July 21, 2008
Chin Up, Enviros
BY: Emily Fisher
A friend of mine just wrote me an e-mail saying she had checked out this blog. “I like the blog,” she wrote, “but it made me a little depressed (sorry! All talk of pollution/global warming/dead animals does).”I feel your pain, sister. There are a lot of things to be pessimistic about right now, but I think even those of us who feel passionately about the issues grow weary of the environmental gloom and doom. One blogger, Justin Van Kleeck, wrote a thoughtful essay yesterday detailing some of the ways he assuages his fears and anxieties about the endless stream of bad news.I identify with these simple ideas, so here they are, in short: 1. Get out in nature and enjoy it. 2. Seek out good news about the environment.3. Do something, even if it’s small, to counteract what’s going wrong.4. Write about it. (Or, I would add, talk about it. Exchanging ideas with others can be a powerful salve.)I think most of these can apply to any of the world’s problems, not just environmental. The message is this: For those whose vigilance has become hand-wringing, it might be time to turn down the negative noise and act.