From Angry Activist to Climate Optimist | Anne Therese Gennari | TEDxOneonta

Imagine you encounter a grizzly bear on your hike in Montana. In a fraction of a second, you're on full alert as your body's defense system kicks in. Heart pumping fast, eyes laser-focused on the big and fluffy but terrifying creature in front of you, adrenaline rushing out. Now, you'd probably do one of two things: you would either run as fast as you could, or you would stay completely still and pray the bear won't see you. What you wouldn't do is move towards the bear because that's just not that smart. You might bring out your phone and document the whole thing, but what can I say? That's what social media has done to us. Anyhow, this is how our brain is wired to respond to scary and overwhelming situations. We either run to the hills, if running provides a chance, or we freeze. We get paralyzed, unable to move or react, because the action in itself is what might get us killed. And that's a pretty smart mechanism our brains provide that we should be grateful for, because I'm sure it saved us more times than we know. However, it should also serve as a clear indicator that fear of overwhelming character very rarely leads to forward moving, positive action. And that is why it's so interesting to me that we're trying to spark climate action this very way. When we talk about climate change, we're technically saying, "Look at this grizzly bear, look at how scary it is. Now, don't you think it's your responsibility to fight it?" I mean, would you? No. You would try to avoid the bear at any cost, and that is what most of us are doing with climate change. We're avoiding it. As the signs of changing weather and stranger seasons get more and more evident, our ability to act actually gets weaker. So if you ever felt guilty you aren't acting more on climate change, give yourself a break. You're being asked to fight a grizzly bear, and I don't blame you for being smart enough to say, "Thank you, but no, I'm good." However, I can't help but wonder, how on earth do we turn this around? How do we help people move from feeling powerless and overwhelmed into a place of empowered action. I used to be an angry activist. This was me back in my early 20s. I'd actually asked a photographer to take this very photo of me because I wanted to really capture what I felt like on the inside. Fun girl, right? I was angry with the world, and I thought that I had to remain angry about all the things that were wrong, like plastic pollution, deforestation, and reckless consumerism. I thought that since anger had triggered my will to act, it was anger I had to keep coming back to. I also thought that in order to recruit allies, I had to make other people angry too. I thought if I only told them what I knew, surely they would act and feel the same way, and we could be angry about the world together. A few things I've learned from being an angry activist is that, first of all, it's not a great way of inspiring change because guess what? People don't like to be shamed, or to hang out with angry people for that matter, which I also realized. It's also not a very great way of living life. You get tired, you lose hope, and you end up running yourself dry with all that anxiety and despair running through your body. It took me breaking down, crying like I've never cried before, to realize this. It happened at my parents' house back in Sweden, one night after a dinner conversation with my brother. The angry activist had lost yet another battle, this time about car washing, of all things, and once again, I felt defeated and filled with despair. All I could feel was that no one else cares, that no one else gets it, and that trying to fight climate change is a tireless battle we'll never win. I'd been there many times before, this was definitely nothing new, but for some reason, this was the conversation that broke me. I guess my body just couldn't hold on to the fear and anger any longer, and as I found myself in my parents' guest room after dinner, I fell to the floor, completely powerless to my body's reactions, so I surrendered and I cried. I call this my climate optimist awakening because afterwards, when the tears stopped, only one thing came through to me: "You're here to be a climate optimist." And that was when my journey from an angry activist to a climate optimist began. And ever since that day, which is about 8 years ago now, I've been trying to figure out what being a climate optimist means. And I must say that today, I have a completely different view on this crisis. In fact, climate change makes me pretty excited, and I can't wait to tell you why. First of all, we have to recognize that we're missing a pretty important point here. We might think we're dealing with warming temperatures and melting ice sheets, and although that's true, we're definitely dealing with that, so don't get me wrong, it's only the cause and effect of climate change, which is caused by humans. And since this crisis we're facing is caused by us, we can only either do something about it or continue down the path we're on now. So that means that what we actually are dealing with are two things: humans and change. But here's where it gets tricky, because if there's one thing I've learned, it's that we're not very good with change, especially if someone else tells us what to do. If someone tells you not to eat the ice cream, you're definitely going to eat the ice cream, aren't you? Or maybe that's just me and my husband, but I'm telling you, if I want to keep that chocolate for myself, I better hide it somewhere good. I believe you can agree that we tend to be stubborn and that changing our ways is hard. And it gets even tougher in already difficult situations. You may have been ready to quit your job, but then the economy gets a little shaky, and you think to yourself, "I can probably stand the torture just for a little bit longer." Maybe you were finally ready to dump your lazy partner, but your mother gets sick, and it's kind of nice to have someone by your side. We simply like to hold on to things that are safe and familiar through hard and uncertain times. And it's easy to understand why. Back in the day, if a storm was approaching on the horizon, you wouldn't go venture out to explore new land. You would bring yourself and your family back inside your cave and stay safely tucked away until the storm had passed. This is a primitive imprinted code in us, which means we still act this way today. However, although climate change is the scariest storm we've ever faced, we don't have time for waiting it out, nor will this storm ever pass for that matter. It will only stall and continue to intensify, and we will want to be far away from here when it comes to that. Simply put, climate change isn't going anywhere, and we have to find the courage to choose change, to venture out in the search for something even better, right now. As we're looking this scary storm in the eye, we have to ignore our primitive instincts to retreat and instead say, "We're not safe here anymore." And if we only find the courage to go, maybe we'll find an even better world than what we know today. And that right there is what I figured out. We have to find the courage to choose change. And in order to do so, we must shift the narrative on climate change. We must begin telling ourselves a different story than the scary grizzly bear story we're telling ourselves today, so that we can act from courage and excitement, not fear. We have to act not just because we are afraid of what might happen if we don't, but because we are excited to find out what might happen if we do. So how do we do this? How do we find this courage? Well, I will give you 3 fundamental mindset shifts that will help you become a climate optimist today. First of all, the shame has got to go. We have to stop shaming and pointing fingers, both on ourselves and on others, Because if we don't, we will only be stuck pointing out how bad things are right now, when what we ought to be doing is explore new ways of life and find the courage to act on that change. This means that you should drop the belief that it's your responsibility to fix climate change, because, quite frankly, it's not entirely your fault. You were born into a world that is designed to fuel climate change, and no matter how hard you try, you're leaving a negative footprint. So if you keep telling yourself it's your responsibility to fix climate change, a pretty big responsibility if I may say so, you're soon going to be both overwhelmed and exhausted. And what happens then? You will want to give up. Trust me, I've been there way too many times. But that doesn't mean that we don't need change. We need change bigger and faster than we can possibly imagine. And this brings me to my second point, which is that we have to recognize the importance of the times we're living through. We have the opportunity to create history right now. You get to make history in your lifetime. We're undergoing the biggest shift humanity has ever gone through, and although that can seem scary, it's also pretty damn exciting when you think about it. It means that every single one of us have the opportunity to participate in this shift, and create a world more beautiful than anything we've seen today. So although it may not be your responsibility to fix climate change, you still have this beautiful opportunity to enact change. And when you recognize this, when you move from responsibility to opportunity, you get to act from a place of curiosity and excitement, a place where creativity grows, where minds expand, and where you get to take empowered action towards the world you want to believe in. And this leads me to my third and last point, which is optimism. To be a climate optimist, after all, you do need optimism. And if there's one thing I've learned on my journey, it's that we may not understand just how important optimism is. Optimism allows us to believe in something better, which in itself plants the courage to try new things. And that courage is also what will enhance our chances to get there significantly. Studies have shown that optimistic people are 40% more likely to get a promotion than their pessimistic counterparts. If optimism enhances our chances by 40%, how is it not the most important thing that we have in our toolkit? And think about it: if we don't think a climate-just future is possible, how will we make the choices now to manifest one? However, optimism is tricky. You can't just choose to be an optimist and hope that the world will continue to give you reasons to believe in better days. If you do, there will be days, quite frequent ones to be honest, when the world is filled with more negativity than good. So, if you're relying on outside sources to fuel your optimism, you might get in trouble pretty soon. That is why, in order to remain an optimist, you have to fuel and nurture that optimism for yourself. You have to become what I call an optimist in action. You're not just sitting on the sidelines hoping for things to turn out. You're reminding yourself day after day that you have the opportunity to participate in this shift. And as you show up for that change with curiosity, courage, and excitement, you're helping a better world take shape. When I say all of us have the opportunity to participate, I mean it. You may not be a climate scientist or an engineer or a politician, but you are alive today. And that means that you have an important part to play. Right now, it could be starting a compost at home, phasing out single-use plastics, or switching to an electric car. It could be something as simple as having conversations about climate change with your friends and neighbors so that we can normalize talking about this. You might think that your seemingly small actions don't matter, but they will matter for you. And when you activate this change within yourself, you will start to see the possibilities in the world around you as well. Not only that, but your actions, aside from the fact that they obviously compound over time, break norms and shift culture. It doesn't stop with you because it never stops with you, and that is what we must trust and begin to recognize. Let me give you a quick example. When I first moved to New York, I was an intern in Midtown Manhattan, and in no time, I was introduced to the despair this disposable culture of a busy New York lifestyle, with people ordering coffee and lunch to go, like it was some sport. And every day, I would see that piles of containers just continued to build up in the trash cans, and it honestly freaked me out. So I decided to do what I could and began bringing my own fork. At first, people thought this was— different. But I kept bringing my own fork because it just made me feel better, and slowly but surely, people around me started to do the same. And I'm sure as they brought out their forks in other public settings, people around them began questioning this behavior as well. According to National Geographic, about 100 million plastic utensils are used in the United States every single day. Let that number sink in for a second. 100 million. Of course, this means that whatever I can eliminate is only a drop in the bucket, But what if all of us started to do the same? What if all of us began shifting norms and planting seeds of awareness everywhere we go? How fast can those rings on the water spread? When I was younger, my mother would often tell me, "Honey, you can't carry the world on your shoulders." She was right. I used to believe I could change the world, but I know better now. I can't change the world, but I can change my world. And when I begin to change my world, the worlds of the people around me will begin to shift as well, with ripple effects I can't even imagine. And this storm called climate change will only continue to get scarier as it moves closer. Many of us would want to do what we always have done and retreat and hold back. But that is why we need bold and courageous leaders, People who understand that challenging the status quo and paving the way for a new world will be scary and also a bit inconvenient at times. It might mean that you bring your own water bottle from home instead of giving in to the convenience of buying a plastic bottle on the go. It could mean questioning your habits to find new, less carbon-intensive ways, which we know is hard because change is never easy. But as you continue on this path, as you recognize the greatness of the times we're living through, You can be that leader others look up to, someone who was crazy enough to venture out in the storm, someone who doesn't just have the courage to do so, but who seems to have a pretty good time along the way too. Because when you activate this change within yourself, you stimulate that bold and positive energy in the world around you, and that is how, together, we will change the world. I think it goes without saying that I believe we can get this right. And that I've come a long way from the angry activist I used to be. Does that mean I never worry? Of course not. There are days when I'm terrified, to tell you the truth, and I wonder if we'll ever be able to figure this out. But that's okay, because I'm allowed to be worried and to not have all the answers, and so are you. To be a climate optimist is not to be sure everything is going to work out. It's not about knowing every step of the way. It's about recognizing the times we're living through and realizing that since the future truly is up to us, we have nothing to lose in giving it all we've got. It's time to get excited about climate change. It's time to recognize it actually provides an opportunity to think again and a right to listen to those tiny voices inside us that whisper, "What if?" What if we kept some room in our hearts for the unimaginable? What if we believed the future could be even better than anything we know today? What if we finally found the courage to choose change? What then is actually possible? We must understand that fear will never lead to long-term sustainable change, and therefore, it's about time we start telling a different story. We must shift the narrative on climate change so that we can act from courage and excitement, not fear. And in about 10 seconds, I want you to take out your phone and write down the one thing I want you to remind yourself of every single day. I want you to write down, "I have the opportunity to participate in the shift towards a better world." "I have the opportunity to participate in the shift towards a better world." Thank you.