I recently had Shabbat dinner with old friends. We sat outside, practiced physical distancing and brought our own food. At one point, because I had been awake late the night before waiting for bats to emerge from my bat-house, I was too tired to remember to breathe before I responded. The question was, “Do I feel optimistic?” I responded immediately saying that, no, I’m not optimistic. As I thought over that response when I got home, it occurred to me that I responded too quickly. What was foremost in my mind at that moment was that while we are all preoccupied with the current coronavirus pandemic, other effects of climate change are combining with the pandemic, making our prospects for the future look even worse. In the UK, because of a heatwave, thousands flocked to beaches in close contact with many others. At the same time, this heat wave extended all the way to the Arctic Circle where people in Siberia we’re having to block the sun from their windows because it was so hot with temperatures reaching 100˚ Fahrenheit inside the Arctic Circle. The tundra was burning due to the heat and dryness, releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Several of the world’s major countries, including the United States, Russia, and parts of South America are experiencing denial on the part of their political leaderships, further intensifying the outbreaks of the virus. And so I responded by saying that I was not optimistic.
But that is not the whole truth. There are also many encouraging signs: countries and jurisdictions that have successfully flattened the pandemic curve, the increasing realization that climate change and social injustice are intimately related to the pandemic, and the hope that Trump’s falling poll numbers point to the possibility of a major change in the political landscape of the United States.
Am I optimistic? No. Does that mean I’m pessimistic? Also, no. What is closer to the truth is that my event horizon is not long enough for me to be either pessimistic or optimistic. But does that mean that I have no hope? Also, no. It is possible that the damage being intensified by poor leadership can’t be contained long enough to allow for real changes to take root in many places around the world. At the same time, it is also possible that enough of us will learn to think of our individual selves as being part of the whole and to act from that awareness before it is too late. And I will continue to do whatever I can, in the place where I find myself, to advance that hope and to pray for its realization even though it is likely that I will not be around to see whether or not that hope becomes fulfilled.
Daniel
PS: for those who remember my little maple tree from a few weeks ago here is how it looked a week ago.
