Tiny Ecology Entry #4
Photo Credit: Lynnette Mammino
One of the things I have enjoyed so deeply about my sit-spot visits, whether from my front window or sitting out under the plum tree in the elements with my more-than-human relatives, is watching the hummingbirds. One particular species, Anna’s Hummingbird, lives here year-round, without migrating south as others from their family, Trochilidae, do (like Rufous Hummingbird). I have watched in appreciation of this tiny bird’s tenacity, spunk, and fortitude to stick it out here over the winter, in the cold, rainy and snowy months when food supplies are low. They have inspired me to think about hope.
In the face of increasingly dire future climate projections, climate-related disasters unfolding in the present, and a deepening of our understanding and reckoning with the socio-economic structures (e.g., colonialism) from our history that the present is built upon, what hope can we find and hang onto as the going gets tougher? The anatomy of “hope” I mean here, is not one of unchecked optimism, so sure that everything will work out just fine no matter what; rather it is gathering the courage to have a really good look at the evidence and see what is happening, even the really terrifying parts, and with eyes wide open, also look for the good…the opportunities beyond the wreckage. It is shifting the narrative toward stories that acknowledge the problem of climate change, while at the same time, focusing on the work toward solutions and building strong, resilient, self-sustaining communities based on a foundation of kindness (Hull, 2019; Huggins, Skuliski & Gifford, 2020).
Radical hope is based squarely within the plausible futures we face given the GHG emissions we have historically emitted and continue to emit into the atmosphere – it is not a shortcut to some unattainable utopia and does not require it (Hull, 2019). This is hopepunk: the idea that we can live and behave the way we know we should, even when the future is uncertain and we know the severity of the climate issues confronting us. It is taking the punk DIY ethic to transformative change through social disruption, both as an individual and collective act of resistance against the status quo around fear, shame, and guilt-based messages prevalent in communication and conversation related to climate change. It is hope as a motivating force to inspire people to act positively, rather than just in opposition to something else. (Hull, 2019; Diem, 2020; Huggins, Skuliski & Gifford, 2020).
“Be the change you wish to see in the world”.
– quote often attributed to Ghandi
We need to build upon the frameworks of the past and present, taking what is working well and replicating that, while leaving behind what is no longer serving us. Good things should be copied (Huggins, Skuliski & Gifford, 2020). When we can actually see the things that are working well, then we don’t have to start at square one every single time. This is taking a design-thinking approach to climate action, iterating, prototyping, and testing, then sharing with other communities to test and adapt solutions in their own places and spaces. Narratives can be framed around what has already been done, what is currently being done, and what we can do next as individuals, communities, and as a society.
Framing the climate crisis through a lens of hope speaks to our human need for connection and belonging (Diem, 2020). Hope is a self-perpetuating cycle, just as much as despair is. The more hope-inspired things we do together, the more stories we tell that are hopeful, the more we will see the outcome of those actions, which can, in turn, make us more hopeful. When we do something collectively, in community, it helps us tap into our capacity to act with empathy, kindness, and caring (Hull, 2019). I’ve often thought that if there were a silver bullet solution to the world’s problems, it would include a mass culture shift with a curriculum for humans to learn how to become better humans, to enhance our human capacity for empathy, and level up our ability to deal with relational conflict intelligently.
So where could that begin? What societies could we model after? Where might we look for good things that already exist that we could replicate? Indigenous ways of knowing, wisdom, and worldview would be a good start. No need to start at square one. kQwa’st’not Charlene George emphasizes that in the context of embracing change and building a hopeful future, we need to look inward first (Huggins, Skuliski & Gifford, 2020).
“The biggest part of being a warrior is looking at your own self“.
kQwa’st’not Charlene George
We need to learn to see ourselves as human beings as one part of a much larger, more complex whole (Huggins, Skuliski & Gifford, 2020). We need to see ourselves in relation to the rest of nature, not above it, separate and in control. We need to harness our collective ingenuity and use it for good, to help us move forward with more grace and harmony as a species, in service to the land, water, and more than human relatives upon whom we all rely for our survival. We should take the teachings of the hummingbird in winter, with its tenacity, spunk, and fortitude, to do what we know we must in order to push forward and find the opportunities to thrive into the future, against all odds.
“Let everything happen to you.
– Rainer Maria Rilke
Beauty and terror.
Just keep going.
No feeling is final.”
#hopepunk
References
Diem, R. (2020). Hopepunk and the new science of stress. TOR. https://www.tor.com/2020/03/02/hopepunk-and-the-new-science-of-stress/
Huggins, A., Skuliski, M. & Gifford, R. (2020, May 20). Hope Punk. (Chapter 1). In Scales of change. Future ecologies. https://www.futureecologies.net/dragons#ch1
Hull, A. (2019). Hopepunk and solarpunk: On climate narratives that go beyond the apocalypse. LitHub. https://lithub.com/hopepunk-and-solarpunk-on-climate-narratives-that-go-beyond-the-apocalypse/
Addendum
While I did not directly reference these in my post, the following readings influenced my own thinking and the way I addressed some of the topics in my post.
Kimmerer, R. W. (2014). “Returning the Gift.” Center for Humans and Nature. https://www.humansandnature.org/returning-the-gift-article-177.php
Kimmerer, R. W. (2017). Speaking of nature: Finding language that affirms our kinship with the natural world. Orion Magazine. https://orionmagazine.org/article/speaking-of-nature/
This is a beautifully written blog and instills the emotions and evidence to support the ideas of ‘radical hope.’ When we are living in a radical time – in which many of us have normalized a world in crisis but it is in fact a radical time – we need radical hope. Falling into despair, a sense of hopelessness and benign oversight of our current situation is the easy thing to do. But actively working towards a mental space of hope is radical. So I really appreciate the way you frame hope in this way, as a critical and eye-opening kind of hope that looks at the world in wreckage and still has the audacity to find beauty and possibility in it all. Thank you for your work!
Leah,
You had me at Anna’s hummingbirds as avatars of hopepunk! These wonderful little birds and their aggressive chattering always remind me of where I am when I see them, which fortunately is often. The first time I caught sight of the red of one of the males, when he paused on a blackberry bramble to consider me, I actually gasped when the light caught those prismatic feathers!
Your sense that radical hope comes with the responsibility of self-inquiry is compelling, and one that I think a lot of organizations are working on. You might look at the work of the 8 Shields Institute as one such example (though I think they are on pause at the moment).
Thanks!
Shandell