The Power of Hope

Why we must stay hopeful even if the outlook is grim

I, like many of you, have often felt stressed about the future of the climate. I have felt that nothing I can do will make a difference and that we are doomed no matter what. But, the truth is, there is hope for us. And we can do things that will make a difference.

I recently was reminded of a study where a group of potential donors was told a story about a starving young girl in an attempt to convince them to donate to the cause. A portion of these people were also told that there were millions of other starving people. You may think that these people would be more likely to donate since they would understand the scale of the problem, however, the results indicated the opposite. It was determined that the extra statistic made people feel that their donation would not really make a difference.

This same principle can be applied to climate change. In order to reduce our impact on the environment, we need people to change parts of their lifestyles. There are a variety of factors that hold people back from making these lifestyle changes, one of which is a lack of hope. This is because if people do not believe that their actions will make a difference, they will not be motivated to make sacrifices, no matter how small, to help the environment.

How do we get people to be more hopeful?

Do not over-share tragic statistics. I do not want to discount the value of statistics. They are helpful in helping us understand where we are, and how far we have to go, in the fight against climate change. However, when people hear only about how big of a problem climate change is, tragic statistics are extremely overwhelming.

Talk more about the good things that ARE being done. We often focus so much on what the government and large corporations are NOT doing to protect the climate. If we instead shift the focus to all of the solutions that are being developed, people will have a greater sense of hope that we can solve climate change. Additionally, when there is a greater awareness of the solutions we do have, people are more likely to actually put those solutions to use.

Increase awareness of the small lifestyle changes that will help the climate. Many people get overwhelmed when they hear that so many things they use, from their cars all the way down to their toothbrushes, can have a negative impact on the environment. By making people aware of small lifestyle changes that they can make to reduce their impact on the environment, they can be more hopeful that they will not have to change their whole lifestyle to reduce their impact on the environment.