Local Vision: Embrace What You Love and Care About in the Climate Emergency – Duluth News Tribune

Monday is Climate Emergency Day, organized by Climate Clock, a global campaign calling for an end to fossil fuels and urging political leaders to advocate for real climate solutions.

A group of us in Duluth will be participating. We will be giving a climate briefing to our city and community leaders highlighting the major climate events that have occurred since the Duluth City Council passed a climate emergency resolution in 2021. And we will be hosting the Climate Commission as a year-long initiative to engage citizens in a dialogue about what we can do individually and collectively to address the various climate challenges that we will face in the coming years.

Since Andrew Boyd is the creator of Climate Clock, I wanted to review his book “I Want a Better Catastrophe: Navigating the Climate Crisis With Grief, Hope, and Gallows Humor” for some insight or inspiration. Boyd interviewed Robin Wall Kimmerer, a botanist and the author of “Braiding Sweetgrass”. Kimmerer said, “We can’t do everything. We can’t react to everything. Sometimes I can drive myself crazy reacting to this and that. I ask myself, What do you love too much to lose? And what are you going to do with it? How are you going to pick it up and take it into the future?”

For the past seven years, I’ve been writing about climate change and helping to organize various events to promote climate education and climate initiatives. When I read the interview with Kimmerer, I remembered how many times I felt overwhelmed after hearing about all the climate events happening around the world. It was hard to figure out how to handle my emotions and also how to respond. And there were times when I thought I was going to go crazy trying to make sense of it all.

Perhaps we can begin with Kimmerer’s questions. We can begin by asking ourselves what we love and what we are not willing to lose as we enter and face this climate emergency.

Since arriving in Duluth on the evening of November 7, 2017, it’s been amazing how many people and things I’ve fallen in love with. There’s Anne; the Loaves and Fishes community; the garden I planted in front of the Dorothy Day House that now welcomes bees, butterflies, birds, and rabbits; walks along Lake Superior; going to Dairy Queen in Canal Park for strawberry ice cream; visiting local bookstores; sitting at the piano and composing; all the people in this city with whom I’ve had the pleasure of working; and my two sons, two grandchildren, three sisters, and extended family and friends from all over the country.

In the introduction to his book, “The Anthropocene Reviewed,” John Green wrote, “It has taken me my whole life to fall in love with the world, but I have come to feel it in the last few years. Falling in love with the world is not ignoring or overlooking suffering, human or otherwise. For me, falling in love with the world is, at least, looking up at the night sky and feeling your spirit swim for the beauty and distance of the stars. It is holding your children while they cry, watching the plane trees come out in June. When my breastbone begins to ache, and my throat tightens, and tears come to my eyes, I want to look away from the feeling. I want to distract with irony, or something else that keeps me from feeling directly. We all know how love ends. But I want to fall in love with the world anyway, to let it burst open on me. I want to feel what there is to feel while I am here.”

Everyone out there, especially the men, think about all the climate events that we are experiencing right now and all the challenges that we are facing. Then allow yourself to think about all the people and things that you truly love and care about, and think about how this climate emergency might impact their lives.

What do you love too much to lose? How are you going to pick them up and carry them into the future?

Even if your sternum starts to ache, your throat tightens, and tears well up in your eyes, don’t stop asking questions. It may be that through the simple act of asking questions and choosing to answer, we can find a way to carry ourselves and others into a very uncertain future. It is through this process that we can find the courage and hope to endure and embrace climate change in the world around us.

At 69, I want to feel what there is to feel while I am still here. Most of all, I want to feel and celebrate my love for what gives my life meaning and purpose in these challenging times.

And you?

Tone Lanzillo is a member of the Duluth/365 Climate Change Initiative and a regular contributor to the News Tribune Opinion page. He can be reached at [email protected].