April 6, 2022
In a recent New York Times article, titled “‘OK Doomer’ and the Climate Advocates Who Say It’s Not Too Late”, author Cara Buckley denounces both “climate doomism” and “hopeium” as methods of deflecting responsibility for the ever-growing climate crisis. The article primarily targets doomsday rhetoric that propagates fear of an inevitable disaster and makes individuals feel like their efforts are meaningless.
Buckley’s article highlights social media content creators whose platforms focus on positive climate news and educate followers on simple yet influential ways to fight climate change themselves. Mary Annaïse Heglar, a climate justice essayist whose words are featured in the article, warns of the opposite extreme–relying on the hope that someone else’s “magical climate solution” will eventually come to the rescue. While global manufacturing companies and fossil fuel producers are to blame for much of the situation at hand, it is crucial not to downplay the impact of individual actions in the midst of an emergency that depends on them to spark change.
In the words of Dr. Kate Marvel, a research scientist also quoted in this piece, “We are still facing very dire threats… but that doesn’t mean that no policy has ever been effective, and no progress has ever been made. And it certainly doesn’t mean that progress isn’t possible.”