Ok, look, times are dark. Every target we’ve set, as a society, we’ve blown past. There’s a true, extinction-level shitstorm on the horizon and every thinking person who believes in science can see it. We get it. There’s urgency. And we’re not doing enough. Not nearly enough.
But we are doing something
And, you know, we’re all human, you know? We need to have hope. Even in the darkest times, huddled in the basement of the bomb shelter, listening to the enemy lay waste to our beloved homes above, we still need a reason to emerge in the morning and live another day. We. Need. Something.
So, this blog is an attempt to be that. Something. Some hope. A reason to emerge from the shelter into the bright and dusty daylight of morning and keep building. Because we have to. There is no Planet B.
Let’s Roll
Every day, there are builders and organizers and scientists rising and greeting the day and making a difference. There’s a team we belong to. There’s a side. A good side. And, if you are reading this, you are on that side. So, let’s get to work. And celebrate others who are. And stop cutting each other down.
At the end of the day, solving the climate crisis will require a mobilization of humanity never before seen in all of human history. Nobody has the complete picture. Nobody has all the answers. Even though lots of people are clearly wrong, it’s also true that nobody is completely right. Why? Because this is all bigger than us. Each and every one of us (of any gender, sorry for the historical quote incoming…) is the Man in the Arena.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
Thanks, Teddy Roosevelt. You’re the perfect mascot for this movement. You were priveledged, and sexist, and a little too obsessed with war, and probably a little racist, though you didn’t think you were. But you were also a striver. You were biased towards action in the direction of the best good you knew. You were sick as a child and bullied in school. You were a “traitor to your class.” And, because of all that, you took what you had and turned it into busting up corruption in New York City. You created the National Park System. You were shot in the chest and spent the next two hours finishing the speech you wanted to give anyway. You are the very picture of imperfect changemaker of your time. And, all of the rest of us have to be, too. Or we’re all going to die. Seriously. It’s that stark and that urgent.
So, let’s celebrate, unapologetically and emphatically, progress. Progress leading us away from a Hothouse Earth. Progress that makes our children’s lives a little bit better. Will it be imperfect? You’re goddamn right it will. And, I don’t want to hear it. There are plenty of places where we talk about how we could do better. This place? This place is not the forum for that. This place, this blog you’ve landed on, is the place you turn to when the bombs are falling all around you, and you’re not sure if you’ll see another dawn, and you need SOMETHING, anything for god’s sake, to keep you going.
This is a place for victories. No matter how small and imperfect. Because that’s how we keep going. And keep going, we must. Because, make no mistake, this is war.