The new year is a month old, and with 2026 being started marks the 10 year anniversary of The Climate School. It has been a decade where major news events has changed the world to the unrecognisable with the pandemic and wars. Where does the climate and the climate movement fit in now? I will give some reflections on that and more in this blog post.
In 2016, I had many conversations with friends and colleagues about how the environmental movement in many ways had become an individualistic endeavour. The fight against plastic, and micro plastic in particular was starting to get traction. There was however, little mention in the main news channels about the source behind plastic - namely petroleum - oil.
With the Dakota Access Pipeline #NoDAPL protests in the US, I felt a sense of hope of community, when people from all over the world “checked in” on Facebook, to confuse guards as to where people were, and to show solidarity in the right to access for clean water. The previous year, 2015, had given us the Paris agreement, but closely followed Brexit and new leadership in the white house, that caused concern for the climate.
For me, in 2017, I worked at Greenpeace and our main focus were the Arctic oil drilling, and how to stop it using the legal system, as the first people and organisation ever. Being part of something this big of course created hope.
In 2018, when Greta Thunberg started the climate strike movement, and created a great wave of marches around the world, the feeling that people standing together can change systems felt and looked tangible. Parallells to the student marches in Paris in 1968 were apparent, and with this, the hope that politicians must listen.
But, following the rather uneventful COPs that year and the next, little progress was made, except that the world received grave new reports on the status of the natural world and the climate. It is easy to feel your heart fall when you learn more, but feel that change is not within reach.
Then the pandemic happened in 2020, and of course the worlds focus was to face the new threat of the virus. During this year and the following few, the word “crisis” was often in the media. This can of course be one of the reasons why there was a collective sense of exhaustion of crisis, where the aftermath of the pandemic played out, alongside wars and growing concern for the world in general.
When it became against the law to meet up in big marches, the school march movement of course died down. From my perspective, it seemed like many activists were taking to the internet and social media to express their views. The downside of this is of course the isolation it can create. Going back to the trend of individualisation again is also harmful for ones own feeling of agency.
Of course we should all recycle and yes, it is smart to think twice before buying new clothes, but the trap that even big concerns will kindle up under is that by doing our best at home, we are doing enough. However, when we look at graphs of who contributes to the biggest emissions in the world it is oil producing and coal burning nations.
By focusing our collective attention, and attention is limited as we have learned threw years of social media, where it really matter, and voting accordingly, that is how change happens.
I see the years following the pandemic and navigating an ever changing world that of course, there are numerous reasons why the climate crisis is not head news every single day. However what scares me is when there have been massive wild fires, like we saw in LA, Australia, Canada and Brazil, and then when the elections that followed, these disasters did not seem to way very heavily in on how people voted.
I am concerned about the general acceptance that the collective apathy is something we should accept. There has been many “wake up moments”, or as we read in the scientific writings “tipping points” where the climate shows us its limits.
My hope is always for responsible political leaders, good outcomes from the COPs. A world population willing to vote accordingly to do what’s right for the world from a solidarity perspective, not a protectionist approach.
On an individualist level, for me, I have been very concerned about the loss of biomass, deforestation. I do see more engagement in the general public when we talk about a beloved forrest that disappear to make way for industry. It might feel easier to relate to the loss of nature, compared to a changing climate. As we know, the two are deeply connected, but if this is where a new momentum for both the nature and the climate can emerge, I am very much encouraging it.
In terms of this blog, in later years I have experimented a bit with writing pieces in Norwegian, out of the hypothesis that Norwegians like to read in Norwegian. However, I do have an international audience, so English is after all a more including language.
For day to day inspiration, I have been a much more regular poster on my climate Instagram account called TheClimateSchool. Not like my first couple of years on this blog when I wrote a piece every Sunday. 10 years is however a long time, and I still very much enjoy writing long format. It is also the antidote to the short messages we see in social media, that does not do us any favours when it comes to our attention span.
To end this reflection piece of where we are now, I will come with some wishes for the new year. First, that we carry a collective memory of how far the world has come, but that we learn from history and past victories, like the Kyoto protocol, where the world did find agreement to start closing the holes in the ozon layer. There are more examples of course, but thinking more as a collective of what the world can accomplish, it allows us to dream big. Also, by learning from history, it should prevents us from repeating past mistakes like protectionism.
I also hope, on an individualistic level to my readers, that you do find that spark that keeps the momentum going for you. If it is by phasing out plastic from your life, good for you, but remember the source behind it and vote accordingly. For me right now, it is protection of biomass that most sparks a will to do something about it. So be curious, just don’t fall into apathy. The world is large and there is something for everyone to get engaged it. :) Also, nature is amazing!
For those of you who have read this blog for 10 years, thank you! For newer readers, welcome! As always, thank you for taking the time to care for the natural world.
It does not need us, but we need it to be healthy and thriving.
