Love in the Time of Climate Crisis

That the leap-year 2020 will be enormously consequential - from paupers to billionaires and climate refugees to mansion dwellers - is clear even to those not blessed with 2020 vision. The climate crisis is here to stay. California's 'Paradise' has literally been burned to the ground. Brush fires in Australia are forcing laid-back Australians to flee to the sea. The earth has never been hotter, the drought never more punishing, wildlife never more threatened.

So how does love survive in this eco-apocalypse that shows no sign of abating and all signs of accelerating? 

True, hope is not a strategy but as long as we work toward a goal, and don't hope more than we work, there will be a future worth aspiring to. Many of us are perhaps obsessed with selfies, but there are far more selfless people, particularly among women and the young, who are bringing healthcare, education and hope to the marginalized and the ignored. Haroon Yasin in Pakistan, Priya Prakash in India, Luisa Bonin in Brazil, Nashin Mahtani in Indonesia and Alain Nteff in Cameroon are transforming societies through their transcendent activism. Never heard of them? Well, then, find out! They are only a click away.

Love thrives even in the darkest places. A single spark is all it takes, and suddenly despair surrenders to confidence and ignorance to enlightenment. We can expand our limited horizon to one that stretches all the way to infinity. Digital Dystopia taking over life? We can break free. Time for meaningful work vanishing because of absurd demands made on us worker-bees? We can cut loose. No time to listen to songs of trees, birds, the wind? Yes, there is, if we pause to rediscover the beauty of wild places blooming just beyond our doorsteps.Want to learn the true nature of time? Listen to the trees.

Singing male towhee - Photo by Hasan Z Rahim

Sapsucker - Photo by Hasan Z Rahim

Forget virtual connections. Stop waiting for ephemeral digital affirmations. Meet in cafes and parks. Walk the forgotten trails,  behold the restless, churning sea. Lift your eyes from the small screen to the many-hued sky above. Lose yourself in the starry, starry night to know that we are not alone, that we are more than the sum of our parts. The clever hopes may have expired from the low and dishonest decade we just left behind, and it may get even worse, but not if we act on our noble instincts - does Greta Thunberg ring a bell? - and fill even a single life with hope and love. Don't forget the November 2020 U.S. presidential election. We have the power to undo the wrongs and make things right.

New year's Eve - Capitola Beach, Santa Cruz County, CA  Photo by Hasan Z Rahim

The greatest tragedy of life is not finding one's calling. We can find ours if we only listen to our hearts. And we will, in 2020, as hope and love beckons.