Pirate's Cove

Well, there’s always some outlier, right?

Climate doom and gloom? Try laughing instead. Activists embrace joy in the fight to save Earth

When several different team-building groups shared space at a retreat center in New York’s Hudson Valley, one bunch of people stood out because of their constant laughter — so much that someone from another group eventually asked, “Who are you guys?”

They were activists meeting to figure out how to better fight against worsening climate change, a cause usually associated with failure, sacrifice and doom. (snip)

“I believe that joy is all the more necessary and maybe all the more holy in difficult times,” said Katharine Wilkinson, an activist who led the Hudson Valley seminar that got the other groups’ notice. “Joy is like, how do we take part in the shimmy and the shimmer even as the world lurches?”

People like Wilkinson want to harness happiness to power those fighting to curb the burning of coal, oil and gas and the heat-trapping gases they emit, causing Earth to warm. In a recent speech at American University, Wilkinson called power and joy “a really potent portal to the gifts that we want to offer in this time of immense trouble and yet also immense possibility.”

So, um, exactly how are they doing this?

Emphasizing sacrifice “is counterproductive,” said Zhao, who teamed with Dunn to write the book “Leave the Lights On.”

“Instead of asking people to sacrifice the things that bring them joy, our book is making the exact opposite claim: Do more of the stuff that brings you pleasure but also have a low carbon footprint,” she said.

“We’re actually trying to get people to change their behaviors. And joy is the missing ingredient here,” Zhao said. “All we’re saying is give this a shot.”

Dunn, using biking to work as an example, said, “If we enjoy doing something, it is a lot easier to stick with it.”

I’m not buying it.