Crushing Despair in a Climate Apocalypse

Just outside Yosemite Valley, there is a pocket of bliss known as Rainbow Pool. I’ve been lucky enough to experience the serenity of this place multiple times over the years. This past Fourth of July weekend, I was soaking up the sun while sitting on a rock in the crisp, cool South Fork Tuolumne River. I heard birds singing, mixed with the rush of the river, beneath a clear blue sky dotted with wispy clouds. Despite all this, a thought remained in the back of my mind: How much longer will places like this exist?

In 2026, the Trump administration has removed protections for public lands and endangered species, California has faced more than 3,000 wildfires, heat waves in Europe have been linked to 1,300 deaths, and Southeast Asia has battled extreme weather. Every year, we see disaster after disaster through our phone screens until, one day, we are the ones recording. Despite how clear-cut the problem is, we are not seeing the United States government take significant action toward solving this crisis.

Simply being aware of these realities does not inherently lead to progress. Sometimes, it even leads to feelings of despair. The answer to this existential threat is not unknown, but an individual’s ability to effect change is limited. Therefore, preventing climate catastrophe will not be the mission of some exceptional individual. It will be through collective action that we save our planet.

Knowing Is Becoming Counterproductive

Surveys consistently show that young people are deeply worried about climate change, yet many also feel powerless to create meaningful change. For some, simply being exposed to new facts can spur them to action. But for others, knowing the reality of the situation without having a quick solution can cause them to stick their heads in the sand and ignore the problem altogether.

As organizers Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba write in Let This Radicalize You, “[N]o fact is so shocking or profound that its utterance will spontaneously spark a movement… [T]he mere recitation of facts does not move people into the streets or lead them to join movements.” This sentiment can also be seen in a 2018 tweet from Chris Hayes, an MS NOW host who was then at MSNBC, describing climate change coverage as a “ratings killer.”

When we are bombarded with stories about how bad everything is without understanding the causes behind it, we are left directionless. The resulting cynical outlook on fixing climate change may stem from having no clear path forward. Understanding why progress toward healing our planet is not happening is the first step toward avoiding being crushed by story after story of climate-related disasters.

We have known about climate change since at least the 1970s, when Exxon scientists conducted studies that the company subsequently attempted to delegitimize. Global sea and land temperatures are unquestionably rising at unsustainable rates. Yet 50 years of knowledge have not led to major shifts in climate policy across much of the world. If our so-called leaders are not doing anything about it, the burden falls on us. To move toward progress, we must fight the overwhelming hopelessness created by our present reality.

Fighting Despair

The fight to save our planet has been going on for half a century, and it does not appear to be ending anytime soon. To build a sustainable movement that can withstand the blows dealt by the forces causing climate change, we must not give in to despair.

It is very easy to give up and say that the planet is already cooked. We could live out the rest of our lives, especially those of us privileged enough to live in the Global North, and hope we die before facing the consequences of climate change at home. This defeatism is, at its core, extremely selfish. Do we not have a planet to save for future generations of humans and animals? Do we not want our children, or, if we do not want children, our nieces, nephews, and friends’ children, to have a habitable planet?

Whether you are anxious about an exam, a job interview, or a competition, ignoring the problem has never helped alleviate those feelings. Taking action to address the cause of that anxiety does. Studying for an exam, practicing for a job interview, or preparing for a competition can transform anxiety into confidence in your ability to overcome whatever hurdle lies ahead. Only through a combination of understanding the problem and taking steady, consistent action to address the climate crisis can we combat the anxiety stemming from a looming climate-induced catastrophe.

The Culprit

Understanding the parties responsible can transform aimless hopelessness about climate change into purpose and direction. To identify the steps necessary to address climate change, we must clarify who or what is primarily causing it.

The United States of America is a capitalist country. This means that profit, above all else, determines what is produced. Considerations about the effects on the environment or people are secondary to profit-making. The fossil fuel industry is a money-printing machine, so it is no surprise that the market has not facilitated the widespread adoption of renewable energy. Fossil capital, meaning industries mobilized or facilitated by fossil fuels, is entrenched in our economy. Modern production runs on fossil fuels, and the companies that sell them have spent billions lobbying politicians over the past 25 years to maintain an economy that depends on an energy source that is destroying our planet.

We can see how this control by fossil fuel companies affects our everyday lives. Take a moment to think about why our cities have not built robust public transit networks. If people could take buses, trains, trams, or subways powered by renewable, clean electricity, gas and oil companies would be unable to profit from everyone being required to drive a personal vehicle everywhere.

Our economy’s dependence on fossil fuels is also evident within the military-industrial complex. This does not include only the bombs, jets, ships, and rockets, but also the gas and oil needed to power those devices. The U.S. military is the single largest institutional polluter on the planet. Keeping the war machine running is integral to fossil capital’s bottom line.

While it is important to take personal responsibility for limiting our individual carbon emissions, it is equally crucial to remember that the push to individualize the solution to global warming through a person’s “carbon footprint” was a marketing ploy by British Petroleum. The same company that spilled 200 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico helped shape the narrative about how to fix the problems it was creating.

To make it even more apparent that the solution does not rest solely with individuals, an MIT class in 2008 found that even the smallest carbon footprints in the United States are relatively large. This is because the societal services we use every day emit carbon that is completely outside our control. Services such as police departments, roads, libraries, the court system, and the military are all inputs in personal carbon-footprint calculations.

This is not to absolve us of all personal responsibility. We can and should do our part to limit our individual carbon emissions. But if we do nothing to limit fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy, that individual effort will be in vain.

The Blueprint

To see what a country can do when it is not held in a vise grip by fossil capital, we can look to China. Ten years ago, China was viewed as a major global polluter. Today, it has vastly improved air quality in major cities and has lower per capita CO2 emissions than the United States and Canada. Although its emissions are rising, China plans to reach peak carbon emissions by 2030.

The Chinese government has classified climate change as a threat to the entire world, whereas debates about the existence of climate change still occur among U.S. politicians. China is building more solar and wind power than the rest of the world combined. Additionally, non-fossil-fuel sources constitute more than 50% of China’s total energy-generation capacity, and 41% of all renewable-energy jobs globally are in China. It is the indisputable leader in renewable energy.

The Chinese political and economic system has many intricacies, but a key difference between our system and theirs is that China has a planned economy in which, on paper, the government prioritizes the well-being of its citizens. In practice, its policies support this. Chinese leaders do not waste time debating the existence of climate change. When empirical data proves it exists, they implement necessary changes through five-year plans designed to tackle the problem directly.

China has also made strides in electric vehicle investments. Certain cities implemented fully electric bus fleets for public transportation a decade ago. These types of changes require government subsidies and long-term investments.

In contrast, the U.S. economy is at the mercy of a free market that prioritizes profit. It does not matter that transitioning to renewable energy is not only beneficial but also necessary for the sustainability of our planet. If it is an unprofitable venture, it will not be pursued. Every four years, the direction of our country changes. Our system is not designed for long-term thinking.

Profit-driven market solutions in the United States have not gotten us anywhere. The private sector has neither provided the necessary solutions nor implemented them at the rate required to curb rising global temperatures. This is the capitalist model in action. When the choice is between greater profits now and sustainable profits in the future, the short term wins. Sure, it can temporarily create a trillionaire, but how does that improve any of our lives?

In the context of climate change, this approach will only lead to failure. When low-cost energy infrastructure already exists in the form of fossil fuels and rapidly transitioning to renewable energy is extremely expensive, relying on the goodwill of the rich is a recipe for never making the progress necessary to save the planet.

What About Now?

We are obviously not going to change the political and economic system of the most powerful country in history overnight. But there are still immediate actions we can take. At the local level, it is imperative to fight against the proliferation of data centers to curb their environmental impact. At the state and federal levels, we can support politicians who prioritize climate action in their platforms and do not accept money from oil PACs.

Additionally, as our government criminalizes those who take direct action to stop fossil fuel companies from continuing to destroy our environment, we must lend our voices in support of so-called “eco-terrorists.”

From a policy perspective, the Green New Deal is a good start. But it should be clear by now that the forces of capital that profit from polluting our planet will do everything in their power to prevent it from passing. Transitioning to an economic and political system in which private entities no longer have the power to exert their will over the rest of us must be the long-term solution.

Looking Ahead

Fossil fuels are a primary cause of climate change, but capitalism is the system that incentivizes and facilitates their infinite expansion. The solutions we are given today involve working within the capitalist system to solve this crisis. But the connection between fossil fuels and capital accumulation is often ignored. Capitalism compels accumulation, and fossil fuels make that accumulation possible.

Expanding renewable energy and eliminating fossil fuels is an immensely unprofitable endeavor. It is incompatible with the capitalist mode of production. Any “solution” within the existing framework will fail because it is antithetical to the logic of capitalism.

Ultimately, there are actions we can take at all levels in the immediate future to build resilience and slow the death of our planet. But anyone who truly wants to transition to a cleaner, healthier world for all will have to accept the sobering reality that saving Earth will be impossible if capitalism remains the world’s dominant economic mode of production.

No amount of climate resilience or individual reductions in carbon footprints will stop the planet from warming unless we target the root of the problem: the enormous power that capitalism allows private fossil fuel companies to hold because of their ability to accumulate and concentrate capital to enforce their political will. Reforms and legislative checks on their power through stronger regulations and higher taxes are the bare minimum. As we have seen over the last 50 years, these companies can circumvent checks on their power and even strategically place politicians in positions where they can remove regulations altogether.

The dread and despair we feel in response to our current reality are human. Gen Z wants to live on a habitable planet, and we want the same for future generations. We cannot succumb to hopelessness. As with many sources of anxiety in our lives, the moment we begin taking action to address what causes our fear is the moment those feelings can finally begin to abate.

Let’s get to work.