Eco-despair hit me hard tonight, on the eve of beginning my official Environmental Science studies. I think that anyone who is concerned about what is happening to our earth and its inhabitants at times struggles with the hopelessness of our efforts to "save the world." Modern-day human society is by nature incompatible with, er, nature, is it not? After all, even if we tossed all our iPods and inflatable mattresses in the local landfill and went to live in cabins in the dwindling forests, we would be hard pressed to find the agricultural space to feed ourselves, the fuel to keep ourselves warm...there are just too damn many of us, no?
Depressing. This topic came up many times during my Master Naturalist classes last fall. Oddly, the hopelessness of it all was rather less overwhelming for that little while. Why? Action. I was taking action, weekly.
Stephen Covey's first habit from his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People comes to mind. Covey delineates two realms: Circle of Concern and Circle of Influence. According to his reasoning many, many problems fall within our Circle of Concern, while relatively few are in our Circle of Influence. Focus our efforts on those within our Circle of Influence, and get something of value done. Over time, our Circle of Influence grows and we can do more.
In my experience this is true. For me, action is the antidote to despair. When I'm feeling way too overwhelmed by the problems facing our planet, my options are 1. give up or 2. identify something I can do. It may not be the perfect thing, it won't fix all problems, but it's something. It helps. So that's what I do.
