I came across an article by Professor Jim Bendell in which he critiques the mainstream narrative on climate change.  He argues that this narrative serves to maintain the status quo by promoting a false sense of hope and obedience. This encourages the public to trust in authorities and unproven technologies, while dismissing people who challenge the system as cynical or counter-productive.

Bendell talks about the moral undertone of this narrative. Hope is framed as a duty. People who fail to stay hopeful are seen in a negative frame of light. Influential individuals and the media has a role to play in creating this problem, thanks to their approach of cherry-picking information that focuses on health, often at the expense of diving deeper into psychological and social insights.

So what’s the solution? Stop clinging to these “tired hopes.” Instead, what’s needed in a more profound engagement with reality and humanity. Bendell argues for a resilient activist approach that focuses on contributing to society and cherishing nature without relying on the illusion of fixing the environmental crisis. This seems like a pragmatic approach, although for me, I feel that it’s lacking a bit on the optimism front. Why can’t we be resilient activists who contribute to society, cherish nature AND invest thinking, energy and money into ways to tackle and yes, perhaps even reverse, the environmental crisis?

I don’t feel that these things are mutually exclusive.

Bendell talks about Reverend Michael Dowd, and his approach that involves gaining a deeper understanding or reality, focusing on humanity’s capacity for love and devotion, and a radical acceptance of where we are opposed to a material hope for a better future. I like this idea, however I am a bit more cynical about humanity’s capacity for love and devotion. I am upbeat about people and their potential to do incredible things and at the same time, I am mindful that we regularly do terrible things to each other. Why should we be hopeful about humanity’s potential for love and devotion, but not hopeful about getting out of our sustainability messes? Personally, I think that the two go hand in hand. So again, let’s believe in the power of people, let’s have more reality and radical acceptance AND let’s allow hope to thrive and plant seeds.

Really interesting and thought-provoking article. Read it here and listen to the interview between Bendell and Dowd here.