We Need the Right Kind of Climate Optimism

This “challenge accepted” attitude, combined with a mounting sense of urgency, an understanding of climate and environmental science, and a yearning to feel connected to a community of like-minded people, can provide renewed hope even to those who have been engaged in the movement for years — or decades. It also is creating a feeling that society h... See more

Tim: I think optimism is the expectation that things are going to be OK. That we’re going to get a good outcome. Hope is much more about meaning; hope is the will to hold on to our values in the face of difficulty. Optimism is one kind of hope, a rather flimsy sort of hope. What we need now is a more resilient kind of hope, one not based on an expe

... See more

as bad as climate doomism is, so is what she called “hopeium” — an unfounded optimism that someone else will come up with a magical climate solution akin to a silver bullet. “Underneath doomerism and hopeium is the question of ‘Are we going to win?’’” Ms. Heglar said. “That’s premature at this point. We need to ask ourselves if we’re going to try. ... See more

In an extract from her book Not the End of the World, data scientist Hannah Ritchie explains how her work taught her that there are more reasons for hope than despair about climate change – and why a truly sustainable world is in reach