar bears, and doom rather than the reality of what’s happening RIGHT HERE AND NOW — the consequences that will happen TO US AND OUR FAMILIES as we fail to act — and the reality of the changes we can make that would make all of our lives better today.

This initial climate change story failed to give us the most critical part of the message: The earth is us. (!!!!) We are the polar bears. We are the grandchildren. We are the earth. It’s our homes that are being destroyed, our wallets that are being bled dry as billionaires leach resources from the earth and leave us with the consequences.

To put it simply, we are the ones going down with this ship. Climate change is HERE. It’s why we’re all so sick. I deeply believe it’s connected to the high rates of mental illness among the masses — we are not meant to be this disconnected from the earth, and we are suffering thanks to a lack of clean air and water and free time to roam around our planet.

On the other hand, working to build a better world as the old one burns can actually make each one of our everyday lives so much better. A climate movement can and should mean better jobs, more time, and more freedom and abundance for everyone.

Yet the truth is, none of this, none of what I’ve written about here, is why I started truly caring about climate change in the first place. I actually first really got invested in climate activism when I visited a refugee camp on Lesvos, Greece, and saw just how terrible the conditions were there. I eventually learned that the Syrian refugee crisis was in part originally sparked by a drought that had sent people from the countrysides pouring into the cities, which created the conditions for a great deal of unrest. All at once it all became very clear. This is what droughts and wildfires and hurricanes do. They create the conditions for war.

The best refugee camp, I decided during my time there, is one that never exists in the first place. To prevent countless more refugee camps, we need to fight climate change. It’s as simple as that.

So, all that is to say — we need new stories that connect the dots and really engage people, stories that focus on the lived, dirty, bloody, thirsty reality of what climate change is.

I also think the best shot at system-wide change is to really make climate change a class issue, which it absolutely is. The 1%, the titans of production and industry that are our new kings, are destroying our world and exploiting all of us. We need to fight them and the poisonous carbon they refuse to ban from our atmosphere because of their greed by banding together in solidarity with our fellow humans. And I still believe we can band around the idea that can create a better world for everyone by transitioning to renewable energy and creating many green, equitable jobs and sustainable, supportive systems in the process.

Even if you can’t get behind the whole Green New Deal thing, and no matter where you are on the political spectrum, most of us can agree there’s something wrong with the world as it is right now, right? Maybe you agree that we’re filling ourselves with poison, eating food shipped from way across the globe, and trashing our bodies and minds with filth. Maybe you’ve realized that we have more therapy and more makeup and more TV than ever and yet more of us are mentally ill than ever before. Maybe it’s upsetting to you that people live paycheck-to-paycheck and can’t afford to pay for gas or healthcare in the wealthiest nation in the world.

This is all connected, so deeply interconnected it breaks my heart sometimes with just how clear it all is. Our separation from the earth and each other. The destruction of our planet, this beautiful planet that provides us with everything we need.

Indigenous communities have always known this and Indigenous leaders should absolutely be at the forefront of any real movement for change, and there’s so much more to say about that, but it’s best to just start researching Indigenous ideas about ecology and change. It’s also helpful to pay attention to what is already happening in the climate movement. So many people are also engaged in the Great Turning, which is Johanna Macy’s term for the spiritual and systemic shifts the world is undergoing as the old system and old ways die one way or another, and new, life-sustaining systems are born.

Still, as much as I’d like to throw the full force of my faith in behind something like the Green New Deal or the Great Turning, honestly, I don’t know what’s going to happen or what we’re really going to do about climate change at the end of the day.

I haven’t stopped believing in the possibility of a better world, mostly because I’d rather believe than not. Yet on that February night, I felt truly and deeply scared again, so scared I found myself seriously researching carbon capture technologies and wondering we’re not using all of AI’s power to innovate actual climate solutions.

What if we can’t do it, any of it? What if we decide it doesn’t matter and just close our eyes and it just gets worse and worse until Earth is uninhabitable?

I personally plan to move to a green, temperate place far from the ocean and free from wildfires in about twenty years, which is around when I think shit will truly start hitting the fan. There, I imagine growing a garden, living in community, and keeping underground stores of food and medicine (modern and holistic) and water to use as the world burns. In this way, me and my community will hopefully survive while huge swaths of humanity die out.

I realize this sounds doomsday-prepper-ish, but I feel about as dedicated to this idea as I do to a 401K. It’s just something that feels important and responsible to think about, is all.

In the meantime, during these critical next ten years, I plan to at least try to do my part in creating change. The truth is, I haven’t been involved in climate activism for a while. I got a bit disillusioned with leftist organizing and infighting during my time in the movement, and life got in the way. I’m a bit ashamed of this, but also, I do think the inner work I’ve been doing over the past few years will aid me as I grow into the next phase of my climate activism life.

I’ve never stopped thinking and writing about climate change, and I am currently seeking a new, truly powerful climate movement to be a part of. One that isn’t defined by division, but that really is focused on building a better world for all in a tangible way.

AI rendering of the dream of a futuristic train-powered eco-city — it’s fascinating that AI is generating so many of the visual solarpunk depictions of the future currently available online, which is a thought I’m saving for another time.

This is not to say everyone has to join an activist movement. I really don’t think judgment or shame is helpful here, and there are so many other ways of contributing to the world aside from traditional organizing. So much of the old climate change story, and so much of leftist organizing, honestly, has been about judging people for not being enough — not pure enough, not good enough, not dedicated enough, not oppressed enough. A lot of this came out of a desire for equity, but the truth is this framework just doesn’t create the conditions for sustainable change and solidarity.

No one is responsible for saving the world single-handedly and everyone has a part to play. We need healers, storytellers, artists, spiritual leaders, lawyers, doctors, marketers, good parents, and so many others in this movement.

At the same time, I also believe that being a part of a unified movement for change of some kind is the best medicine for fear and despair. Movements connect us, and connection is what will really save us in the end — connection to the earth and each other, and realizing we are all not separate, that our fates are bound up and intertwined. The lake’s and the sky’s, the hawk’s and your child’s, mine and yours.

Change still feels possible when I look at it all that way. And of course change is much more than always possible — it’s the one guarantee in this life.

What do you think can or will actually be done about climate change? Are there any really powerful movements that you’re a part of that I might be missing?

I’d love to hear in the comments.