Sit and Do Nothing for the Planet In today’s highly polarized world, it is likely no secret that conversations about the environment have become political flashpoints—an urgent priority for some, aggressively resisted by others. This divide stifles meaningful dialogue and action, often trapping us in demoralizing cycles of manufactured conflict while the planet, and all life on it, continue to suffer.  More and more people are asking, “what can I actually do about climate change?” Others find themselves worrying that “it never feels like I’m doing enough to make a difference.” We, too, as environmental educators and researchers, can relate and empathize with this. We have spent years observing and reflecting, and then asking:  How do we teach and learn in an unraveling world? How do we live in these interconnected systems? How can we adapt, not just to climate change, but to epistemic changes, embracing multiple ways of knowing and learning?  After all, learning is much more than just accumulating facts or information. What we (the authors) have unlearned, with the need to reconsider …

As the old proverb goes, “It’s an ill bird that fouls its own nest.” From a god’s eye view, we’re pretty sick birds, spewing massive amounts of carbon into our atmosphere and dumping an endless stream of plastics into our oceans. Why is that? On first glance, the answer is obvious. We have an economic system organized around the endless pursuit of more, excess known technically as the profit motive. Always seeking more on a finite planet was never going to end well.  Given the profit motive’s centrality to global capitalism, it’s curious how rarely we discuss the motivations behind it. Interestingly, Karl Marx—the great critic of capitalism—didn’t have much to say about greed. For Marx, greed was an ugly human impulse that predated capitalism. The system, however, incentivized the impulse, throwing it out of proportion with our other drives. Change the system, and the problem falls away. This might be true, but the greed and corruption that helped sink many socialist regimes are cause for pause. Understanding the deeper motives behind the “more” motive …

In my decades working on environmental problems and social change, I was motivated by the hope that humanity would change everything in time to slow climate change and transition to a sustainable way of life. I even talked of it that way, without looking more closely at that idea of “hope.” What did I mean by that? Could I be motivated without such a hope? In my rush to achieve an impact in the world, I did not take the time to explore our shared cultural story about hope, despite being a part-time academic, where deeper inquiry is often expected. Eventually, evidence from the real world forced me to think again about hope and to ultimately free myself to live creatively in the face of societal disruption and collapse.1 I discovered there is a love beyond hope, a love which can guide active engagement in society without attachment to outcomes. Through that engagement, I met many people attempting to reduce harm and contribute to possibilities within our environmental predicament without ‘fairytales’ of success required to …