Hope

We are living at a time when we are facing multiple overlapping ecological, political and economic crises. Climate change especially has the potential to wreak havoc with both human civilization and natural ecosystems. There is so much bad news that it is easy to lose hope. But we need hope – and not a naive Pollyanna-ish hope that things will just turn out OK. Instead we need a determined, resolute hope that actively seeks solutions and calls people to their highest potential.

A growing number of people believe we face extinction as a species and so are driven to despair. If warming reaches the upper ends of likely projections, extinction is certainly a possibility. But that is no reason to give up yet. There is still every reason to do all that we can to ensure that the path we take is the best path possible. That same approach applies to other issues as well, such as biodiversity loss, economic crises, poverty, indigenous dispossession, conflict, domestic violence and so on.

Despair and giving up is never the best outcome. There is always something we can do to try to make things better than they would otherwise have been. Children especially need adults to hold their nerve and to choose to hope, not to throw their hands up in despair. We owe it to the world’s children to do all we can to turn the dream of hope into the reality of a sustainable, just and prosperous future for all.