Climate Column: How to activate hope in seemingly hopeless times
NATASHA JULIANA
ARGUS-COURIER COLUMNIST
July 29, 2025
Focusing on climate grief may sound like a downer, but it is refreshingly cathartic to give voice to our inner fears and share them with others.
In early June, Cool Petaluma and United Church of Christ Petaluma hosted a screening of “Good Grief: The Ten Steps,” a documentary that follows the journey of people moving through their despair over our planetary crisis with this peer support program.
Filmmaker and Petaluman Katie Flint and Good Grief Network co-founders LaUra Schmidt and Aimee Lewis Reau were on hand to answer questions and facilitate a discussion with the audience. More than 70 people showed up, ready to explore this hard topic together.
One of the post-film exercises involved creating a personal list of what we are grieving and what we are grateful for in this world. For me, many things showed up in both columns.
For example, I am immensely grateful for the bees that buzz around my garden, pollinating flowers to create food for all. Yet I grieve their loss as I learn that commercial beekeepers discovered sudden mass honey bee colony losses of 60 to 100 percent in January of this year.
I am overwhelmingly grateful for my daughter and nieces and nephews, yet I grieve for their future as internationally renowned scientists publish their annual Planetary Health Check. They report that in 2024 we “substantially breached” six of nine planetary boundaries that define a science-based “safe operating space for humanity.” Moving beyond these limits risks dangerous, large-scale, abrupt or irreversible environmental changes.
The late Joanna Macy, a fearless lover of this world and a visionary teacher, had this to say about grief: “When we take it in our hands, when we can just be with it and keep breathing, then it turns. It turns to reveal its other face, and the other face of our pain for the world is our love for the world, our absolutely inseparable connectedness with all life.”
Activating hope
It takes little effort to sink into despair. It takes work to build hope.
“Active Hope is not wishful thinking,” Macy explained. “Active Hope is not waiting to be rescued ... by some savior. Active Hope is waking up to the beauty of life on whose behalf we can act. We belong to this world. The web of life is calling us forth at this time. We’ve come a long way and are here to play our part.”
I find hope by surrounding myself with people who have heard the web of life calling us forth and have jumped in to play their part.
In late June, I was lucky enough to be a part of the contingent of Petalumans who participated as finalists in the 2025 All-America City Award event in Denver, Colorado. Created by the National Civic League in 1949 to recognize outstanding communities, this year’s theme was “Strengthening Environmental Sustainability through Inclusive Community Engagement.”
Twenty cities from all corners of the country were there representing the very best of the United States of America. This was not the angry, divided, climate-denying America the media portrays. This was the America I’m proud to belong to, consisting of the most supportive, united, environment-loving, community-building people I have ever met. It was like a cheer camp for sustainability and inclusivity, complete with pom-poms and noisemakers and standing ovations for every competitor’s presentation. High fives in the hallways and free-flowing ideas in the boardrooms filled us with so much hope that there was no room left for despair.
Memphis, Tennessee showed off their green jobs incubator. It addresses income inequality by creating a sustainable workforce focused on recycling and energy efficiency. They see this as “critical to Memphis’ long-term economic and climate resilience.”
Akron, Ohio taught us about their Recycle Right campaign. Trained staff inspected recycling carts, leaving customized tags with clear, actionable feedback, reducing non-recyclable item contamination in their curbside program from 40% to 12% in five years.
Tallahassee, Florida was on a roll with their Clean Energy Plan, which aims for 100 percent net clean renewable energy by 2050 by expanding solar energy and increasing energy efficiency. Since its launch in 2019, solar capacity has tripled, while energy burdens for thousands of households have decreased. Plus, enhancing grid resilience with smart technologies and battery storage has already proven helpful as they work to “strengthen infrastructure against increasing climate threats, including floods, tornadoes, and hurricanes.” They are also building out their EV charging network and their electric bus fleet.
Carrboro, North Carolina impressed us with their goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent from 2010 levels by 2030. To help residents in low-income and historically marginalized communities participate, they launched the Green Neighborhoods Grant Program, offering up to $2,500 for “resident-led projects that reduce emissions, enhance ecosystem resilience, or raise climate awareness.”
California has a bad habit of thinking we are the only ones leading the charge, but this event proved climate action is alive and well all across our country. This is Active Hope.
Natasha Juliana is campaign director for Cool Petaluma. She can be reached at natashaj@coolpetaluma.org. For information on how to get involved, go to coolpetaluma.org