Today two members from our group interviewed Sanjay Khanna, a journalist for news outlets such as Huffington Post. This is the second time that I have had a conversation with Sanjay, and both times I have been left in a deep state of thought. Sanjay’s focus is on promoting a message that climate change will “require us to become more psychologically resiliant.” As changes in climate (especially in the most vulnerable regions of the world) result in increased despair and desperation, we must maintain our humanity and inner strength. We should not become overwhelmed by our despair, for we should realize that there are limits to human agency. We should work with communities and organizations to develop a societal response to the climate change problem that is actually proportionate to the size of the problem. Compassion and love should guide us through these difficult times.
I asked Sanjay, as students interested in climate change, what should we do to help spread this message? He responded that we should:
- Increase individual inner strength
- Think about the well-being of your friends
- Balance out your social networks
- Understand that the emotions of your friends are the most important things
In the attempt to mitigate complex problems such as global climate change, sometimes it is the simple things in life, like inner strength and friendship that will help guide us.
