One of my favorite radio shows/podcasts is On the Media. In an episode this summer, they took up the issue of how climate scientists deal emotionally with the data they produce – which always seems to indicate that things are worse than they thought they were before. Some suffer serious bouts of depression and anxiety, both leading to personal, professional, and political paralysis. As to coping strategies, it seems that most of the strategies have to do with (a.) talking and (b.) doing. They talk about the problem, preferably to large groups of people, and (by the same token) take action – any action – from reducing one’s own carbon footprint to educating the public and policymakers.
Perhaps those of us who write about global heating and climate catastrophe are doing the same thing, viz., trying to come up with emotional coping strategies. I know that’s a big reason for this blog. And maybe that’s what all art is about. I don’t have a problem with that, provided we make the language or movement or textures interesting enough for others to want to read or see. Emotions, along with other aspects of human psychology, are a legitimate subject-matter and prompt for literature. Indeed, as we try to adjust to the new world disorder in which we find ourselves, these explorations may be the most important thing writing can contribute towards meliorating our lot. Not just by saying, “Look on the Bright Side, Brian!” – but by lending some seriousness to what’s happening. I mean, if you’re not seriously depressed or panicked these days, there’s something wrong with you. Writing can help us use our mentality and face up to reality, to paraphrase Cole Porter. And it can tell the story of what is happening – until we can’t – “so that when there is no more / story that will be our / story when there is no / forest that will be our forest.”* ----------- * W.S. Merwin, not Cole Porter.
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June 2021
Kristin Prevallet Author/Editor
I'm a writer & teacher in Lawrence, Kansas who actually believes the scientists. I wrote a book of poems called Of Some Sky that seems to have something to do with all this. |