Final Thoughts

 ​Final Thoughts: 

(From an email I wrote to Tyrone from Murray Rankin's office on August 20th, 2019) 

The climate crisis speaks to everything it means to be human, which is to say, part of nature. It's undoubtedly a crisis, but it's also an opportunity. I think if we can detach the 21st-century lens of "economy, policy, and linear problem solving" from it and take a more nuanced view of climate change, more meaning will reveal itself, and with it solutions. Nothing in nature is ever made with built-in straight lines or PowerPoint presentations. Rivers and mountains all function perfectly, but the topography is a bit more wibbly-wobbly. The problem isn't as clear cut as carbon emissions. I believe it runs a lot deeper into our cultures' fundamental disconnect with nature and the attitudes society at large has with concepts like the "individual vs. the network." We're very focused on the pursuit of individual happiness, but fail to recognize our wellbeing has a positive effect on the entire social network. We're so busy on our Netflix, as you say, we don't even realize we're part of a massive network. The argument "Why reduce our emissions if China isn't doing it?" has the same narrow-minded basis. In nature, everything is a network. There are no borders, yet the arctic air flows affect the temperature in the rainforest. Everything works together.