Thanks, Michelle, for bring Octavia Butler's work to the fore, because, she was surely prescient! (Dammit.) I think Joanna Macy would agree that hope is action, and her book Active Hope, which is based on her Great Work method for acknowledging what is, looking widely at what resources are available and charting a path in achievable steps, certainly bears that out. As for Katie Hill's excellent question, it seems to me that local action is where we shine: find a spot to take a stand, protect a species, restore a native plant community, teach kids about nature, report the news.... Whatever we can do, we need to be doing it now.
Well isn't this an incredibly nice surprise! Love the literary connection, Michelle. I've been hearing references to the idea lately that "all fiction is nonfiction." We can always mine truth from the make-believe.
I think conservationists of all stripes can sometimes get bogged down with the sanctity of the broader environmental past -- "I miss how this place/activity/community used to be" -- which is oftentimes either a false or heavily edited version of history. This is probably to the detriment of how energized and imaginative we are about the future. But I'm also typing in broad strokes here.
Loved the connection between Butler's prediction framework and conservation horizon scanning. The point about letting "problems grow into full-fledged disasters" is spot on,I've sen it play out in restoration work where we're constantly reacting instead of anticipating. The annual horizon scans seem like a powerful too for shifting that mindset but I wonder how many conservation orgs actually use them beyond academic circles.
Thanks, Michelle, for bring Octavia Butler's work to the fore, because, she was surely prescient! (Dammit.) I think Joanna Macy would agree that hope is action, and her book Active Hope, which is based on her Great Work method for acknowledging what is, looking widely at what resources are available and charting a path in achievable steps, certainly bears that out. As for Katie Hill's excellent question, it seems to me that local action is where we shine: find a spot to take a stand, protect a species, restore a native plant community, teach kids about nature, report the news.... Whatever we can do, we need to be doing it now.
Well isn't this an incredibly nice surprise! Love the literary connection, Michelle. I've been hearing references to the idea lately that "all fiction is nonfiction." We can always mine truth from the make-believe.
I think conservationists of all stripes can sometimes get bogged down with the sanctity of the broader environmental past -- "I miss how this place/activity/community used to be" -- which is oftentimes either a false or heavily edited version of history. This is probably to the detriment of how energized and imaginative we are about the future. But I'm also typing in broad strokes here.
Loved the connection between Butler's prediction framework and conservation horizon scanning. The point about letting "problems grow into full-fledged disasters" is spot on,I've sen it play out in restoration work where we're constantly reacting instead of anticipating. The annual horizon scans seem like a powerful too for shifting that mindset but I wonder how many conservation orgs actually use them beyond academic circles.
Good topic! Here's our coverage of the "horizon scan" -- https://therevelator.org/conservation-horizon-2026/
And this recent essay dives into how action fights despair: https://therevelator.org/environmental-despair-possibility/