Paper Airplanes and the Climate Activist
So - you are a climate activist or thinking of becoming one. I both celebrate you and offer my condolences. Dude, it’s tough in the trenches these days so bring your harmonica or banjo because you are going to need them. Let’s talk about the hard stuff first.
Most of the climate activists that I know can’t help but wrestle with anxiety, depression, dread, and all the similar Dementors that take up residence in an intelligent mind. Headline after headline are pounding out scary story after scary story and nobody seems to be acting fast enough to fix things. How often do you see “Woodchucks in Janet’s backyard produce a three-pup litter again this year - the cutest clutch ever!” It’s more like “Another tipping point bites the dust - build your bunker now!” I’m not trying to make light of a horrendous problem, but I would like to point out two things:
(1) The fear and conflict profiteers are in full swing, making money off of our fear and division. ALWAYS keep this in mind. It’s true for print media, and especially true for social media where algorithmic trend analyses keep you inundated with the stories that poke your amygdala. Poke - poke - poke. No wonder that we freak out. It’s what we are designed to do and the profiteers know it.
(2) Sad and depressive feelings can tend to paralyze us, make us feel isolated from the rest of society, or otherwise make us want to give up and curl into a ball under a blanket. This, of course, feels great, and if you can haul the cat under the blanket with you, life can just leave us the F alone! Oops - getting a little off-topic here.
Rather than succumb to blanket therapy, a better idea is to find ways to vent your frustrations with society, media, money, oil executives, and climate deniers. One way to do this is to make a scream pillow, dedicated to absorbing your face and your frustration. Maybe label it “Bob’s climate scream pillow.” (Use your name if your name isn't Bob). Anyway, face in - scream every possible obscenity at every possible denier and climate profiteer that you can think of until you are out of breath. The louder, the better, but don’t forget to use the pillow before you start screaming, otherwise I’m pretty sure the neighbors may call the cops. If you don’t feel awesome after doing this, you probably aren’t screaming hard enough. Do it in front of your partner or that aforementioned cat. Getting a reaction enhances the therapeutic effect.
A second route to feeling better is to find a climate activist group and join it. This will take some persistence, not only to find a good group, but to steer it in ways that are nurturing. What does that mean? The group can’t just be a pile of griping sad sacks (although a certain amount of griping is certainly therapeutic). You need to do some work and have some fun as well. Set a timer, gripe for a half hour, but then get to work. Find a target for action… a bank that funds fossil fuel extraction, an oil company, a proposed natural gas export terminal, a climate-denying politician that needs a letter-writing campaign, a freeway overpass that needs a banner… and decide how to make a group statement regarding that facility or person, or whatever. Planning protests involves setting a date, making posters and other artwork, roping in like-minded organizations, doing the work. Meet in person as often as possible, but if there aren’t like-minded folks in your area, ZOOM can suffice. The group activity is a chance to get out from behind your media feeds and actually connect with people. Share your humanity, stories, fears, triumphs, laughs. This is the glue that keeps an army unified and battling together.
Once you have done that, here’s the hardest part - 99.9% of the time you will have no idea if your work has had any effect at all. No positive feedback, no cheers from the crowd, no bluebirds circling your head with chirps of joy and gratitude. Doing climate work is more like writing inspirational messages on paper airplanes and throwing them into a stadium full of people. Some planes will bounce off of the heads of the semi-drunk football fans, some will land in the aisle, some will get torn to shreds by that old boy who drives the monster truck, but SOME will get caught and read by someone who has been thinking about buying a heat pump, and damnit if this isn’t the final prod that gets her to do it. Maybe one lands in the popcorn of a frustrated grandmother who is worried about the world that her grandkids are inheriting and decides to vote for the politician she hates, but he’s the one that takes climate seriously. We don’t know what will happen. The only thing we know is that if nobody does anything, life on earth is on a crash course and we aren’t going to let that happen.
So… do some screaming, scare the kids with that, then find your tribe, keep meeting with it, keep it meaningful, and keep it light, if possible. There’s time for seriousness when you are in action together. When you are done, go have a beer, tell some jokes, and congratulate each other for giving a damn. When any group member makes a contribution, any contribution of any size, thank that person earnestly and profusely. When we do this simple act of recognition we create our own feedback, and you’ll be amazed at the long-lasting, positive mojo that can give an activist.
Then get back in the kitchen and start making the next batch of paper airplanes.
