大象传媒

I think about this  by the lovely  about once a fortnight because it introduced me to a simple concept I hadn鈥檛 known: interoception. Or, . It鈥檚 so obvious and yet so often missed, even among those of us (me!) who like to think we know how to breathe deeply and listen to our organs (hello there, spleen!). It鈥檚 a reminder that our body cues inform our climate blues.

I鈥檝e been feeling climate bummed these past few weeks. The initial momentum of the Biden super-hires abated, and then I read too many stories about climate commitments falling short鈥攆rom China鈥檚 anemic five-year goals to our very underwhelming Paris emissions reductions to the quarterly 鈥渉uge chunks of ice breaking off of things they should not break off of鈥� update. But is there any way to make absolute sense of macro climate moves on a specific day or week? Only to a small (warm) degree. The rest is … just my body guiding my brain.

And my body has been tired, overwhelmed by a year of lockdown and a fresh wave on the horizon, fatigued at the thought of not getting to see my family for another few months. I feel a tiny stab of pain in my hip when I run, and I forget about it the rest of the day, though it is still there, a low-level aggravation that I鈥檝e normalized. In other words, my body is feeling blue. And the blue shades my perception of everything around me.

Which is not to say that there aren鈥檛 objectively bad things happening (see: aforementioned ice break), but to remind myself that when I鈥檓 physically blue, I collect dour news like a misanthropic magpie, alighting upon the facts and figures that align with the negative narrative I鈥檓 fashioning. If I was feeling top o鈥� the world, I could just as easily grab onto shiny good news, such as India鈥檚 recent climate commitments or some  that is going to fix everything.

Of course, the climate truth of the day is always somewhere in between, with the same dominant narrative overarching: There is progress. There are setbacks. We need to be moving much faster. And we can do this. I just need to remind myself that this is the story, not the one I generate based on the blips of my body.

The positive side of this mind body reminder is it inspires more critical thought about everything: the China news is nuanced, that slight pain in my left hip needs attention, and I鈥檓 hungry and should probably go make a sandwich.

So how should we track out where we鈥檙e at with this whole global climate emergency thing?  sums it up expertly as usual:

The proper metric to judge the Biden administration鈥檚鈥攐r any country鈥檚鈥攃limate policies, is neither this year鈥檚 emissions, nor is it the net-zero decarbonization target three decades out, however important that might be as a long-term target. The real metric of climate success is the trajectory of emissions five to 10 years out. That is far enough to not be subject to the whims of annual variability. It is also close enough to be directly influenced by today鈥檚 policy choices. It is where 鈥渂uilding back better鈥� comes in, and where it is disheartening to see the world, by and large,  to the extent necessary.

THIS WEEK:

How are you feeling? How does your body inform your mind? Let me know!

LAST WEEK:

It鈥檚 been a few weeks so I have a huge collection of delightful feedback. Here鈥檚 this lovely display of cardboard hearts from Sabrina after .

And Kathryn sent some very good language tweaks to help make my climate signage entreaties more effective:

I wonder if instead of 鈥渢alk鈥� or 鈥渁sk鈥� you could phrase your invitation as more of a question, maybe? I haven鈥檛 come up with anything pithy enough for a button or mask yet, but, there was a postcard in my office (which I haven鈥檛 been in lately, or I鈥檇 look up the exact source) from a British museum dialogue event that I think said 鈥渄o you want to talk science?鈥� with all lowercase letters鈥攚hich also may seem less 鈥渢hreatening鈥� than 鈥渟houting鈥� in all caps 

 Or maybe 鈥渓et鈥檚 talk climate鈥� which isn鈥檛 a question but may be more inviting?

OTHER STUFF:

My latest comic for Yes! On how to bring nature into your life.

And if you (understandably) find the language around carbon offsets and labeling con-fu-sing鈥� on all the terms you need to know to slice through the greenwashing.

PEOPLE DANCING:

OMG I love Atsuko and her grandmother, and am .

https://twitter.com/AtsukoComedy/status/1370869094799478786

The end

Thanks much for reading. If you鈥檙e new here, I鈥檓 . I work on communicating the importance of good climate policy and carbon pricing by day, and this newsletter and my dance moves by night.

If you like MVP, you can support it by telling all your friends and frogs about it. Hit the 馃挌 below to let me know when the newsletter is on the right track. Send me a note when it鈥檚 not! I鈥檓 always open to new ideas, and I very much respect and value the fact that a few thousand people take the time to open this thing every week.

P.S. This is my newsletter for the week of March 19, 2021, published in partnership with 大象传媒 Media. You can sign up to get Minimum Viable Planet newsletter emailed directly to you at .