Is Anyone Else Having a Crisis?

The Silence of Our Friends

A big part of the funk that led to my own personal crisis was that I was walking around in the world and watching people not talk about Climate Change. For example, there was that other, balmy, 60˚ day in January, when a colleague walked past, looking almost giddy saying “and this is January,”as if God had given us a special gift of a warm day in January, just to let us know he loved us. This was not my reaction to balmy January weather. At best it was a silver lining on a very dark and ominous cloud.

The other thing I observed during this time was, not only were other people not expressing surprise or concern in response to aberrant weather, but they weren’t talking about Climate Change at all. Like, at all. Not the leadership, and not anyone, really, that I knew of. Which was weird, because I was working in the Lab of Ornithology, and conservation is, like, what they do, and Climate Change is like, the world’s biggest extinction engine ever devised, so you’d think it would be on people’s minds and lips.

Granted, I spent the vast majority of my time in my office in front my computer. So maybe the conversations actually were happening, and I was just missing them.

Chris Clark’s Story of Self

The same January (2012) I had my pneumonia-induced revelations about my life and Climate Change, I went to a staff meeting at the Lab of Ornithology in which colleague Chris Clark was giving a presentation. Chris is most famous for his work on whale acoustics and shipping lanes (watch his TEDx talk on the singing ocean, and see more links below). It turns out, Chris was also a Climate Change “witness.”

In retrospect, Chris’s talk was a bonafide “Story of Self.” He started by saying he was at the point in his career where he was free to lie back on a hammock and drink margaritas if he wanted to. Some of his colleagues did just this, he said. But he went on to describe how he couldn’t do that. How everyday, he woke up asking himself what he could do to best save the world he loved. Then he told us about his love of the ocean. It was a personal love, he likened it to a sort of religious kind of love and awe. And this feeling was especially strong for the oceans’ creatures. He teared up a bit in places as he tried to express how important this world was to him. He told us how urgent the need for action around Climate Change was. He urged all of us to be on guard, to always be asking ourselves what we were doing, and to do the most we could.

Besides discovering in Chris a kindred spirit, the part of this talk that was a revelation to me was that someone was actually speaking directly about Climate Change, and the need for us all to do more, as if it personally mattered to him. When his talk ended, I couldn’t wait to hear what people had to say. ”Let’s get into it!” I thought. This is what academia is about! Talking about important things!

Now, the Lab’s staff meetings were held in the beautiful L. A. Fuertes Room, a small conference space that wasn’t quite big enough for the 150+? staff members and students that came to these meetings, so if you got there late there was standing room only. I was there so late there was not even standing room left, just little spots to sit in the aisles.

When Chris finished speaking, we all applauded. I hoisted myself off the floor, intending to support the standing ovation that would inevitably come for saying what no one else was saying and what needed to be said, but I was near the back of the room and I guess everyone else thought I was just standing up to get off the floor, because no standing ovation otherwise erupted.

The director of the Lab thanked Chris for his heartfelt presentation, and opened up the floor for anyone to ask Chris a question, or to make a comment. There was a pause, then the first hand that went up was one of my closer friends, Kevin McGowan (the same man who identified that singing warbler and got me into birdwatching all those years ago). Kevin expressed that he agreed with Chris, and felt and saw many of the same things too, but, he asked, “what can you do?” Like Yeah, I get it. Thank you for the call to arms, but exactly what is it that one person can do?

This was the question I was struggling with at the time too. And as this blog tries to demonstrate, there are answers to this question, but there is no simple answer to that question.

So, perhaps not surprisingly, it didn’t get much of an answer in that conference room that day either.

I waited for more questions or comments to spark up a group conversation about Climate Change, and our engagement in it, perhaps our role as a conservation organization, but none came. Pretty quickly, the question session ended, and we all started filing out. I looked around. I listened. Perhaps people would say something to their closest friends as they walked out.

Nothing. Just nothing. At least nothing that had anything to do with what Chris had talked about.

Now, for the record, I didn’t say anything either. And it is important to say, I don’t feel critical or judgmental of my colleagues and friends in the room with me that day, so don’t try to read between the lines to infer anything I am saying about the Lab of Ornithology or all of the many, lovely, thoughtful, and conscientious people in it. It is precisely because this group wasn’t talking that deeply puzzled and worried me.

If not us, who?

My Official “Research”

That’s when I started doing my “research.” What were people thinking? Where were these conversations happening?

What was I missing?

So I started striking up conversations with people about Climate Change: walking in the building together? “Sooo…I’ve got a question for you, what do you think about Climate Change? You think it is real, right?” Meeting up in the hall? “How’s it goin? How about this weather? Ugh, Climate Change. Are you having conversations with other people about it? Is it a subject of conversation? Are you worried about it? Do you feel like you see evidence of it in the events around the world? In your day to day life? How serious is it? Are you satisfied with your response? Do you wish you could do more?”

What I learned from these conversations was that, to a person, people were kind of in the same place as I was about the reality and seriousness of Climate Change. Yes, even the token republican in the building agreed: Climate Change is real. It’s happening. It’s serious. Like, widespread extinction of some portion of life on our planet serious? Yep. Like, we’re totally, seriously, screwed.

My completely non-scientific research was actually a valuable learning experience for me. With time I came to understand that among the 200+ people working at the Lab were, of course, 200+ reactions to Climate Change, and I came to learn that everyone was thinking about it, at least at some deep level, and reacting to it, and a few wanted to talk more about it, or wanted to engage more in it, and that many people were seeking to make changes in their personal lives, and others had woven responses to Climate Change into their duties at the Lab itself. But these thoughts and actions were all surprisingly private. It was all simmering below the surface of day-to-day life.

In many ways the Lab communities’ responses were surprisingly representative of both the processes I was going through. Thankfully! This meant I was neither crazy, nor alone, and it meant there was some hope for the world. But, as I’ve mentioned, the Lab of Ornithology is a conservation organization full of nature-loving, left-leaning people. What about the average American?

That’s where things get really interesting…next…

Chris Clark's work includes working with sonicsea.org to make this incredibly poignant documentary.

Thoughtful and inspiring links with related content:

• Chris Clark has been heavily involved with intense and awesome documentary projects like Racing Extinction (Racing Extinction movie trailer), and Sonic Sea.

• Here’s an interview with Chris about the effect of man-made noise on sea life.

• Greta Thunberg uniquely articulates the frustration from witnessing that “no one is talking about it” in her TEDxStockholm talk.

• This episode of the TED Radio Hour Podcast: Speaking Up really captures the ideas and spirit of the courage and importance involved with speaking out about issues that matter. There are a couple of outstanding stories in here.