Who do we have to become, in order to preserve the chance of a wild and beautiful world that includes humans?
Join me as I try to understand this, in conversation with some of the most thoughtful and visionary people I know, all of whom have spent decades, in myriad ways, working to save what's precious. Guests include Bill McKibben, Naomi Klein, Jeremy Lent, Craig Santos Perez, Sonia Shah, David Abram, Kathleen Dean Moore, Jerome Foster II, Lhadon Tethong and Tenzin Dorjee, Lise Van Susteren, and more.
Welcome to A Wild and Beautiful World.
My name is Emily Johnston, and I'm a writer and climate activist in search of ways to think about this moment that might help us seize its best possibilities, rather than its worst.
Though it's hard to integrate with our distracted daily lives, many of us know that we're living amidst a terrible biodiversity crisis, and at the beginning of a long climate catastrophe. What has to change, and how might we have to change, if we want to preserve the chance of a wild and beautiful world that includes us?
There's a lot of critical day-to-day of work, of course: ending fossil fuel use, preserving and restoring forests and grasslands, and much more. But there are also existential questions about how we as a species can avoid making the same mistakes: seeking dominance rather than mutual thriving, and addictively chasing short-term benefits rather than longer-term well-being.
So how can we move forward in a way that leaves open the possibility not just of survival, but of a more expansive and inspiring future? How do we take heart from that possibility on days when grim realities threaten to overwhelm us? What can anchor us, and bring us joy?
I'm going to open the series with a quote from Wendell Berry. He says:
"We don't have a right to ask whether we're going to succeed or not – the only question we have a right to ask is: What's the right thing to do? What does this Earth require of us if we want to continue to live on it?"
Thanks for joining us as we explore this question.
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Many thanks to Hank Lentfer for the use of his gorgeous sounds--more about him can be found at hanklentfer.net