In class this week, the conversation that we had that captured my attention was the idea of hope. I think that when studying the environment and what is going on in the world it can be extremely upsetting and when there are sobering statistics such as that species are going extinct at 10,000 times the background rate, it can be difficult to remain hopeful for our future. In her piece “Grounds for Hope,” Rebecca Solnit provides the importance that hope must play if we are to accomplish the ambitious goals that have been set by activists and scientists alike.
I thought that when she discussed the 24-hour news cycle and how this has influenced our thinking it was a very accurate statement. She writes, “News cycles tend to suggest that change happens in small, sudden bursts or not at all.” Her statement perfectly encapsulates the way that I tend to think about what is happening right now in the world around me. The news has changed my perspective from looking at movements that take a long time to achieve their success, but rather I see it in short time bursts that appears as if nothing is happening. The environmental degradation has occurred over thousands of years and will not be fixed immediately. The ideas that are being put forward now could potentially promote a more sustainable earth for our children to inhabit. Take for example the energy transformation that Germany is currently trying to achieve. Look back at the ruins German was in after World War II and how they were able to rebound and use the destruction of many of their buildings and cities and use that to spur on the most ambitious energy reform ever seen. Germany aims for renewable energy to supply 80% of its power by the year 2050. The change in Germany can be seen as the fruition of the anti-nuclear protests that took place in the 1970s and continued into the early 2000s. Being able to see that the progress achieved by Germany was not an overnight phenomenon is critical because the groundwork that was laid 30 years ago had a significant contribution to the decision to go to renewable energy. Solnit’s article was incredibly influential to me because it reminded me that even when the work being done now may seem like a hopeless cause, we never know the benefits that could come from the research down the road. For me, it was another reminder not to look at the success in the moment but instead to look at the hope it can bring for the future and hope for the future remains one of the most influential tools for conservation.
