The right degree of optimism
© Getty / Capgemini
I was lucky enough to be involved in the publication of “Social intelligence for climate action”, a report co-published by Capgemini, Dassault Systèmes & Bloom social analytics agency about the global social conversation on climate change. The topic of optimism — or lack thereof — came up…
This report — that I highly suggest you read, in case that wasn’t clear enough from the start — specifically focuses on the key obstacles to climate action as perceived by global social media users over a period of 8 months in 2022. Ultimately, 5 such obstacles are identified, inspired in part by a Cambridge model entitled “Discourses of climate delay”, another interesting read. Among those 5, I found 2 to be particularly interesting and directly interconnected: disconnected optimism & hopelessness:
Disconnected optimism relates to overly optimistic statements made by brands or individuals, such as stating that some “miracle climate cure” is underway, thus inducing complacency and/or a feeling that greenwashing may be at play;
Hopelessness relates to the eco-anxiety phenomenon, which the study found to be a growing concern (especially in the US) and which mechanically triggers apathy: if we’re all doomed, why should we care?
These two extreme positions are important because they are both dangerous, in their respective way. Both foster counter-productive behaviors towards climate action, by favoring inaction and/or generally contributing to a negative environment. That being said, what is the right amount of optimism?
As is the case with most things, the answer lies somewhere in the middle. We should definitely incorporate optimism as a foundational building block in everything we do as a society, let alone facing a threat as big as the climate crisis. Things can be done, there is hope. As Barack Obama, “Mr. Hope”, recently noted in an interview with Hasan Minhaj, the difference between a 2°C or 2,5°C rise in average temperatures could mean that hundreds of millions of people get spared — and that is a fight definitely worth fighting for.
However, we should not assume that “solving climate change” will be easy — or actually possible. Indeed, we should not expect that a magical solution will show up, that some new technology will revolutionize our daily lives to the extent that the climate issue is all but fixed. In actuality, this decidedly global issue takes and will take an enormous amount of effort from all of us, both at individual and collective levels. And that was also Obama’s point: let us keep fighting the good fight, because everybody’s efforts will matter.
In short, when addressing the climate crisis, one should be optimistic about the prospect of improving the situation — within reason: it will take effort and we may never fully achieve it. The point is, though, that action is worth it…