Climate Change Care

“And if ever, by some unlucky chance, anything unpleasant should somehow happen, why, there’s always soma to give you a holiday from the facts. And there’s always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training.”
Aldous Huxley – Brave New World

Many cultures value stoicism. In class, we read about Norwegians whose culture pushes them to control their emotions and their physical pain. In America, we can observe similar trends. We are bombarded with the idea that we should keep our emotions in check. Young boys are taught, “keep your chin up!”, “rub some dirt in it!”, “don’t be a pussy!” (which speaks to more than our beliefs about emotions), and girls are taught that emotional responses make them anything from dramatic, to hormonal, to bitchy. These ideas are pressed into us by our parents, teachers, coaches, friends. Even Fergie has something to say on the matter.

And this is not entirely without reason. Negative emotions can get in the way of “productive” life. Have you ever tried to do math homework after having a bad argument with a friend? Or go to work after you find out someone in your family is sick? Last August, I moved into a new apartment. One day while I was unpacking boxes, I got a call from my brother. His voice shaking, he told me “I think Scrappy just died. I helped him into bed with me and…he just stopped breathing.” My brother was home alone and didn’t know what to do. I rushed to my dad’s house, making at least half a dozen phone calls on the way there. I didn’t finish unpacking and organizing my apartment until winter break.

So the fact that we avoid difficult topics (like climate change) so that we may avoid the emotional responses that accompany them should really come as no surprise. Not only do feelings of guilt, anger, fear, grief, and apathy^[1] feel bad and inhibit our ability to be productive members of society, we are taught not to express these emotions. Then we wind up in a situation where we can’t talk about what’s making us emotional (like climate change) and we can’t live with the negative emotions weighing on us, so we dismiss them, and with them, their cause (like climate change).

What do we do about this problem? Do we engineer some magic drug to cure us of these emotions? Do we push back harder on the difficult topics? (that’s worked swimmingly, so far)

I have been thinking about this problem a lot this week. In fact, I am writing a paper in my “Feminist Science Studies” class about this very topic— emotions and climate change. I have no clear solution to the problem (big shock), but I can assert that approaching climate science differently would be a huge step in the right direction. As Klein notes, swapping facts about climate change “fails to address what changes to our climate make us feel”^[1], and therefore, what may be preventing us from acting. There are many theories about what makes knowledge objective, and what makes a science ethical, but one that is particularly applicable here, is the idea that we should approach certain topics as “matters of care”.^[2]

Approaching a science as a matter of care allows us to “remain responsible for [its] becomings” (p.90). The argument here is that we need to care for all of our technologies, including the ones that cause problems, or that we disagree with. Moreover, if we are to persuade people to abandon this problematic technology (for climate change, this may be cars or fossil fuels in general), “we must also engage with the concerns that animate those who support them” (p.90) otherwise, our attempts will be ineffective. Puig de la Bellacasa also argues that it is important to consider also who is attempting to care as well as how and for whom, and that, alone, “care connotes attention and worry for those who can be harmed by an assemblage but whose voices are less valued” (p.91-92)^[2]. This is a particularly important point when considering the science behind climate change since it is especially susceptible to skewing for political and economic reasons, to whatever detriment of the people affected.

Approaching climate change as a matter of care will help us approach it with sensitivity to the emotions it generates. This is important for scientists researching climate change as well as to activists working to raise awareness and encourage action. As I write my blog and challenge myself, and others, to be friendlier to the environment, I will be sure to keep care in mind.

[1]Margaret Klein, “Are Our Emotions Preventing Us From Taking Action on Climate Change?

[2]Maria Puig de la Bellacasa, “Matters of Care in Technoscience: Assembling Neglected Things”