The lens of optimism is a necessary component in encouraging others to take action on climate change. People must understand the risk of climate change to realize the problem, but action only comes when people feel empowered and capable of doing so. To place all of the fear, shame, and guilt associated with the climate change on the shoulders of each individual without exploring the possibilities of a brighter future and the necessity of collective involvement is a burden that no one person can bear, especially if they have not devoted themselves to the cause of climate change.
Thus, the first ones who need to act are the ones who are devoted to the cause of climate change. The world must be educated about climate change; in terms of its dangers, but also in terms of what a world without it looks like. Not just as the state of the world as it is currently, but one that has addressed climate change and taken direct action to prevent it. Discussion of climate change should not focus on what people should not do, but rather what they can do. Giving criticism of the system we live in and the problems with anyone's way of life without reasoning for a better solution creates the impression of personal attacks and mindless accusations.
If the world is an addict, and climate change is the addiction, then we as citizens of the earth must act as the support system that uncovers and heals the underlying cause. Only then can the symptom of the larger problem be treated as well. But until we recognize and change that underlying cause, a treacherous underbelly that allows climate change to flourish, that symptom will never go away, no matter how much time and effort we sink into treating it.
No one individual can decide exactly what that recovery and treatment looks like for everybody. A call to action without a reason to take it will merely echo into an obstinate void. Action must be a choice, or it is only empty and unsustainable. Instead, a call for personal exploration would be more apt. Each individual has a stake in this planet, both now and in the future. At the base level, this is the human race's collective home, one that we are expected to care for and share with all of the earth's living and nonliving residents. Beyond that, there is something about this planet and its substance that each individual has a unique personal connection with. The earth is where we find our food, our water, all of our life-granting bounties, our "places to play in and pray in" [12]. It everything we are and everything we have, and to destroy it would be to bring about our own undoing as well as that of so many other species in the process. Our race, the human race, cannot be one defined by violence and death.
And it does not have to be. There are no instructions on how to care about something, but there are countless reasons why. Be it in the interest of others or self-interest, each person on this planet has a personal connection with the earth, consciously or unconsciously. It is critically important to explore that connection, to find what links each and every one of us to this world and pursue that brighter future. Each person only needs to explore what it is they care about and why they care about it. To care about something enough will naturally develop a passion for it; to feel passion begets action. Climate change is complicated, multifaceted, and deeply entrenched into each corner of this world. With a passion for making the world a better place comes the action that ends climate change; not directly targeted at it, but easing the symptom away by targeting its cause.
The time to do this is now. The world as it is currently is at a turning point. No time in the past has had such overwhelming understanding and passion about climate change; no time in the future will be as spared from its damages at the current rate of change than the present. At this time, in this moment, change is absolutely necessary. It begins with an understanding of the roots of climate change, which presents itself in a number of forms. Active political involvement; direct action through conservation work; innovation through sustainable engineering, industry, and architecture; we are all creators and thinkers with the power to act outside of what is currently the norm. To explore that, to understand its depths and use that idea as a basis for action, will be the beginnings in what a collective global creation of a brighter future looks like.