An audience of about 125 braved one of the coldest days of the winter to ponder two responses to climate change: hope and despair.
At the Soup and Hope event in Sage Chapel, Feb. 27, Lauren Chambliss, director of communications for the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future and a lecturer in the Department of Communication, and David Wolfe, professor of plant and soil ecology in the Department of Horticulture and chair of the Atkinson Center’s Climate Change Focus Group, provided a point-counterpoint overview of their shared passion for speaking out about the effects of climate change on the natural world.
“Given the recent climate trends, a winter like this one takes us by surprise, reminding us of how far from the old ‘normal’ we have come,” said Wolfe. More surprising to him has been the pace and impact of climate change in his lifetime and the persistent denial that climate change is occurring and is a direct result of human actions. But Wolfe finds hope in the “enduring mystery and wonder of the world around me.”
Chambliss said her work focuses on the effects of climate change already underway, contributing to poverty and hunger around the world and increasing drought, wildfires and sea levels. “Climate change is the most alarming symptom of what’s wrong with the human relationships with the planet we live on,” she said. For Chambliss, despair at humans’ continuing unwillingness to deal with climate change is an understandable response. “We cannot talk about hope without also talking about despair,” she said.
For both Chambliss and Wolfe, the emotional response of humans to nature provides them with the greatest hope – the hope that sharing that sense of wonder will touch a chord with others and “contribute in some way toward a better future for our species and the planet.”
Read the full Pawprint story, or watch a video of the presentation.
