They say write what you know. Well, you guys, I’m sure obsessed with climate change. Thanks to a class I took for authors, I’m also mildly obsessed with the Clifton Strengths test. My number one strength is futurist. It means I’m super into the woo-woo manifesting stuff, and it means I am really good at thinking about and imagining the future. It also means I’m prone to anxiety. Fun.
And guys, I have some bad news. The future is looking a little bit scary. Actually, a lot scary. The day my son was born, something turned on in my brain, and I realized my number one job in life was to keep him alive. (It had been part of my postpartum anxiety, but I digress). The birth made me a one-issue voter: my son’s future. And one big honking threat to his future is all the ice caps melting and the planet turning into a waterlogged hellscape.
IS CLIMATE CHANGE A POLITICAL ISSUE?
In my opinion? No. It’s basic science. We are pumping unprecedented amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere while cutting down trees and reducing oxygen sources. It is causing a basic chemical reaction that creates heat and messes with everything. I don’t care what you’re favorite politician/podcaster/blogger told you, it’s science. And it’s happening literally before our eyes. If people (with obvious personal agendas) have to invent nonsense about space lasers and people controlling the weather to explain it, that’s because it’s super duper obvious. Like painfully obvious. Last summer was the hottest summer ever. This summer was the hottest summer ever. Yes, you can literally watch the ice caps melting before your eyes. Yes, that is a problem.
BUT THEN WHY DO PEOPLE SAY IT’S NOT REAL?
The same reason politicians/corporations always lie. Money. How long did cigarette companies, and the politicians they paid off, say they didn’t cause cancer when they absolutely knew it did? Decades. How long have oil companies, pumping all the CO2 into the air, been lying about it not causing climate change? Centuries.
I remember my uncle tried to convince me that the scientists made up climate change because of money. Yes, all those rich scientists who get lots of money for agreeing on an obvious scientific fact get money, how exactly? Whereas the oil companies make billions of dollars a year. Hmmm, which group is lying? Which one has a financial stake in stopping governments from acknowledging and curbing CO2? Which one donates millions of dollars to US politicians every year?
IT’S VERY PERSONAL TO ME
Like the character in my first book, my childhood home burned to the ground in a massive wildfire. My parents’ former home was built by my great-grandfather. It stood there untouched for over eighty years. The fire department never even slowed the fire down. It only stopped once it hit the ocean. And no, I’m not talking about the mega fires that burned down the Palisades and Eaton. This one was a few years before those. The wildfire that burned my childhood home happened at the end of November. The Eaton and Palisades fires were in January. The middle of winter! Yes, Southern California has had wildfires for many years, but in the middle of winter? That’s new.
EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY (YES I’M AN OPTIMIST)
When my editor read my first book, her first response was how wonderfully optimistic the book was, despite my book being about a very negative, upsetting subject, My books are fiction, of course, (even though climate change is very much not), but as I’ve decided to use my author career as a coping mechanism, my books have happy endings that include mostly realistic ways that help fight climate change. The people, locations, and plot are entirely fictional. But the green technology mentioned is based on real technological advancements. Yes, people are building carbon-capturing vacuums and electric jets, and yes, knowing this helps me sleep at night.
I really do believe a solution is coming. Around the 1900s, big cities around the world had a giant poo problem, horse poo specifically. There were so many horse-drawn carriages that the manure was overwhelming cities like New York and London. Government officials even had a big meeting to discuss solutions, and came up with nothing. They were like, I guess we’ll all just drown in horse shit. (I’m paraphrasing). Then boom, the car was invented, and the problem was instantly solved. Of course, gas-powered cars are now contributing massively to climate change, but that’s not the point I’m making. The point is, all it took was one new invention to fix a massive, seemingly unsolvable problem.
So that’s what I’m hoping for now. That technology will get us out of the mess it created. And that’s what happens in my books. And the more people who visualize it and imagine it happening, the more likely it will happen (according to my futurist self, anyway). So, beyond recycling, composting, putting solar panels on my roof, driving an electric car, donating to green nonprofits, voting for various props and politicians that claim to help fight climate change, and other small efforts, imagining and writing heroes and heroines fighting to save the human race is how I’m personally trying to make a difference. And if I manage to make a profit on my writing at some point, I will definitely be increasing my donations.