“[Rachel Carson] wanted her readers to take warning and take action, not just revert to contemplating (with either pleasure or depression) the inevitable end of life.” And No Birds Sing: Rhetorical Analyses of Silent Spring, ed. Craig Waddell
“There’s no ‘we’re fucked’, it will get better or it will get worse.” Lovett or Leave It Podcast
"Despair is paralysis. It robs us of agency. It blinds us to our own power and the power of the earth. Environmental despair is a poison every bit as destructive as the methylated mercury in the bottom of Onondaga Lake. But how can we submit to despair while the land is saying "Help"? Restoration is a powerful antidote to despair. Restoration offers concrete means by which humans can once again enter into positive, creative relationship with the more-than-human world, meeting responsibilities that are simultaneously material and spiritual. It's not enough to grieve. It's not enough to just stop doing bad things." Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer
“Talking about it makes it seem like giving up might be the cool thing to do, and it’s definitely not. It’s a betrayal of the future. It’s a betrayal of the past too! It’s also a betrayal of the present. Don’t give up! We are only past saving when we believe we are past saving.” youtube video “Is It All Hopeless?”, Hank Green
“If Carson had given over totally to apocalyptic rhetoric, she would have forsaken her scientific outlook on life. There may be no completely happy endings in the master narrative of scientific research, but neither is there a scene of total destruction. There are, as in tragedy, the signs of rebirth and continuance. The work continues, the search goes on.” And No Birds Sing: Rhetorical Analyses of Silent Spring, ed. Craig Waddell
"We could take the path of fear and despair. We could document every scary scene of ecological destruction and never run out of material for a Haunted Hayride of environmental disasters, constructing a shocking nightmare tableaux of environmental tragedies, in rooms carved from a monoculture of invasive plants, on the shore of the most chemically contaminated lake in the United States. […] What could such a vision create other than woe and tears? Joanna Macy writes that until we can grieve for our planet we cannot love it--grieving is a sign of spiritual health. But it is not enough to weep for our lost landscapes; we have to put our hands in the earth to make ourselves whole again. Even a wounded world is feeding us. Even a wounded world holds us, giving us moments of wonder and joy. I choose joy over despair. Not because I have my head in the sand, but because joy is what the earth gives me daily and I must return the gift.” Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer
“We need all hands on deck, and there’s a lot of deck.” Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg
“Say these words when you lie down and when you rise up,
when you go out and when you return. In times of mourning
and in times of joy. Inscribe them on your doorposts,
embroider them on your garments, tattoo them on your shoulders,
teach them to your children, your neighbors, your enemies,
recite them in your sleep, here in the cruel shadow of empire:
Another world is possible.” “V’ahafta”, Aurora Levin Morales
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