Europe currently experiences one of its hottest summers ever. In my home country, temperature records are broken on almost a daily basis now. I am worried about the climate disruption going on. And I’m not the only one. Increasingly I hear people around me experiencing the same.
In a discussion that revolves around how many degrees of warming we are surpassing, causes, solutions, how we can put this to a halt; one thing is structurally overlooked. Something that makes us human, too.
I used to love summers. As a little girl I ran around the neighbourhood with my friends for hours on end. Not a care in the world, watching butterflies and flowers spring to bloom. As a teenager I fondly remember grass tickling my body while lying on the lawn, hand in hand with my summer love. Watching the stars in the sky. All was well. I felt happy, hopeful. The future? Only brightness. I love this life.
Forethought. The capacity to envision all that the future might hold for us, and then actually go on and create or live this vision. Filled with hope and possibilities. It’s part of what makes us distinctly human. That’s beautiful.
And it’s exactly the reason why the risk of losing hope should not be overlooked. We never had all the answers. But in a climate debate where so much is focussed on the doom, the despair, the solutions that are just not good enough and the rising unpredictability of the climate; we are severely lacking on keeping hope alive, collectively. It is one of the biggest challenges coming up. Without hope, what’s there left to live for?
Will my child, her children, the other children around, be growing up in a world where we lose hope? Even worse, where hope could be lost? Not on my watch. I’m sad, angry, at times desperate for an instant solution to all of this. But I will make myself not lose hope.
We owe it to future generations to look for solutions, hey, to dedicate our LIVES to a solution to this mess. On top of all that, we should be bearers of hope. The storytellers. The forethinkers, the elders, the minstrels, the comedians. So our children, their children and all children around – will be able to envision a future filled with hope and possibilities, whatever they might be, wherever we are.