Near the end (or the beginning, depending on whether you’re a glass half full or half empty kind of person) of the year, we perform the ritual of the reset. We start anew with a fresh slate, or so we’d like to think. But there are some things that cannot so simply be reset. You know what I’m talking about, of course.
Climate change is the rollercoaster ride we are all inescapably strapped into, propelling forward into the unknown fairly well predicted future. Some people, such as younger generations and communities with less access to resources, are at the front, screaming into the void and taking the brunt of the devastation. I don’t think I need to describe the variations of people towards the back. You are already aware of who they are – you might even be one of them (i.e. not the oil barons but simply older and trying your best to mitigate climate change for younger generations)! And I’m not trying to say that anyone is definitively good or bad (well, if we’re honest, some are definitively bad). What I’m trying to say is that it’s up to all of us, in the majority, to commit to effecting change.
Change happens in a number of different ways, and you can help in just as many. I, for instance, help by updating the 350 Sacramento website and offering some graphic design skills and behind-the-scenes organizational tech-spertise in my free time. Others are better suited to writing or lobbying, talking with their friends and families, donating, reviewing technical studies, leading organizations, re-wilding the wild – the possibilities are practically endless. All I can ask is that you do what you can do. And with that, I leave you with one of my favorite stories – the story of the hummingbird, as told by climate hero Wangari Maathai (rest in power).
Written by Cat X.
