The Surprising Benefit of Accepting that Climate Change Is Much Bigger Than Us

Freeing ourselves from the illusion of ever being a David to this Goliath can help us value the actions that are available to us

Photo by J W on Unsplash

As I write this, my youngest son is in British Columbia as part of a hotshot wildfire crew helping fight the 885 fires burning in Canada.

To be honest, I can’t fully describe what it feels like to have him on the frontlines of climate change.

I can say I am proud. I am scared. I am worried. And I am talking to myself a lot, talking myself into faith and confidence that he will be OK.

He is strong, smart, and capable, after all. He is also just one 19-year-old up against the forces of a clearly angry Mother Nature, one member of an international army of firefighters in Canada this summer.

But here’s the thing.

I’ve realized this is the dynamic we are all up against now, in ways big and small. We’re just simple human beings in a time of roaring climate change. In other words, there is an ocean of difference in scale between climate change and us.

Climate change is massive, complex, and almost incomprehensible. We can’t even fully see it let alone understand it. We just recognize it when it shows up as another wildfire, flood, or storm that has been supersized by the burning of fossil fuels.

As I consider this from my 5’6” frame, a body that gets tired at the end of the day, a mind that is all too willing to be distracted, a self that is only so temporarily here on this planet — well, it’s tempting to give up. To say what can I do? What can any of us do?

And yet I have learned that fully accepting that difference in scale is helpful. It opens a window to say not from a place of despair but from a place of realistic conviction: What can I do? What can all of us do?

There is so much, after all. Some of it is familiar—like reducing our oil and gas consumption, buying and investing in ways that support a healthy planet, engaging in political action to drive the smart climate policies we need, volunteering with resilience efforts in our community, and participating in healthy climate actions at work.

But there is also the business of tending to our emotions about life in a changing climate. Supporting a young person in a way that nurtures hope. Or simply being a sounding board for someone who or someplace that has been affected—physically, financially, or emotionally—by the growing realities of climate change.

All of this matters. It matters to us because doing something is better for our well-being than the alternative. It matters for others because modeling action inspires action. And it matters for life on earth because well-being begets well-being.