Thoughts

There is an extreme psychological burden to climate change. Much as the grievance of a loved one is a multi stepped, and often defensive process, so is the process of grieving the earth. While the traumatizing effects of climate change ring so loudly, that they sting the ears of the scientific community, there seems to be a general apathy of the masses. It seems, now more than ever, the physical sciences have come scrambling to the social sciences, asking how to zap the masses into productive behavior. The words that make sense in the scientific communities’ own heads seem to ripple past the cheeks of the  masses, barely causing a flinch or bat of the gaze away from their focus. Why is it that such a dichotomy of tone and character exists between the scientific community and the masses on the issue of climate change? This essay seeks to address the practical and psychological burdens and defenses that inhibit mass acceptance and productive behavior of climate change. This essa...

I want to thank you for your work. For your long and stressful hours fighting to represent the people in your towns and neighborhoods, and trying to make the world a safer and friendlier place for everyone. I know politics right now are extremely divisive. I know it’s hard to take a side that isn’t popular. And that’s why when there is courage to do so, it is all the greater. Recently we have had a dialogue in our country about people who are transgender, and which bathrooms they should use, and whether or not it’s the government’s right to enforce it one way or another. When I see the stories, and the conversations, I sense an underlying  frustration of trying to understand something that seems impossible. I remember choosing a research assignment in freshman year of high school. I chose sex reassignment surgery. I snickered in the library as I asked the librarians where to find resources. I kept thinking, “why on earth would someone do that to themselves?” It was so perp...

This video has been circulating social media lately, and I've seen nothing but praise for it. Which, I felt was odd, because , personally this video rubbed me the wrong way.  I figured it rubbed me the wrong way because:  1. I don't fit the mold of what people see in the millennial generation, so when I do a gut check and say 'is that me'? I answer back, no. 2. I'm defensive and so I cannot see my bad behavior for what it really is. 3. This guy is making an argument that is easy to pick apart and doesn't really hold up. So I decided to take a day, to sit with it, and watch it again with an open mind. Why am I defensive?  I realized that I am defensive. And I thought a little about why that is. I think a big reason I am defensive it is hard to disentangle negative stereotypes about your generation that are meant to help (i.e. this) , and negative stereotypes about your generation that are meant to harm. As a millennial who is also polit...

I want to share with you a quote I heard at a panel during Powershift. "The system is broken" The woman who was facilitating spoke. "Broken for us, or broken for them? It's not so broken for them" This was the response of a meek young coal miner from appalachia. Sometimes it is impossible to pinpoint what it is we mean by them. Them the Koch Brothers, them the fossil fuel companies, them the wasteful american consumers. While these definitions of them can be hard to pinpoint at times, I want to focus on a different form of 'them'. Them the coal miners forced into poverty wages, them the Chicago father trying to make a living at McDonalds, them the humans on this planet struggling to live in shifting ecologies and economies.  I had the privilege of sitting in on a panel to hear the voices of some of 'them' at Powershift this year. It was a panel on capitalism and climate injustice. The panel was composed of five guests: Nick Mullens, a 4th...