Okay, I was interested in this enough to find out that I can scroll through in the app, and I found the relevant section.
At around 18 min remaining (that's how IG counts time apparently) someone asks how she deals with climate despondency, and she replies:
I am a big believer in... how do I put this? Not just climate optimism, but I'll call it -- well, I won't call it, this is already a cultural term, -- like, Solarpunk. I think that science fiction plays a really important cultural role, because the easiest thing to imagine is the collapse of society. You ever notice that it's way easier to imagine everything going to hell than it is things working out and getting better?
I think that's where science fiction plays a role, because we have to re-imagine -- here's the thing: people are reactive, and the challenges that the climate crisis presents to us are going to require a reorganization of a lot of parts of our society, and a lot of people don't like to be proactive, and they'd like to walk with a cardboard box on their head until they reach a wall, and the world stops them. And instead of us just consume-consume-consume guzzle-guzzle-guzzle exploit-exploit-exploit work ourselves to death... grind together, till we drop .... instead of doing that, which is how our government and politics usually operates, what if we just proactively tried to change before the earth makes this current way of being unsustainable? And if we make these proactive investments now -- and there's so many people doing such incredible work, whether it's regenerative agriculture, or whether it's passive architecture, or it's fusion energy research -- there's so many people that are building a better world, and it's not that it doesn't exist, it's here. And so I don't ascribe climate to doom because it serves no purpose. It only hurts, it only slows us down, it serves no need, it doesn't help us get to a better place, and it's profoundly harmful on an individual level.
Cynicism in general leads you down a dark path. I get it, and have felt that way, But I never felt better than when I decided to check in my cynicism at the door and at least try. And I'd like to at least go down trying rather than going down passively accepting having no agency in the world.
So when it comes to climate optimism, I definitely think that if you look into things like solarpunk art, and you'll see depictions of what a better future looks like... I do think we're going to have to make some big changes.I don't think this mindless consumption is good for anyone.
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Let's say you're on the left... a lot of people take these positions because they think it's morally right. But we're getting to the point where it's not just about morals.. it's not going to be an argument. Our systems are not sustainable, and I don't mean that in the buzzword way, I mean that they are going to collapse. And certain things collapsing doesn't mean doom: they mean we need to make space for a better day. Some things don't need to be saved.
... [But] there are some things that need to be nurtured. So if you look into solarpunk, and what that looks like... it means that we need to change our food system... factory farming ... health
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There are some things that are going to have to change. I don't think that change is going to be for the worse. I think if we're all engaged and give a damn, I think those things are going to change for the better.