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How do we spread urgency without magnifying our own fear or cynicism? How do we raise the alarm bells without bursting our eardrums?
That’s a central problem facing anyone who cares about protecting a livable climate. The alarm bells ought to be rung by a thousand steel mallets. Rising seas and rainier storms will threaten Boston in our lifetimes. Drought-fueled wildfires destroy homes in the west every summer. Huge cities and vast farmlands across the globe will be evacuated. Can you imagine it? Not just the ruins of Paradise, CA, burned to the ground. Not just stormwater filling Queen’s basements. Imagine the kind of daily fear that creeps around the edges of your day. The photos of fleeing families seeking safer homes cover your social media feed. Imagine it’s your neighbors, cross-country colleagues, or your family. “Every day, something new.”
But wait - this is our media atmosphere already. Warnings like this currently pound us. Not for false reasons, because terrible dangers are rising from many corners. But do these warnings motivate you to act or paralyze you further? As I watch friends and strangers fall to cynicism, I see we need new tools to transform despair into determined action.