Uncertainty As Opportunity 

Uncertainty is always hard, but these past few weeks have been wild. The midterms, a global climate conference, and the impending doom of an essential social media network have really unsettled me. So today I’m writing a reminder to myself — and to you — that uncertainty creates opportunity.
 
Democrats will keep in control of the Senate, with the House moving toward a slim majority of Republicans. While this means little environmental work is likely to happen at the national level, it also means local and state governments can step up. In such arenas, individuals really matter, and collective action can have a huge impact.
 
COP27, the global conference, can often feel too little, too late, or even nothing-ever-at-all. However, good things did happen. Notably, Brazil’s president-elect, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, vowed at the conference to renew efforts to preserve the Amazon, an essential climate helper. Meanwhile, the draft COP27 commitment is nearly three times as long as that from last year. These show that while the climate crisis may not be easy to address, it is now impossible to ignore.
 
Lastly, I’ve been watching with some anxiety the collapse of Twitter, which under the “leadership” of its new owner, Elon Musk, has lost many essential engineers and other workers. In a complex world of 8 billion people, Twitter provides a gathering place for journalists, activists, thinkers, and artists (not to mention, alas, bad actors, extremists, and trolls). The demise of Twitter at the hands of an elite billionaire would mean a re-fragmentation of our social and political lives, a fracturing of the idea-space. But this also means we have a reason to regroup, knowing how important such connections have become.
 
Added together, these events have me stressed out and stretched thin. But they are a clear sign that this is not the time to kick back and leave solutions to others. Rather, they demand that we redouble our efforts: to stay informed and engaged, to organize, to communicate, to work hard, to hold fast. We live in a complex world of tipping points, where not everything moves in increments. For better or worse, you never know what might trigger an avalanche, and it’s important to be in the right place when the mountain moves.
 
 

Image of avalanche in the Himalayas: Simon Desmarais

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