Dystopias? Those are so…. yesternow. What about “Solarpunk” and “Hopepunk”? Listen, I grew up with Reagan at the button. I’ve been pretty sure the world is in the shitter since I first shaved the sides of my head and donned some second-hand parade boots. Now you’re telling me there’s hope? Christ, I am old and out of touch.
The narratives we construct, the stories we tell ourselves must acknowledge that, while there’s a scientific consensus that the atmosphere is warming due to our fossil fuel emissions, many aspects and extents of climate change remain uncertain. Writing non-apocalyptic climate change narratives can make room, intellectually and emotionally, for our failures to act sooner. Some things will be lost; much already has been.
I want to say to my students: Even if it is already too late, we have no way yet of knowing it is, because I am afraid they will still give up.
