Finding Hope in Action, for Our Health and Our Planet

Contemporary news is grim. The planet is warming, species are going extinct, weather disasters are regular occurrences, and key resources are becoming scarce in many places. These changes threaten human health in far-reaching ways. Beyond the direct impacts, there is a less obvious casualty: hope.

Hope is very much a health concern. There is considerable reason to believe that hope promotes well-being, and that hopelessness is toxic. Evidence suggests that hopeful people feel better, weather stress more successfully, and live longer— even when diagnosed with serious diseases.

Hopelessness, on the other hand, is associated with increased risk of hypertension, cancer, anxiety, depression, and cognitive decline. Among young people, hopelessness predicts violent behavior, substance abuse, and early sexual activity. Little wonder that hope has been called a therapeutic tool. Nevertheless, we often overlook its power—and underrate it as a health asset.

Perhaps that’s because hope is an elusive concept to define, and one that’s often conflated with optimism. But hope and optimism are different. Psychiatrists have written, “Optimism is an individual’s confidence in a good outcome, whereas hope is a goal-oriented way of thinking.” Similarly, environmental thinker David Orr writes, “Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up. Hopeful people are actively engaged in defying the odds or changing the odds.” This underscores that action is intrinsic to hope.

What about hopelessness? Commonly equated with despair, hopelessness seems to dominate contemporary discourse. For example, recent years have seen an explosion in “doomer” genres such as climate fiction, or “cli-fi,” which serves up films, books, and stories brimming with apocalyptic imagery. Novelist Jonathan Franzen, for example, writes: “The climate apocalypse is coming. To prepare for it, we need to admit that we can’t prevent it.”

And popular media foregrounds climate anxiety, despair, and hopelessness. Some young people are forgoing higher education, believing that the impending climate catastrophe makes it pointless (one slogan is “Why should I study for a future I won’t have?”) or opting not to have children—one of the most elemental expressions of human hope. In a 2021 survey of 10,000 people ages 16 to 25 across 10 nations, 75 percent endorsed the statement that the future is frightening and 56 percent that humanity is doomed.

Listen to TPL Health Director Dr. Pooja Sarin Tandon Discuss Hope and Youth Mental Health

So how do we shift our viewpoints away from this feeling? The counternarrative is hope. Embracing hope has many advantages. One is simply that hopeful people feel better than hopeless people. A second is that hope leads to action—and addressing the climate crisis demands action. A third is that hope is empirically justified. Technology is advancing rapidly, and the cost of key technologies is falling fast. Renewable energy use—a key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions—is growing exponentially. And climate activism is blossoming. Climate scientist Michael Mann calls for “hope that is grounded in entirely legitimate and defensible reasons for cautious optimism that the worst can still be averted.”

If propelling hope is not only legitimate, but also necessary, how should this be done?

First, tell the truth. With respect to climate change, two linked truths must be told: We confront a crisis, and there is much we can do. As author Rebecca Solnit writes, “We don’t know what is going to happen, or how, or when, and that very uncertainty is the space of hope.”

We must also acknowledge grief. As is true with many types of grieving, recognition brings a sense of relief and an increased determination and capacity to act.

Dr. Howard Frumkin sees recognition and engagement as keys to embracing hope and taking action. Photo: courtesy of the author

Next, it’s important to envision success. A goal is intrinsic to the process of hoping, and a compelling vision of humans thriving in a post-carbon world can provide that foundation.

Exposure to positive “solutions journalism”—journalism that covers not just problems, but responses, including evidence of effectiveness—can also help. It’s difficult to sustain hope without knowing that pathways to success exist and function effectively.

Recognition brings a sense of relief and an increased determination and capacity to act.

– Dr. Howard Frumkin, former director of Trust for Public Land’s Land and People Lab

And we must empower people to act. Hope requires agency—the capacity to strive actively to reach goals. Both for the good of those doing the hoping, and for the good of the planet, action is indispensable. The scale of action, however, needs to be manageable. Setting out to keep global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius likely feels daunting. But engaging with climate action at the local level can afford many opportunities for involvement and the generation of hope.

Engagement also cultivates social solidarity. Climate action is rarely an individual undertaking, and collective action is itself healing. Bonding with others, the camaraderie of team effort, and the satisfaction and reinforcement of shared success are pillars of hope.

Finally, make room for joy. Joyful undertakings lift the spirit. Laughter, too, is good for us and may open the door to hope, empathy, and fortitude. The challenge of our time is to confront, address, and reverse the damage humans have done to the planet to assure health and well-being for people today and future generations. We must nurture and sustain hope if we are to meet this challenge. In doing so, we will better care for ourselves and our communities.

Dr. Howard “Howie” Frumkin was the director of Trust for Public Land’s Land and People Lab from 2021 through 2024. This essay is excerpted from a longer article that was originally published in The Journal of Climate Change and Health; read the full text here. Music courtesy of Freesound/bainmack.

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