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Do You Need Optimism or Pessimism to Respond to the Climate Emergency?
Exploring a question that’s more nuanced than you think, based on the latest research.
Do you associate optimism with hoping that things will work out while taking zero action?
Or with believing in your ability to make a change and never giving up?
Climate scientists who warned of the climate emergency we face today were probably branded as pessimists in past decades, and look where that got us. So it makes sense that the simple question in the title provokes strong reactions (that optimism is selfish as hell and fosters inaction on the one hand, OR that it’s the only way to increase our chance of success at mitigating climate change).
Part of the reason for the disagreement may be that words like ‘optimism’ and ‘pessimism’ mean slightly different things to different people and in different contexts. Below, I list some distinct concepts that ‘optimism’ could refer to.
Toxic positivity
Optimism is most commonly associated with seeing the good in a situation, like a glass being half full. In practice, many behaviors we consider optimistic might be better described as toxic positivity.
