A Creative Climate

transforming our perspective

We’re living in a time of new suns. The world and its rhythms are changing because of our actions. The parameters of what’s possible are growing amorphous. Thousands of years of pattern recognition in the natural world by humans are now meaningless as we grasp what our global binge has cost. The patterns are gone. The summers are hotter, the rain water is unsafe,  the storms are more furious. Even without the constant din of the news, we all feel the difference. The bug splattered windshield from a long drive is a rare occurrence, the skies are empty of birds, everything is plastic and ephemeral. Climate anxiety, late-stage capitalism, and the pressures of living can make reality all too hard to look at. It’s easy to feel both shame and hopelessness. But this moment is a calling. We didn’t get here moment because we’re broken, greedy creatures. Not exactly, not all of us. We misunderstood the purpose of this planet; we centered ourselves in the narrative because we presumed humans to be the main characters. We now know better.

This isn’t a time to despair. Sure, we’ve ground down the environment slowly then all at once. But now we get to show how truly clever we are and fix our mess. To humble ourselves and do less. To decenter ourselves and ask where we can be of use. This moment is a calling.

“Only an ignoramus can imagine now that pollinating insects, migratory birds, and pelagic fish can depart our company and that we will survive because we know how to make tools. Only the misled can insist that heaven awaits the righteous while they watch the fires on Earth consume the only heaven we have ever known.” – Barry Lopez in Love in a Time of Terror

We can correct our course any time we choose. We’re constantly reshaping our societies, our industries, and our food systems. So why not for the betterment of the whole plant? Despair isn’t motivating but hope sure as fuck is. Let the doomsayers beat their drums- we need them too. The rest of us can imagine a world better than this. In her work Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, a marine biologist and co-founder of the Urban Ocean Lab, asks people to reframe their whole approach to climate collapse with a simple question and is injecting hope where it’s sorely needed. We’ve transformed this planet countless times and goddamnit we can do it again.

“It’s a hard time in so many ways. And so to think about trying to offer that question — what if we get it right? What if we charge ahead with all the climate solutions we already have? — what kind of future do we get? Show me that it’s worth it. Show me this is worth the effort. Show me examples of where this is already happening. Show me that there’s a place for me in the future, after all this change.”

- Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson in conversation with Krista Tippett

This week we’re not here to give you instructions on how to care, how to cook, or how to live in this world on fire. We’re here to remind you to give a shit because we can fix what we have broken. Start however you see fit. It’s gonna take all of us. This moment is a calling.

Worthwhile Reading:

• All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis Edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Katharine K. Wilkinson 

• Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World: Essays By Barry Lopez 

• “Rewilding the American West,” BioScience, 2022

• The Moth Snowstorm: Nature and Joy By Michael McCarthy 

• Lost Feast: Culinary Extinction and the Future of Food By Lenore Newman

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Thanks so much for joining us in this most earnest edition of The Broiler Room. Tomorrow, for our paying subscribers, we are sending out a recipe for our Sunset Limeade which doubles as an excellent margarita mix. Come sip the summer away with us.

We’ll be back next week with more hot takes and cool as fuck recipes. Can’t wait to see you then.

Michelle and Matt