Several weeks ago, I wrote a blog post about wicked problems — challenges that are so complex and interconnected that they can seem impossible to unravel. Environmental problems tend to fall into this category, with numerous social, ecological, scientific, economic, and cultural factors competing and overlapping into one giant mess.
Our class discussion with Catherine Flowers reminded me of an important fact: if all of these problems seem connected, then the solutions can be connected too. If there’s a problem stemming from the intersection of race, poverty, and climate change, you can approach it from each of those angles in turn to see which tactics are most suited for your skill set, the available resources, and the overall sociopolitical context.
It’s easy to be overwhelmed by an issue as huge as climate change, and that’s just one of many problems in the world that I sometimes think of as hopelessly insurmountable. But it’s comforting to know that you don’t have to spread yourself too thin and try to fix everything at once, and by focusing on one aspect of a larger issue, you don’t have to worry that you’re neglecting other important problems.
Catherine Flowers reminded us that you have to bring lots of people to the table when you’re trying to find solutions, even people that might otherwise have very different opinions and goals than you do. We can’t solve these huge, wicked problems on our own, and it will take many different people and groups chipping away from all sides to finally make a dent in things like climate change, poverty, discrimination, and inequality. But by focusing on what we’re passionate about, what we’re able to do, and what we’re able to build coalitions around, we might dismantle these different interconnected problems, piece by piece.
