Generation Dread

After my house burned down and my whole life turned inside out I was grasping to find something to help me understand my new reality. I have always been afraid of climate change. It’s always there simmering on my mind. Jesse @blackgirlreading suggested I read Generation Dread by Britt Wray. I finally picked it up this summer and the introduction alone made me cry. Finally. A book that validated all my fears. Spoke to my worries. Allowed me to feel all of my grief.I sometimes wonder if we’ll ever come to terms with the crisis we face. I think what makes confronting climate change so hard for people is we’d have to look in the mirror and understand our own culpability in this system. The global north fuels the heat but will not pay as steep a price as the global south, those who contribute the least amount to climate change. I think our white supremacists patriarchal systems make it hard to lean into the guilt and shame we feel every day. Because I am a hypocrite too.

Here I am. Posting on Zucks metaverse. I sometimes eat meat. I use an iPhone. I still use planes to travel and get around. The list goes on. But I would rather lean into my shame. And face it head on a million times over than a lead a life that feels inauthentic. The world is burning. It’s better to try and save all we can imperfectly than do nothing because we can’t do it perfectly. It’s hard to talk about these things. It’s uncomfortable. But the only way through a problem is to talk about it.
Through interviews with climate therapists and activists Wray grounds the reader in understanding that the grief is part of the process and we must learn to live along side it while also continuing to fight. For everyone. Not just ourselves.

I hope if you too don’t know what to do with your feelings of climate grief you pick up this book. I hope you sit in your discomfort. You can pull up a chair next to me. We can cry together and rage against the systems that force us to make impossible choices. But then we have to get up and we have to go out and try to save all that we can. Together.

#ecoanxiety #climategrief #generationdread #nonfictionbooks #bookstagram