Jamail’s most recent book explores human responses to the ongoing climate crisis.
In his new book, The End of Ice: Bearing Witness and Finding Meaning in the Path of Climate Disruption, journalist Dahr Jamail laments that the planet most likely “is in a hospice situation.” The premise fits: Jamail, who’s covered the subject for years at Truthout, has been among the most grimly realistic of climate reporters. I recently spoke with him about the false dichotomy of hope versus hopelessness, and why inaction is not an option.
Q: The End of Ice conveys the thought that society cannot start grieving about climate change without trying to make it better for indigenous peoples in the time we have left.
Dahr Jamail: One of the Native American elders I include in the last chapter, Stan Rushworth, believes the erasure, denial, and willing ignorance by the U.S. government and the majority of the population of this country of the genocide and eradication of the indigenous population here after first contact is the moral wound from which all the ailments besetting this country stem.
The horrendous disparity of wealth, lack of health care, racism, violence, wars, sexism, and of course, human-caused climate disruption are all symptoms of this break from reality. These symptoms are literally annihilating the very biosphere upon which our lives depend.
Native peoples here lived in communion with the Earth, understanding that we are part of this planet, and it is part of us. For the dominant European mindset of exploitation, ownership, and domination to obtain a foothold here, it had to annihilate the people here who lived with an ontology of oneness with Earth.
Q: Can you talk about hopelessness over climate change from the different generational viewpoints?
Jamail: I believe the question of hope versus hopelessness is a false choice at this time. We have already failed, as a species. The oceans have absorbed 93 percent of the heat we’ve added to the planet. There is no more future tense about these things—they are happening now. The future is guaranteed to be catastrophic. This means we must grieve. We must feel, in full, the despair, sadness, rage, numbness that comes with accepting what has happened, is happening, and will continue to happen.
I live in a solar-powered home, grow most of my own food, and work toward annually reducing my already quite small carbon footprint. I work to inform people about what is happening to the planet and what needs to be done. I do these things because they are the right thing to do. I do not expect them to change the planetary crisis. I am honestly facing the fact that we are likely in a hospice situation with the planet, but doing the right thing anyway.
Q: Are there any governments that you think are exemplary in meeting current realities?
Jamail: Some countries have acknowledged the dire crisis we are in, and are doing something in reaction to it. In 2017, Ireland issued a national mitigation plan to cut emissions and adopt renewable energy. Costa Rica is moving faster than any other country toward carbon neutrality, aiming for 2021, yet even it is not planning on banning fossil fuels. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has committed New Zealand to being carbon neutral by 2050. Norway has bid to become carbon neutral by 2030. All this said, given the immediacy and scope of the crisis we face, even these efforts feel feeble and weak.
Einstein’s adage that you can’t solve the problem with the tools that were used to create it still applies.
Q: Are there other ways of addressing climate change that we should be taking up?
Jamail: It is clear we face the possibility, dare I say likelihood, of an unlivable world. And yet, Einstein’s adage that you can’t solve the problem with the tools that were used to create it still applies. Other dimensions and perceptions, incomprehensible or invisible to the Western way of looking and seeing, are at work.
It would certainly behoove us to lean into these other ways, learn from them, and rely on these elders, indigenous healers, and all of their teachings and lessons, and most of all the Earth herself, to show us how to comport ourselves during this time. ω