These people are really not OK
Usually, a story like this starts with a quick roundup of alarming statistics and a reminder of all the latest climate disasters: heat domes, floods, hurricanes, etc. I’m going to skip that part. Most of us get it already. We understand with our rational minds that the climate is changing, and we feel that it is changing in the deepest pit of our gut, where dread and fury live.
A poll conducted by Yale and George Mason University researchers in September found that 70 percent of Americans are worried about climate change, and 47 percent describe themselves as “angry” about it. I’m in both of those groups. In my 15 years as an environmental journalist, I’ve always been able to ground myself on a bedrock optimism that humanity will get its act together. Lately, though, as the pandemic has dragged toward its third year, the West has continued to burn, drought has parched my part of the world, and climate action has stalled at the federal level even with Democrats in control, that has changed. I am burned out. For some people, this might manifest as fatigue, or disengagement. For me, it’s anger. On a near-daily basis, I can feel my blood sizzling in my veins.
Living in the era of climate change makes us feel lots of things: guilt for our own part in heating the planet, grief for what we have lost and will lose, fear about the future—and anger at selfish decisions made by the powerful people who got us to this moment. How do those who think about climate change every day keep getting up every morning? Taking care of their mind and body is a priority for all of the people I spoke with for this story, but so was something else: using their anger.
Strange, they never feel anger at themselves for failing to practice what they preach. Just wait till they are forced to do so by Government: I wonder how angry they’ll be then?
“There’s always either a slow burn of anger and, like, a raging fire of sadness, or vice versa,” Mary Heglar, an essayist and a co-host of the podcast Hot Take, told me. “When I’m deep in despair, I’m doing all the self-care … but when I’m deep in anger, that’s when it’s time to get active.”
Well, these people seem to be perpetually angry/upset over something. Their Cult leaders have indoctrinated them to feel that way, so they’ll give up their money, freedom, liberty, and life choices.
